Dragonfruit and Bees

[K-Rimes]

Does anyone have experience with bees and dragonfruit? I read conflicting information. Some say that bees promote better fruit weight, quality, and fertilization - others report that bees steal all the pollen and leave none even on the stigma.

My experience has been that they often steal all the pollen before I can get to it and use it to cross pollinate - but then again, I had a ton more fruit last year than usual and LOTS of bees. I still hand pollinated as best I could, but maybe I don't need to?

Any firsthand experience would be awesome. I just got bees a month or so ago and looks like they will make it thru winter.

[K-Rimes]

https://www.scielo.br/j/rca/a/7KtmqYnxJ5cr6xfybhcsq5C/?lang=en

Here's an article about bees being helpful. What my question really is: can I stop hand pollinating with bees in my yard?

[John B]

That's Ludacris. Bees 100%. If bees can't pollinate it, it eventually gets the axe. S8, Haley's Comet, PG, dark star, BHR have set fruit without self pollination. Bees do start early, so if you have a problem, I suppose you could tie a rubber band to the flower so you can hand pollinate at night. But that's to much work for me.

I believe  could get better fruit set with PG and dark star if I did hand pollinate, though.

[K-Rimes]

That's Ludacris. Bees 100%. If bees can't pollinate it, it eventually gets the axe. S8, Haley's Comet, PG, dark star, BHR have set fruit without self pollination. Bees do start early, so if you have a problem, I suppose you could tie a rubber band to the flower so you can hand pollinate at night. But that's to much work for me.

I believe  could get better fruit set with PG and dark star if I did hand pollinate, though.

I have a lot of self-sterile varieties and get ok fruit set on them with hand pollinating. This past season I had more fruit than ever, but also more bees than ever, so I wondered if it was my doing or theirs. It sounds like it wasn't me and I can just let them handle it! YAY!

[simon_grow]

I definitely get plenty of fruit with help from the bees. Yes, they collect pollen but they pollinate the Stigma.

Simon