Green house tomatoes and Bees

[azureus]

So, I was reading this article about a new book on the history of tomatoes in Italy: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/08/15/red_menace/?page=1 At the end of the article, the book's author states that winter tomatoes grown under glass in the Netherlands are pollinated by a special breed of bee. If tomatoes are mostly self-pollinating, what is the advantage? I've never heard of needing bees for tomatoes, so I'm really curious.

April

[beeman]

Originally Posted by azureus

If tomatoes are mostly self-pollinating, what is the advantage? I've never heard of needing bees for tomatoes, so I'm really curious.

Bumble bees. Tomato pollination is better when 'buzzed' which is the method employed by bumble bees, they vibrate their wings close to the flowers doing a good job of pollinating.

[freelancer79d]

Thats a crazy article!

[travis]

Didn't read the article, but in an enclosed environment, you need wind or bees to vibrate the blossoms. Exhaust fans, leaf blowers, broomstick beaters, bumble bees, battery powered vibrators, etc. are some of the things commonly used in greenhouses to stimulate the blossoms to emit pollen.

[dice]

Look at the illustration below the picture on this page:
http://www.kdcomm.net/~tomato/Tomato/xingtom.html

The pollen forms on the inside of the anther cone, which is
a cone of individual "anthers", little finger like things that
grow up from around the ovary. For the tomato to be pollenated
and start forming a fruit, the pollen has to get on to the stigma,
that little enlarged area at the end of the style (also called a
"pistil"). Pollen is kind of loosely held to the inside of the anthers
once the pollen is mature, so shaking the flower allows it to fall
down to the end of the style and stick to the stigma, which is
fairly sticky unless the weather is very hot and dry. The pollen
then gets drawn into "pollen tubes" that form inside the style,
which draws the pollen to the ovaries of the flower.

Bees do a good job of shaking the flower so that the pollen falls
away from the inside of the anthers. They take hold of the
end of the anther cone with their jaws and shake it like a terrier
shaking a rat. The bees end up with pollen all over their bellies,
and it also ends up all over the stigma, which pollenates the
flower. (When the bees brush up against the stigma with their
bellies already covered with pollen from other tomato plants,
cross pollenation can happen, which is where we get chance
F1 hybrids from.)

Wind can also accomplish this, shaking the flowers so that
pollen drifts down onto the stigma. In a greenhouse, one
generally has no wind to shake the flowers on the plants,
and some greenhouse operators bring in bees to do the job.
Others have employees walk around with electronic vibrating
"wands" (artificial bee) that they touch to the flower clusters
to shake pollen down onto the stigmas. Yet others go through
the greenhouse with a leafblower, shaking all of the plants with
that (artificial wind).

Home gardeners sometimes use an electric toothbrush like a
pollenating wand, vibrating the stems of the flower clusters,
not leaving things to the chance of wind or bees, basically.
(This is also handy when collecting pollen for experimental
crosses without sacrificing several clusters of flowers to get
the pollen.)

Others just walk through and shake the cages or trellises or
whatever.

[azureus]

I hadn't thought about tomatoes needing that much "stimulation" for proper pollination. Bees would probably be more efficient than fans or people, though. Thanks everyone.

April

[TZ-OH6]

Here are some pictures of pollen coated bees

http://www.flickr.com/photos/5125150...7624324605541/