Consideration of the lifespan of flowers and the effect on successful cross-pollination and thus also on fertility
Aging of flowers has a negative effect on the success of cross-pollination and thus on fertility. Extending the lifespan of flowers beyond the minimum lifespan has a negative effect on the quality of cross-pollination and therefore fertility. As the flowers age, the sensitivity of the flowers to pollen decreases. From this comes the general knowledge that it is better if the flower is pollinated as soon as possible after development by an effective pollinator. The spontaneous flowering of different varieties of Haskap will attract more pollinators, which has a great impact on successful cross-pollination and therefore fertility. The sensitivity of flowers to pollen is greatest within 3 days after the flower has opened and then decreases slightly, but the plant retains a large percentage of receptive flowers until they become old, i.e. around 7-10 days. It’s more complicated than I thought. Thus, plants can adapt to different levels of pollinator activity through a predisposition in differences in flower lifespan.
The plant has built-in compromises in this, because maintaining the flowers above the minimum lifespan costs it a lot of energy and the flowers age over time, which gradually loses the success of cross-pollination. On the other hand, the lifespan of a flower, above the minimum lifespan, has an effect on the more intensive transfer of pollen by pollinators. Then a longer flower life could have advantages due to the preservation of the possibility of pollen transfer, but on the other hand, negative consequences due to the high energy costs of the plant to maintain the flowers, which is associated with the aging of the flowers and thus also the reduction of the sensitivity of the flowers to pollen. That is, the production of fruits decreases significantly with the increase in the age of the flowers, at the moment of cross-pollination.
In recent years, I notice that the early and late varieties are quite close in flowering, which I think is the course of winter. On the other hand, there is better cross-pollination and the yield is high.
This year was different in that the buds on the earlier varieties were already quite swollen in January, even inside the bushes. I observe that the flowers on the top buds, which were the most developed, were damaged by -16°C frosts. The larger development of the buds inside the bushes was inhibited and subsequently took place slowly and without frost damage. At the same time, although the later varieties started sprouting later, they gradually caught up with the earlier varieties in the sprouting of buds and now they are sprouted both with one and the other, with only a small difference. Well, this is how both earlier and later plants wait for suitable conditions and the start of flowering. This is reflected only in a slight shift in the beginning of flowering, and early and late varieties basically meet in flowering.
The Aurora variety begins to bloom along with the early varieties.
On the contrary, during a harsher winter, when there is a sufficiently long period of vegetative rest and the buds are not grown at all, in the spring there is a rapid development of the buds, which, if they are not so much hampered by the frosts, continue to sprout. At the same time, later varieties wake up later, and basically this results in a larger time gap when flowering starts for earlier and later varieties, and therefore also a shift in the start of flowering of later varieties. This results in less overall cross-pollination success
I feel like I’m in Florida now! (I’m not, lol)
