Pollineering

Mar 08 2016

Environmental Effects on Pollination

When considering the pollination of their crops, Farmers constantly face a large number of risks and uncertainties, such as inadequate number of bees and other pollinators, or lack of sufficient chill hours or other weather caused pollination risks. The reason is simple.

Pollination sets the upper limit of crop production.

Faced with these risks, farmers are always searching for ways to gain more control over pollination and the pollination of their crops, thus increasing food security and often increasing crop yield. Yet, there is still one major force farmers cannot control: the weather. American farmers have traditionally relied on the excellent forecasting provided by the Farmers’ Almanac. Other such resources exist around the globe. However, with some the early effects of global warming being seen, the impact of weather and weather events on agriculture is likely to grow over the coming decades.

Risks from the Weather

Here are a few of the ways weather can negatively impact the pollination process.

Insect Pollinators

A very large percentage (roughly ⅓) of all food eaten worldwide depends on bees and other insects for pollination. Bees in China and around the world have been dying off at alarming rates. One major cause of this rapid decline in bees is called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Parts of China have experienced this challenge to food security caused by the decline in bee population and other insect pollinators.

Weather has a direct effect on when and how insect pollinators are active. Factors include heat, humidity and wind. Even localized micro-climates can have an effect on the work done by these pollinators.

Chill Hours

Each variety of stone fruits, such as cherries, peaches, plums, etc., require a certain number of chill hours before pollination season. If the weather does not provide adequate chill hours in the months before blooming, the male portion of the flower which is the pollen, does not develop properly. This often limits pollination, at times severely. Our technology solves most of these kinds of problems.

Cross-Pollination

Many crops must be cross-pollinated.

With cherries, for cross-pollination to successfully occur a bee must bring pollen from a cherry blossom of a different variety cherry to each flower. Until now, to cross-pollinate their crops, farmers have had to plant an adequate ratio of more than one variety of cherries in the same field so that bees can mix the pollen as needed. However, if weather patterns cause one variety of cherry to bloom too soon or too late compared to the other varieties, bees cannot cross-pollinate the crop because an adequate number of blooms from other varieties are not open at the same time long enough for the bees to cross-pollinate. Thus a pollination gap occurs.

Electrostatic Pollination

Pollineering uses proven, patent-pending mechanical pollination technology to optimize pollination and mitigate pollination risks. Our technology increases food security and can optimize pollination to increase many crop yields with or without bees and in spite of many adverse weather conditions.

We do not need viable in-field pollen, nor do we need a variety of concurrently open blossoms in order to cross-pollinate. In fact, with our technology, for the first time in history farmers will be able to choose, if they wish, to plant only one variety of a crop, thus saving significant costs and improving land utilization.

Our patent-pending electrostatic spray process for mechanical pollination reduces risk to farmers and improves their crop yields and profits and is adaptable to many crop types. We are currently in production for a number of stone fruit and other types of orchards including almonds, cherries, pistachios, peaches, apricots, plums and kiwi. Apples and pears will be next, with more crop types soon to follow.

We give farmers control for optimizing crop pollination, with or without bees and other pollination approaches. The primary benefits to farmers are:

Crop yield increases due to optimized pollination. Thus far our average crop yield has been in the range of 10% to 15%. This can be a very significant crop yield and production increase.
Risk mitigation and increased food security due to optimizing pollination with or without bees and when the weather or other factors disrupt or harm the natural pollination cycle.
Other major benefits of this technology include reduced production costs and reduced risks.

Jan 22 2016

Ag Telesis Cherries

Saving the Cherry Harvest

Nestled in the heart of the California’s fertile Central Valley region, rows upon rows of almond and cherry trees line the country roads. Agriculture is the heart and soul of the region, and crop yields represent the financial stability of many families and communities in the area.

