There is a country song with a line that goes something like “come on over and let’s do a little pollinating”. Well I guess if a whole lot of “pollinating” didn’t go on in some form or another, none of us would be here nor would be all the goodies we get to eat would either.
All living things need a variety of things to survive, our school tours touch on that. While I was out filming about how we get water to the plants via our irrigation booster pump, I stumbled upon the pollination process, I was able to catch some bees pollinating some newly emerged blossoms or “flowers” in the watermellon patch. Some times it is tough to get the bees in the right place and I was happy to see them, well Busy as a Bee?
To be sure we get good fruit set we put bee hives right out in the field. The bees will travel up to two miles so we can cover just about all our fields from one spot if we have enough hives. As the bees move from one plant to another they pick up pollen on their body from blossoms. Some of the flowers or blossoms are Male and some are Female. As you move the pollen from the different blossoms from plant to plant you assist in the fertilization process which is necessary for fruit development.
In the video you can see how the bees legs brush against the parts of the flower and that is how the plant get the necessary genetic material it needs.