Bees

[Peter Easterling]

Haven't seen a honey bee in the neighborhood. Are they essential? I have some lilikoi and citrus trees and am wondering if they are self-pollinating or should we take a small brush and pretend we are bees?

[Carey]

Lilikoi are mainly pollinated by the big black carpenter bees (having old wood seems to keep them happy)

This is the first spring I have notice very few bees.... based solely on my yard, I would have to say "depending on the plant"
Our citrus has been pollinated this year (our neighbors have told me that ants are active in that) and seem to have a good number of fruit set.... same with the bilimbi, moringa, avocado & tomatoes... not sure is this is by the few bees left, or the ants, or something else...

Most of our papaya are coming in with fewer seeds, but this spring we have a newer rotation of trees coming into fruit, soooo might just be the tree type having fewer seeds.... flowers seem to be less than some of the papayas we have had....but that, too, may just be what we have now (we only grow the trees that show up in the yard & do not get mowed, so never have any idea what type we have)

Our Manila palm, which normally has a slew of honeybees at blossom time has not, and the seed heads are coming in less than 1/2 of what the winter flowers have (they are just finishing up, so the comparison is very stark...) Luckily we do not have a dearth of palm seedlings & do not use the palm seeds or seedlings ourselves, but I can see that this is not really a good sign....