Floral Patches and Their Impact on Pollinator Attraction and Yield Production on Cucurbita maxima Var. Paine in Central Chile

In recent decades, it has been shown that pollination deficit can significantly affect crop production. Moreover, now it is known that the appropriate management of pollination can increase the quantity and quality of yields. Therefore, pollination appears to be a key component in modern agriculture...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Diversity (Basel) 2021-12, Vol.13 (12), p.608
Main Authors: Donoso, Santiago, Murúa, Maureen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural production
biodiversity
Crop production
crop system
Crop yield
Crops
Cucurbita maxima
Cucurbitaceae
Flowering
Flowering plants
Flowers & plants
food security
Fruits
Insects
Laboratories
Ornamental plants
Plant reproduction
Plant species
Plants (botany)
Pollination
Pollinators
Seed set
Seeds
Species
Sugar
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Summary:In recent decades, it has been shown that pollination deficit can significantly affect crop production. Moreover, now it is known that the appropriate management of pollination can increase the quantity and quality of yields. Therefore, pollination appears to be a key component in modern agriculture. This study aimed to determine the impact of floral patch addition on the quality and quantity of Cucurbita maxima fruit production. To this end, we manually added a set of ornamental plant species to the edge of the crop and monitored the pollinator diversity and visit frequency, as well as the seed set and sugar content of the pumpkin yield, in treatment and control parcels. The results showed that there was a higher visit rate in the treated parcel. Only the sugar content, and not the seed set, was affected by the addition of ornamental species and the pollinator visit rate. These findings indicate that the addition of flowering plants can favor different components of the crop yield of this species, but future studies should sample on a broader spatial and temporal scale in order to certify the generalizability of our results.
ISSN:1424-2818
1424-2818
DOI:10.3390/d13120608