The same way humans need vegetables to survive, growers need bees for their operations to thrive. In light of that, a team from Michigan State University Extension put together a Pollinator Stewardship Guide to help us help our six-legged friends.
Ana Heck, Ron Goldy, Benjamin Philips and Benjamin Werling of MSU Extension, along with MSU’s Pollinator Initiative, worked collaboratively over the past few years with growers, crop industry groups, Extension educators and specialists and beekeepers to develop a Vegetable Pollinator Stewardship Guide.
The guide is an outcome of Michigan’s Managed Pollinator Protection Plan, which has a goal of reducing pesticide exposure to pollinators by providing practical recommendations to growers.
Most fruiting vegetables need pollination from bees to successfully create something marketable. Unfortunately, bees face many issues that affect their health – parasites, diseases, lack of forage and pesticide exposure.
“Growers are in a unique position to help pollinators because of the amount of land they manage,” the MSU Extension team said. “They can make a big difference by reducing or mitigating the harmful effects of pesticides on pollinators and increasing flowering plants on their land.”
Key Recommendations for Protecting Your Investment in Pollination
There are some very basic things vegetable growers can do to help bees – especially if they use a service to bring those bees on to their properties.
First, use IPM strategies to reduce pesticide exposure to bees. Vegetable growers may consider including the following actions to develop their own farm-specific pollinator stewardship plan:
- Use pest models, scout for pests and trap pests
- Select pest- and disease-resistant varieties
- Spray when bees aren’t flying (at night or during cool weather) and spray when wind speed is low
- Mow flowering weeds that may be exposed to pesticide drift
- Avoid tank mixing when possible
- Avoid using adjuvants and surfactants when possible
- Apply pesticides with accuracy and precision
Vegetable growers can produce better crops by helping to take care of pollinators like bees. Photo by Courtney Llewellyn
Other Helpful Tips
Minimize insecticide and fungicide use during bloom. Some insecticides and fungicides are known to be harmful to bees, but some of the effects of pesticides on pollinators have not been studied and are unknown. To prevent harm to bees, growers can reduce pollinator exposure to insecticides and fungicides as much as possible.
Learn how harmful certain pesticides can be. Bee precaution ratings from the University of California Ag & Natural Resources Statewide IPM Bee Program present up-to-date information about the effects of specific pesticides on bees. The site ranks pesticides based on existing studies.
Support bee health by establishing bee foraging plants on your farm. One of the easiest and best ways to help bees is to plant flowering trees, shrubs and wildflowers near your arable land. Good nutrition from a wide range of flowers throughout the growing season can help bees better deal with pesticide exposure, parasites and diseases.
Growers can find resources about installing pollinator habitat from MSU’s Pollinator Initiative at pollinators.msu.edu/resources/pollinator-planting.
Learn about bees and share what you know. To help you do this, MSU developed Pollinator Champions (pollinators.msu.edu/programs/pollinator-champions), a free online course to learn about pollinators and pollination.
Finally, communicate with your beekeepers about bee health and pesticide applications. Good communication between growers and beekeepers is key to having good pollination and keeping honeybees healthy.
Find the Vegetable Pollinator Stewardship Guide at canr.msu.edu/resources/vegetable-pollinator-stewardship-guide.
by Courtney Llewellyn
