Impact of Apis mellifera linnaeus in augmenting seed yield of broccoli, Brassica oleracea var. Italica Plenck

Abstract

The studies on seed yield augmentation of broccoli cv. Palam Samridhi revealed that there was no siliqua and seed setting in pollinators’ exclusion. Numbers of siliquae per plant in open pollination were 28.3 per cent higher than in bee pollination. Siliqua from open pollinated and bee pollinated plants had 12.5 and 10.5 mean number of seeds, respectively. Seed yield per hectare was 51.6 per cent higher in open pollinated plots than in bee pollinated plots. Further studies on the effect of number of Apis mellifera visits on flowers on the seed yield parameters revealed that flowers which received five bee visits resulted in the highest mean number of seeds per siliqua (11.95), thereby contributing 29.35 mg mean seed weight per siliqua. The results conclude that A. mellifera has tremendous contribution in broccoli seed production, however, other insect pollinators also play significant role in broccoli pollination.