Selection of Insect Pollinators for Selfing Cages for Onion (Allium cepa L.) Seed Production
2013
Lee, K.Y., RDA, Suwon, Republic of Korea | Lee, E.T., RDA, Muan, Republic of Korea | Hwangbo, I.S., Haenam Agricultural Technology Center, haenam, Republic of Korea | Park, I.K., RDA, Suwon, Republic of Korea | Kim, M.A., RDA, Suwon, Republic of Korea | Kim, Y.M., RDA, Suwon, Republic of Korea | Kang, P.D., RDA, Suwon, Republic of Korea | Yoon, H.J., RDA, Suwon, Republic of Korea
Recently, onion seed production is increasing in Korea due to rise of labor and leak to the foreign country about onion genetic resource. The blowflies are used to pollinate onion for seed production. However, the use of blowflies for pollination has caused problems in onion seed production owing to sanitation issues, smell, and the difficulty of feeding the flies. Therefore, we investigated the effects of pollination with bumblebee (Bombus terrestris), mason bee (Osmia cornifrons), honeybee (Apis mellifera) and blowflies (Lucilia illustris) in a selfing cage (d=0.6m, h=0.8m) in onion culture for the F1 generation used in seed production. When 4 insect pollinators were put in selfing case, L. illustris, B. terrestris and A. mellifera showed equivalent pollination ratios. For the percent of seed set per umbel, B. terrestris and A. mellifera was 4% and 8% higher than that of L. illustris. Also, B. terrestris was 29% higher and A. mellifera was 23% higher than L. illustris in number of seeds. These results showed that pollination by B. terrestris and A. mellifera can be used as an alternative approach in breeding onion. An analysis of the most appropriate number of B. terrestris and A. mellifera for use as pollinators for breeding onion in selfing cages showed that five to fifteen bees per cage was the most efficient level.
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