Test Group – Electrostatically Pollinated

The last few years have been difficult. Ongoing drought has hit the farming community particularly hard. “A preliminary study in May [2015] by the University of California, Davis, estimated the drought would cost 18,600 agriculture-related jobs and $2.7 billion in economic losses this year.”†

Ag Telesis, a farm located in Del Rey, a small community just outside of Fresno, has weathered the many fluctuations of farming over the years. In 2014, cherry yield was approximately one hundred 18-pound boxes for every acre of orchard. The owner, Mitch Sangha, who also serves on the board of directors of the Raisin Bargaining Association, was looking for a way to increase his yields. He decided to try Pollen-Tech’s patent-pending pollination technology.

Control Group – Not Electrostaticaly Pollinated

Pollen-Tech, Pollineering’s partner and technology licensor, has developed a method of electrostatically pollinating blossoms that has shown a marked increase in crop yield. Having twenty acres of cherries sprayed with the special pollen slurry, Mr. Sangha waited to see if this new approach would yield results.

The results were staggering.

The trees treated with this special process were full of ripe, red cherries hanging in bunches like grapes. The untreated, control trees were producing fine cherries, but not nearly in the numbers seen on the treated trees, as can be seen in these photographs taken just a few days before the first harvest began.

Speaking of his cherry harvest, Mr. Sangha said, “Most growers in my area harvested 100 boxes or less, I harvested over 400 boxes per acre this season. One of my neighbors only managed just under 100 boxes per acre on his farm. I feel the application of pollen was the difference.” Through the application of our process, his cherry crop had a 300% yield increase.

Trev Harmon and Mitch Sangha — Trev Harmon (Pollineering) and Mitch Sangha (Ag Telesis)

This dramatic increase is even more important when the alternative is considered. Recalling the situation, Tom Brown, CEO of Pollen-Tech, said, “They told us this was the last hope for the field. If they didn’t get good results, they were pulling the trees out.” Electrostatically pollinating saved the orchard.

With the addition of this simple, natural process that is free of harmful chemicals and pesticides, the Ag Telesis farm greatly increased their profits for the year.

About the Process

While a number of processes exist for trying to get viable pollen to adhere to a blossom’s stigma (the necessary first step of the pollination process), only this electrostatic spray process has seen these types of results.

Our pollen suspension, or slurry, is made of 100% natural purified pollen mixed with other all-natural, food-grade materials. It is bee friendly, environmentally friendly and crop and human safe. Being non-toxic, one could even drink it, though its taste would be rather unpleasant.

Spray times vary for different types of crops and field configurations. At 10½ minutes per acre, Mr. Sangha’s twenty acres took about 3½ hours to spray. Almonds typically take less than half that amount of time per acre.

Pollination services are available through Pollineering for the following crops, with more to follow:

•    Almonds
•    Cherries
•    Pistachios

•    Peaches
•    Apricots
•    Plums

Crop yield is dependent on a number of factors. Yield increases vary based on type of crop, field configuration and many other environmental factors. Consult a representative for further information regarding particulars.

About Pollineering

Pollineering, LLC is a licensed provider of Pollen-Tech’s patented technology for mechanical pollination. Using their special pollen slurry and techniques, Pollineering increases yield and reduces risk for farmers in China, Australia and a host of other countries around the world.

† Wall Street Journal. California Drought Leaves Few Farmers Unscathed.

Dec 18 2015

Some Pollination Methods

Hired Help – The Honey Bee

The status quo technology for pollinating plants is the honeybees. For bee pollination, timely beehive placement, strength of beehives, activity during cool weather, sufficient bloom and bloom overlap are all concerns for growers.

For large farms with large monoculture crop fields, honeybee pollination involves renting bees which are trucked into to the fields or orchards. When bees are not available for rent or the adequate infrastructure does not exist, bringing in bees may not be an option, and the farmers must provide their own bees or depend on nature to do so.

