Most Attractive To Bumblebees?

[Gardeneer]

Quite Few posts. I did not have time to read them all.
Bumble bees are everywhere that I have gardened, CT, GA and now WA.

Yeah, those tiny bees are everywhere. But we see bumble bees more because they are big. Bumble bees are very active and hard working. They work all day, till dusk, take a nap on big flowers. They keep going back and forth to the same flower many times. They loved Tomatillo flowers , 4 O'clock , herbs flowers ( bee balm in particular). Honey bees love clovers more than any thing.

But why do we need pollinators for tomatoes, peppers. I sure need them for cucurbits.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

Honey bees love clovers more than any thing.

Have you not grown rosemary?

[Gardeneer]

Originally Posted by Worth1

Have you not grown rosemary?

Rosemary is grown as shrub around here. They start flowering mid winter to early spring. They are at the peak of flowering right now. At this time honey bees are not out yet

[joseph]

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

But why do we need pollinators for tomatoes

I want my tomatoes to be cross pollinating. Because that rearranges the DNA. Because that gives me more opportunities to select for families of tomatoes that thrive in spite of my growing conditions and way of doing things.

[Tormato]

Joseph,

When I walk through my garden, I often come in contact with my plants due to very narrow walkways. I've noticed that my shirt is always covered in yellow whenever I walk past SunGold. I don't know if that helps you.

Also, did you find those red podded peas, yet?

Gary

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

Rosemary is grown as shrub around here. They start flowering mid winter to early spring. They are at the peak of flowering right now. At this time honey bees are not out yet

They come and go all year long here as long as it is warm enough.
Many a morning when it is in the upper 40's and lower 50's I will see them working the rosemary.
I try to have something in bloom almost all year long.

I hope my bumble bees come back again this year.

Worth

[joseph]

Tormato: Thanks for mentioning the Sungold. I'll find a plant to grow this summer. Another new plant that I am growing this summer, because it was reported to be highly attractive to bumblebees, is Stupice.

Today the Jagodka tomato flowers were open. I'm growing them in the basement under lights. So I buzz pollinated them. Wow! I understand why the bumblebees like them so much. Clouds of pollen poured out of the flowers.

I'm not sure about the red podded peas... I planted some seed that was labeled "Red Podded Snow Peas", and some that was labeled "Red-Podded Almost Snap", and some that was labeled "Red Podded Mange Tout, Small". But I thought that I also had "Red Podded Sugar Snap peas". Guess I'll find out. I planted a hundred foot row of Red-Podded Soup peas, and they might have some sugar snap or snow peas show up in them because the non-fibrous pod traits are due to recessive genes. The sugar snap trait with red coloring is turning out to be the most recessive combination based on what I started with.

[Bruinwar]

Sorry for jumping in this thread so late but I want to share my experience with bumblebees.

Purple Tomatillos! Likely any tomatillos. Since I started real tomato gardening three years ago I always put in four Purple Tomatillo plants. They were always covered in flowers. Three years ago the flowers would be so covered in bumble bees that it would kina freak me out pushing through them to get to other plants to pick. LOADED with bees, all buzzin away. It was crazy. They LOVED tomatillo flowers.

Last year, same strain, very few bees. That is scary but I locally here in Michigan we appear to be loosing any wild bee hives. Only the private beekeepers are able to keep their bees alive. This is purely anecdotal, I have no data to support it. Just hearsay & my own experience.

Regards,
Tomato Joe

[Stvrob]

Originally Posted by Bruinwar

Sorry for jumping in this thread so late but I want to share my experience with bumblebees.

Purple Tomatillos! Likely any tomatillos. Since I started real tomato gardening three years ago I always put in four Purple Tomatillo plants. They were always covered in flowers. Three years ago the flowers would be so covered in bumble bees that it would kina freak me out pushing through them to get to other plants to pick. LOADED with bees, all buzzin away. It was crazy. They LOVED tomatillo flowers.

Last year, same strain, very few bees. That is scary but I locally here in Michigan we appear to be loosing any wild bee hives. Only the private beekeepers are able to keep their bees alive. This is purely anecdotal, I have no data to support it. Just hearsay & my own experience.

Regards,
Tomato Joe

last year I had almost no bumblebees, but this year they seem to be back.

[Starlight]

Joseph... Do you already have some seed for Stupice? If not I have some I can share. I checked and I don't have Sungold, but I do have Sungella if you want to try some of it.

[joseph]

Yes, I have Stupice seed in hand already. I'm waiting about 5 more weeks before I start most of my tomatoes. The local nurseries all sell SunGold. I'll pick up a plant from them.

[AlittleSalt]

Originally Posted by Bruinwar

Sorry for jumping in this thread so late but I want to share my experience with bumblebees.

Purple Tomatillos! Likely any tomatillos. Since I started real tomato gardening three years ago I always put in four Purple Tomatillo plants. They were always covered in flowers. Three years ago the flowers would be so covered in bumble bees that it would kina freak me out pushing through them to get to other plants to pick. LOADED with bees, all buzzin away. It was crazy. They LOVED tomatillo flowers.

Last year, same strain, very few bees. That is scary but I locally here in Michigan we appear to be loosing any wild bee hives. Only the private beekeepers are able to keep their bees alive. This is purely anecdotal, I have no data to support it. Just hearsay & my own experience.

Regards,
Tomato Joe

Last year was our first year growing tomatillos. Verde. They attracted a lot of bees too. Most of them were what we call tickle bees, but there were bumble bees too.

[joseph]

Originally Posted by joseph

I attempted the following crosses which seem to have been successful.

[DX52-12 X Ot'Jagoka]. I got a couple dozen seeds. DX52-12 is an indeterminate plant with exerted stigmas and an open anther cone. It is a Moscow type that was developed specifically for my valley. The F1 aughta thrive here.

Ot'Jagodka is my main production tomato. It is a determinate. It produces super early saladette sized red fruits. It is highly attractive to bumblebees, and drops clouds of pollen when vibrated.

A couple days ago I extracted and fermented the F2 seeds from a plant of this cross that I grew overwinter in the basement and greenhouse. The first ripe fruit produced about 116 seeds. I planted half of them immediately after fermenting. The rest are being dried.

That's right on schedule... This week is when I should be starting my field tomatoes.

I love bumble bees in my garden, but they seem unreliable for pollination. When they are around, they do a good job with my squash plants, but they basically ignore my tomatoes and peppers. They seem a little fickle about when they will be available to provide their services and I often have to resort to hand pollination.

The most reliable pollinator for all of my plants is a small bee less than 1/2 the size of a honey bee. I don't know what they are and they don't make any sound to announce their presence like a bumble bee or honey bee does, but they are almost always present in my garden.

Ted

[Starlight]

I wonder if the bees have certain types of pollen they prefer over others at different times of the season depending upon what is going on in the hive?

I have a friend who has hives. He just lost one of the huge hives this past winter. But his other hives are busy as can be. Right next to his place is a huge field of red clover all in bloom. I figured they would be all over it, but nope they are busy working the locust trees in the area.