My neighbor just leased about 35 acres to a pumpkin farmer. I know they will use some fungicides for the wilts but wonder if pesticides will come into play. Does anyone have any experience with pumpkins.
Bees do not do well on them... they will come off them worse than when you went in. If he sprays during bloom your goose is cooked :'( There is some pretty good evidence that the fungicides interfere with the normal hive biology and can combine with insecticides in a very negative manner.
check the laws about spraying he or she might be required to let you know before he sprays anything. As cam says pumpkins aren't the best forage for bees. nothing you can do about the pumpkins being planted there all you can do is learn your rights as a beekeeper and exercise them to protect yourself.
from what i have been hearing-pumpkins are useing systemic-neo nics
there are many who wont pollinate if they are useing neo nics-only upside is they wont spray if
that is the case--RDY-B
You might talk to the farmer. I have several yards on Pumpkin farms because they WANT the pollination. You might find you are allies.
Quote from: Michael Bush on April 26, 2011, 01:55:06 AM
You might talk to the farmer. I have several yards on Pumpkin farms because they WANT the pollination. You might find you are allies.
what are your pepole useing -organic methods i hope--RDY-B
>what are your pepole useing -organic methods i hope-
I doubt if they are entirely organic but they avoid pesticides because of the bees and some of them let their alfalfa bloom a while for the bees sake and don't spray insecticide on their soybeans. I am not certain that they don't use other things. I wish I could control such things but I can't.
I have talked to this farmer and he is concerned and will call me. He is a cattle man and pumpkins are something new for him. I know pumpkins, squash, pickles and the list goes on as a single nector source is not healthy but its only 35 acres or a drop in the bucket. Because of the problems I have had with to many bees to close to my honey house I have already arranged to move most. To keep my ag statis I only need to keep one on my farm. I did plan on keeping nucs and raiseing a few queens there. What I am really looking for is pumpkin problems and pest so I can ask the farmer the right questions
Here are a couple of sites:
http://pumpkinnook.com/howto/peskybug.htm (http://pumpkinnook.com/howto/peskybug.htm)
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-24.html (http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-24.html)