Several aspects of current agriculture practice are based on using bee pollination, such as the planting of alternating varieties of a crop (in every other row) to increase cross-pollination. Since different varieties of a crop may ripen at different times, such a practice results in multiple harvests and therefore higher costs.

Since 2004, the cost of bees for many crop types has increased as much as five-fold due to decrease in the bee supply, as a result of CCD decimating bee colonies. Farmers are concerned about the continued use of bees as their main form of pollination. Luckily, Pollineering’s process is bee friendly and can be used in conjunction with bees to enhance their pollination efforts.

These factors, combined with the rising cost of bees, aligns our company with the desire farmers have for a far more reliable pollination technology. The benefits of our technology highly incentivize the farmers to use our innovative technology.

Volunteers – Native Bees & Insects

Southern Carpenter Bee — Source: Bob Peterson

A second source of pollination include native bees and other pollinating insects. Mason and carpenter bees are increasingly being used as more efficient pollinators, especially when crops are in need of cross pollination. Some companies have begun selling starter kits of mason bees that allow growers to maintain their own colony. Growers then need to maintain their population by providing suitable flowers, as a food source for these bees, otherwise these bees will migrate onward in search of food when these crops stop blooming.

Many orchards are monoculture crops where non-crops are considered weeds. Consequently, they are sprayed regularly to eliminate non-crop plants, which has the side effect of eliminating food sources for bees. While they may remain a viable for some smaller growers with flower sources for bees to use as food nearby, it is very much at the whim of mother nature and does not optimize pollination nearly as well as our processes. Research is currently being carried out to determine if providing other food source plants in the orchards can help bee population. To date, the results of this research have been mixed.

Dry Pollen

Some farmers have already tried innovative techniques to solve some of the problems occurring with the bee pollination methods. For example, some farmers buy pollen from pollen supply companies to place at the entrance of the bee hives to enhance pollination. However, there is little research on this method, and it is unclear if it actually increases yield. Furthermore, placing pollen at the front of the hives still relies on the actual bees and all of the risks associated with them.

Farmers have also tried blowing dry pollen onto the trees. There is no evidence that this actually increases yield unless one uses so much pollen that it becomes cost prohibitive. With limited evidence of success and high costs, this technology has not taken hold in the industry. Using Pollineering’s process, electrostatic sprayers, the pollen-infused slurry is 10 times more effective at attaching to the stigma of the flower than blowing dry pollen. This allows us to be much more effective in terms of both yield and pollen use.

Self-Pollination

Another current area of research is the development of self-pollinating trees. Currently these trees are still in testing or early production phases, so it is unclear how much of a competition they will be. Because trees must grow to maturity before their effectiveness can be measured, it will be a number of years before there is any conclusive evidence for this approach. While self-pollinating trees have made great strides in the past 10 years, in most cases they still have not matched the standard of regular trees.

The long lifespan of trees also limits the speed that this technology could be implemented, if it is ever developed. Farmers have heavy investments in their current orchards and are not likely to rip out producing trees until their trees grow too old to produce well. Tests of our technology on self-pollinating trees have shown a 15% increase in crop yield over untreated self-pollinating trees in the same orchard, certainly a modest increase.

Dec 18 2015

A Need, A Problem & A Solution

The Need

Food is essential for life, and a desperate need to better secure the global food supply exists. “Some 795 million people in the world do not have enough food to lead a healthy active life”, about one in nine. “Poor nutrition causes nearly half (45%) of deaths in children under five—3.1 million children each year.” The global nature of the need is very large.

China dwarfs all other markets both in production, need and consumption. With one-sixth of the world’s population lives in China, Chinese authorities are already concerned about the fate of bees and other pollinating insects. Asia is already the continent with the most hungry people with two-thirds of the world’s under-nourished. Internally, China is the largest consumer of food crops in the world. China has the fastest growing middle class in the world. China’s national consumption of fruits and vegetables is growing rapidly as their dietary demands are changing and increasing in proportion to their increasing prosperity.

