What is Team PollinATE about?
Why do we want to learn more about food grown in Brighton & Hove?
Around one fifth of the world’s food is grown in urban areas, and there are many similarities in growing style between the developed and developing world; urban farms tend to be small and labour intensive, with several different crops grown in close proximity- just think of your own garden or allotment! Unlike conventional, rural farms, growing food in cities is not regulated, so we know relatively little about farming practices, such as pesticide use, and how much food small urban spaces can yield. Data on which insects pollinate the crops grown in urban areas is sorely lacking, and so it’s not clear whether we have large enough pollinator populations to produce good crop yields
What are the aims of Team PollinATE?
If you grow your own food, we'd love your help to answer the following big questions:
1. Which pollinating insects visit the crops you grow?
2. How much food does your growing space provide?
3. Which are the most common pests in urban areas?
How can you help?
COUNT POLLINATORS
Throughout the growing season we’d like you to conduct a quick count of the different types of pollinating insect that are visiting any food crops that are flowering in your growing space. Our pollinator identification sheets and training events will help with telling the different groups apart.
MEASURE HARVESTS
We’d like to understand more about how insect pollination affects the yields of food crops grown in Brighton & Hove. To help us do this, we’d like you to keep a record of the weight and/or number of food items harvested from your insect-pollinated crops throughout the growing season.
RECORD PESTS
We know little about pests in urban food growing, nor the methods used to control them and how this may affect both crop yields and pollinators. We’d like you to keep a diary of the pests and diseases you observe on your flowering crops, and which methods you use to control them, particularly any chemicals used.
Which Crops?
We would only like you to record data for insect-pollinated food crops. See our list below for examples:
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Beans
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Peas
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Aubergines
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Tomatoes
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Peppers
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Pumpkins/Squash
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Courgettes
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Cucumbers
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Fruit trees and bushes
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e.g. Apple, Cherry, Plum
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Soft fruits, berries, currants
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e.g. Strawberry, Raspberry, Blackcurrants
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