Just a few of my friendly pollinators in the greenhouse

[Mark in Texas]

Early spring and the pollinators are everywhere on citrus blooms and avocado.  Flies are THICK on the Gwen avocado, honey bees on the citrus.  Greenhouse is heavy in perfume and my Man Cave never smelled better.  Mangos are just now pushing foliage, late for them.  Most folks think of bees as the only pollinators.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  I have moths, bumble and honey bees, flies of all kinds of species - some big houseflies some small with shiny blue butts.

Big mistake greenhouse buyers make is not providing access for ingress and egress of pollinators, If, you growing fruiting material.  My wall vent opening is 4' X 37'.  Roof vent is 2' X 37'.



Big fly on Gwen avocado.  If you open (click) on the photo you can see some cool hairs and this sword on top of his head. 



Lots of little flies on avocado blooms.



Big bumblebee on Moro blood orange.



"Sugar Bee" on citrus.

[JeffDM]

Nice looking setup!

[spaugh]

Very cool!  My bees seem to ignore the avocado blooms and go for the citrus.  Saw someone spray and mild honey/h2o solution on their avocado blooms to attract bees.  May have to try it on a few trees.  Blooms arent in full bloom yet here.  Im surprised TX is ahead of us? 

[JeffDM]

Very cool!  My bees seem to ignore the avocado blooms and go for the citrus.  Saw someone spray and mild honey/h2o solution on their avocado blooms to attract bees.  May have to try it on a few trees.  Blooms arent in full bloom yet here.  Im surprised TX is ahead of us?

Every time I check I've got a combination of flies and bees working the flowers on my avocado trees here in the Rancho Penasquitos area of San Diego.  This might be the year I finally get some fruit.

[ricshaw]

Where did you buy your greenhouse?

[Mark in Texas]

Reed and Oro Negro is just beginning to push cauliflower clusters.  Ardith, Pinkerton, Holiday, Sir Prize and Gwen and thick with open flowers.  Lost my Sharwil but it will make a nice place for a Cherimoya if I can ever find one that doesn't cost $50 to ship!   

Ricshaw, it's a Nexus Zephr. If you go this route understand that metal gets hot so paint all columns white up to 8' and put the house on a perimeter beam.  10' columns, 18' peak, Dynaglas SolarSoft polycarbonate from Palram via Greentek.  Computer controlled with 1 HP motors driving the vents.  8 cooling set points, 4 heating (not that you need them all).  Put clear on the north roof and north wall.   SolarSoft really distributes, diffuses, the light into the canopy.

[CTMIAMI]

Nice pets Mark 

[Mark in Texas]

Nice pets Mark 

They're spoiled by the gourmet food on the farm.