Abstract:

Honeybee pollination is very important for agricultural production. To study the effects of pollination of different bee species on tea quality, this study took tea plant ‘Jincha No.1’ as the research object, and studied the effects of honeybee pollination technology on tea yield increase and quality improvement by using Apis mellifera Ligustica, Apis cerana cerana and Bombus terrestris, respectively. The results show that Apis cerana cerana pollination group has the highest number of flower visiting per minute, Apis mellifera Ligustica pollination group has the most number of stigma pollen, and Bombus terrestris pollination group has the longest access time. Apis cerana cerana pollination could significantly increase fruit setting rate of tea seeds and polyphenol content of tea seed oil, but has no significant effect on oil content of tea seeds. Apis mellifera Ligustica pollination and Bombus terrestris pollination have no significant effect on fruit setting rate, but could significantly increase the polyphenol content and oil content of tea seeds. The three pollination groups have no significant effect on the main components of tea seed oil. In practice, corresponding bee species can be selected for pollination according to production needs.

Key words: different bee species, tea seed pollination, pollination efficiency, fruit setting rate, tea seed quality