In the last 50 years, the global human population has nearly doubled, while the average calories consumed per person has increased by about 30%. Predictions state that 70% more food will be needed by 2050. At the same time, farmable land is being lost at more than a million acres a year. Drought and unusual weather causes pollination gaps which traditional farming cannot solve, no matter how many bees are brought in. Suffice it to say, there are many challenges to global food security.

The Problem

Without pollination, plants don’t bear fruit. Insects are vital for the pollination of many kinds of plants. One-third of all the food we eat is insect pollinated which translates into a yearly food crop market of about US$270 billion worldwide. The USA market is US$19 billion.

Other non-food markets, such as cotton and alfalfa, can benefit from better pollination. Bees, the chief insect pollinator, have been dying off at record numbers around the world due to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).

Halictus ligatus — Source: USGS Bee Inventory and Monitory Lab

In addition to the loss of crop yield due to CCD, prices for bee-based pollination have been on a sharp upswing. In the USA, the costs for pollinating crops, such as almonds, has increased by 400% since 2004. In response this last year, almond farmers moved 1.6 million bee hives into California almond orchards from around the USA and as far away as Australia.

CCD is a syndrome wherein all of the adult bees in a bee colony suddenly die leaving a live queen, larva, and immature bees behind. Without the adult bees, who are the workers, these survivors soon die, as well. While several theories exist, no one specific scientific cause for CCD has been proven.

However, this is not the only risk faced by bee colonies. The United States Department of Agricultural Research Services has stated:

[CCD] is far from the only risk to the health of honey bees and the economic stability of commercial beekeeping and pollination operations in the United States. Since the 1980s, honey bees and beekeepers have had to deal with a host of new pathogens from deformed wing virus to nosema fungi, new parasites such as Varroa mites, pests like small hive beetles, nutrition problems from lack of crop diversity or availability in pollen and nectar sources, and possible sub-lethal effects of pesticides. These problems, many of which honey bees might be able to survive if each were the only one, are often hitting in a wide variety of combinations, and weakening and killing honey bee colonies. CCD may even be a result of a combination of two or more of these factors and not necessarily the same factors in the same order in every instance.

CCD, drought, temperature differentiations from climate change, construction and plant disease are some of the risks farmers face globally. Because we depend on farmers for food, all other segments in the society suffer from these losses through increased food costs, poverty and hunger.

The Solution

Pollineering is a agricultural company fundamentally transforming agriculture by giving farmers direct control over pollination, thus enabling greater yields while decreasing risk. Th is is done through an innovative mechanical pollination technology that addresses a large number of pollination concerns held by farmers.

Without pollination, plants cannot bear fruit. Bee colonies are vital for the pollination of many kinds of plants. A plant cannot produce more than its level of pollination, which is a major limiting factor. CCD has led to steady decline of bees at an alarming rate. Other factors, such as unusual weather or temperatures, can cause pollination gaps in cross pollinated crops, even when adequate pollinators are available. Pollineering provides the technology, products and services to optimize pollination (with or without bees) in spite of weather-caused pollination gaps. Additionally, it allows farmers to consolidate the harvest by pollinating all the plants at the same time during the blossom season.

12 Types of Pollen — Source: Dartmouth Electron Microscope Facility

Pollineering sources 100% natural (non-GMO) pollen for each variety of crop from outstanding suppliers which can ensure high quality and disease-free products. We use the highest quality control to insure pollen viability and purity. We then mix this pure pollen into our proprietary slurry.

Pollineering uses specially equipped electrostatic sprayer technology to spray the pollen slurry mixture on the crop. The electrostatic charge helps the pollen attach to the stigma of the flower, much like lint to a suit, to efficiently pollinate the flowers. Our licensed slurry also protects the pollen, allows a greater electrostatic charge to increase stigmatic receptivity and adhesion, and nourishes the pollen, enhancing pollen tube growth.