I believe that Jennifer Grant is the Cornell IPM Program Manager. At the first meeting of the NYS Pollinator Protection Task Force, Dr. Grant presented a talk on the importance of Native Pollinators and pretty much said that supplemental pollination by managed hives of honeybees was not necessary in many NY Apple Orchards. That's not a direct quote, but what I recall her saying.

For orchards of a certain size this is true. But I don't know how many 5 acre orchards we have in NY and whether we could produce the apple crops we do here if we had as many small orchards as we do the acres of large orchards we have.

I maintain that there isn't enough known or understood about crop pollination. My blueberry grower in NC knows that he gets the best crops when he not only has a lot of hives of honeybees in his farm, but when he also has a lot of bumble bees and NC blueberry bees. So he is careful about what he sprays and when he sprays.

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