Effect of Managed Pollination using Apis Mellifera Linnaeus Colonies on Yield Characteristics of Radish, Raphanus Sativus Linnaeus

Studies at a farmer’s field on radish cv. Pusa Chetki during its blooming phase in the Punjab(India) involving four treatments viz. E1 : crop caged enclosing 4-bee-frame strength Apis mellifera colony hive with one entrance inside the nylon netting cage, E2 : crop caged enclosingthe colony hive having two entrances (front one inside the cage and the second in the rear of hiveoutside the cage), OP : open pollination, and PE : the crop caged without bees to exclude thepollinators, revealed that foraging rate and foraging intensity of the bee species were maximumunder open pollination treatment (9.98 flowers/min and 4.46 bees/m²/min, respectively), during peak blooming phase (9.29 flowers/min and 3.87 bees/m²/min, respectively) of the crop and at 1200 h (9.74 flowers/min and 4.48 bees/m²/min, respectively). Yield determining characteristicsincluding siliquae setting, seed setting, seed weight and seed yield per plant were the highest inopen pollinated plots followed by in plots caged enclosing the bee colony hive with two entrancesand plots caged with the bee colony hive with only one entrance, in decreasing order. Seed yieldincrease per unit area over pollinators’ exclusion (PE) was 29.60, 24.53 and 22.49 per cent underopen pollination (OP), under two entrance hive (E2) and one entrance hive (E1) treatments,respectively. Seed germination and seed vigour were the highest in OP treatment followed by, indecreasing order, in E2, E1 and PE treatments, respectively.