Tubes Growing on Pollen Grains?
Did you know pollen grains grow tubes?
Photo attribution to- *Tacconi, Gianni et al. ‘Kiwifruit Pollination: The Interaction Between Pollen Quality, Pollination Systems and Flowering Stage’. 1 Jan. 2016 : 417 – 426.
Pollen is the male DNA of a plant, that when transported to the female part of the flower enables the plant to successfully reproduce. When Dropcopter delivers pollen grains to a compatible stigma of a female gametophyte, the germination process begins. The pollen grain starts to transform and begins to form a tube like structure, which is called the pollen tube. As the pollen tube grows down the style, reaching the ovule; the tube ruptures, delivering the sperm cells to the female gametophyte. This process results in double fertilization, the first fertilization creates a diploid zygot while the second fertilization creates a triploid endosperm.
Before Dropcopter delivers pollen with its drones, our team performs pollen germination tests to verify pollen viability from our pollen partners. Taking this extra step is crucial because pollen tube growth is such a necessary step for the plant to be successful in completing its life cycle and producing a higher crop yield.
“The pollen goes through a purification process, which has a couple of advantages, especially for crops like pears that actually can have disease spread between trees by pollen,” Michael Winch CMO
A natural pollinator such as a bee goes flower to flower collecting nectar to bring back to the hive. During that process the bees become covered in pollen, thus delivering the necessary pollen to the flowers to begin fertilization and pollen tube growth.
Dropcopter augments that process with its agricultural aerial solution by utilizing its proprietary pollen delivery system attached to a custom drone. The pollen delivery system uses an electrostatic device to charge pollen grains as they are dispersed. The positively charged pollen along with the momentum from the drone rotors is drawn toward the flowers, thus beginning the pollination process.
The advantages of using drone pollinators are numerous, the more notable ones are:
An increase in fruit and nut set by at least 25%
Maximizing critical bloom time
Replenishing pollen after heavy rains
Augmenting low bee activity
Dropcopter is able to pollinate 20 acres per hour per drone at an average cost of $300 per acre including pollen. Our newer grower partners utilize us to start with low yielding crop rows and then expand from there.
You are able to contact Dropcopter or get a quote anytime.