Strawberries are a great source of vitamin C. When grown on farms, the quality standards are very high - fruit need to be regularly-shaped, decently-sized and evenly-coloured. Poor pollination can result in irregular and thus unmarketable fruit.

#SoftFruit #Horticulture #Agriculture

Work by Dr Katie James during her PhD found that getting it right really pays off - if plants were pollinated by both hoverflies and bumblebees, fruits were overall bigger, heavier, and typically better quality than self-pollinated plants, or those pollinated by only hoverflies, and sometimes better than fruits from bumblebee-only plants too. [3/]

#Pollination #Bumblebees #Hoverflies #Syrphidae