IT SOUNDS like the stuff of science fiction: an army of trained bees to help humankind to perfect its favourite treats.
But the vision may become reality sooner than we think.
Staff at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London, are working with scientists to use bees to help them to grow strawberries.
The project, under way in a laboratory in Newcastle, is designed to ensure the plants, which are difficult to pollinate naturally, flourish.
By extracting the scent of the plant, using a pump and a plastic bag to trap it in a filter, staff have been training the insects to associate the smell of strawberries with food, rewarding them with a sugary nectar each time a spritz of the scent is sprayed.
Details of the early stages of the experiment are to be broadcast by the BBC as part of its new gardening show, Kew on a Plate. The four-part series sees Kate Humble, the broadcaster, and Raymond Blanc, the chef, helping to build and cultivate Kew’s long-lost royal kitchen garden through the seasons.
In the programme, which begins on BBC Two at 9pm tomorrow, Humble and Blanc explore the history of the staple vegetables of the modern diet, as well as the scientific developments that have led to current understanding of food.
In a segment presented by Humble, Prof Phil Stevenson, a Kew scientist, explains that each strawberry plant needs “quite a few visits” from bees to be pollinated sufficiently.
The decline in the bee population – partly the result of pesticides – means it will become more difficult for the fruit to thrive.
The project, which has been successful in initial stages at Newcastle University, will eventually help gardeners to improve their naturally grown fruits and pollinate them to create good quality berries.
In the future, it is said, “armies of bees” may be trained to help growers to continue to produce the wonders of the natural world.
Prof Geraldine Wright from the university said: “If they smell a flower’s scent in association with the food they get, they remember and form a strong lasting memory. When they go out into the fields they will have learnt that scent is a good source of food and they’ll be attracted to those flowers.”
Humble added: “Essentially you’re making their foraging very targeted. Rather than them going out and getting distracted, they are honed into that strawberry scent.”
The first episode of the programme will also see Humble and Blanc discuss Yorkshire’s Rhubarb Triangle and examine the sometimes unusual backgrounds of common produce such as peas, carrots, asparagus, watercress and garlic.