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Sorry, they were new varieties in development being tested by USDA. I called a few months ago to ask about status and got no answer. Called the main office and found that the investigator died suddenly last year.
I tried to find the grad student, but she had moved on.
However, we had sold them a system for testing bee attraction, and they clearly found differences. I've seen the same when looking at modern melons in tented field trials in CA, and when collecting pollen from field and sweet corn in corn belt.
Bottom line, geneticists/hybridizers, companies producing new varieties of a wide variety of crops are focused on issues such as overall productivity, resistance to pests and diseases, everything BUT attractiveness to bees OR the amounts and quantity of nectar and/or pollen available to bees. In the case of melons - amazingly scant amounts of nectar and pollen.
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