Most Attractive To Bumblebees?

[gorbelly]

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

This tells me that different bees are attracted to different flowers. dthis confirms my thinking that bees are not attracted to tomato flowers as they are not interested in daisy flowers.

Bees in general can't see red, so to attract them from a distance, yellow, blue, white and purple work better. Red flowers with yellow in the center seem to be fine when it comes to attracting bees.

Bumblebees are, indeed, attracted to tomato flowers, but other bees aren't. However, they only visit tomato flowers for pollen, as there's no nectar (one reason why they're not attractive to regular bees). Only pollinators that buzz pollinate like bumblebees can vibrate the blossoms at the right frequency to eject the pollen for collection.

Bumblebees do, indeed, like tomato blossoms. But I suspect that they are more attractive to them during parts of the season when they have high protein needs vs. sugar needs.

Regionally dominant species of bumblebee may differ in their preferences as well.

Originally Posted by HudsonValley

I don't know whether certain tomato varieties are more attractive to bees than others, but I can attest to the fact that tomatillo blossoms are absolute bee magnets. Today I counted more than a dozen bees (bumblebees, honeybees, and smaller ones) on/around my four tomatillo plants at one time. My aunt, a Master Gardener, recommends planting tomatillos around pepper plants to help ensure pollination; I learned this too late to implement this year, but maybe it works for tomatoes, too??? Plus, you could enjoy some salsa verde!

I have ground cherries, which are very similar to tomatillos, all up next to my tomatoes. They seem to be a terrific trap crop for Colorado potato beetles. but, despite having flowers that look a lot like tomatillo flowers, nobody is interested in them except the ants. It's possible that the ants, which actually hang out in the blossoms drinking, may be harassing other visitors. I'm having the opposite of problems with ground cherry fruit set, though. Talk about prolific. The plants grow like weeds, too.

[gorbelly]

I've noticed that bumblebees (and most pollinators) LOVE basil flowers. So much so that I often wonder whether the old adage about tomatoes doing well when basil is planted next to them is due to how basil that is neglected and flowers brings ALL the bees to the yard.

They also love my aerial radish blooms.

I've been seeing increasing numbers of bumblebees in the garden lately. I think I'm on their radar now.

[GrowingCoastal]

Oregano is very attractive to bees as well as garlic chives and leek flowers. Hummingbirds also like the leeks.

[joseph]

There were three species of pollinators (bees?) working the Solanum peruvianum flowers today:

Here's the only one that I was able to capture clearly in a photo. I'm tentatively calling the other two a micro-bee and a bumblebee.

[gorbelly]

Looks like an Australian blue-banded bee, joseph. They're not bumblebees, but they buzz pollinate like bumblebees. My friend gets them in her rooftop garden in Brooklyn, too.

I've been seeing those green metallic sweat bees and a small black bee that I also think is a sweat bee all over my tomato flowers. I thought they weren't supposed to be attracted to tomatoes, but I see them actually biting into the anther cone and also trying to stick their heads inside the tip of the anther cone with varying levels of success, depending on the flower. I've seen the black ones grab on with their mandibles and buzz, which is also a surprise to me, as I thought they were not sonicating bees, and they seem way too small to generate enough vibration to shake pollen loose. I would assume that they're just giving it a try simply because the yellow attracts them, but I notice that they don't seem to fly off to other plants. They spend a lot of time going from tomato flower to tomato flower.

[jmsieglaff]

We've got lots of bumblebees on our tomatoes and tomatillos as well. I've also seen some sort of tiny bees working the flowers, they are dark gray or black-ish and very small. I'm sure at some point I'll come across an unexpected cross, which will be fun to see what it is.

[joseph]

In the past couple of days in about 15 minutes total time I saw the following playing around with the tomato flowers: My own best guess at names:

2 species of bumblebee. (3 of the black/white banded sonicating bee on one plant at the same time)
2 or 3 species of micro bees.
2 species of hover-flies.
thrips

I'm really enjoying watching the plants descended from mothers that had open flowers last year. Some natural hybrids are showing up. Preliminary rate estimate is about 10% crossing on descendants from plants with the most open flowers.

[gorbelly]

I've been seeing lots of bumblebees on the ground cherries and tomatoes in the past few days. The coreopsis, radish flowers, and basil bracts are still very popular, as are the sandita/mouse melon flowers (Melothria scabra).

I'm surprised the eggplant flowers don't seem particularly attractive to bumbles.

[WilburMartin]

Bumblebees have been rocking my cucumbers and eggplants - some on the tomatoes,

[gorbelly]

Ha. Figures that, as soon as I posted that, I went out and saw that the bumblebees have discovered my eggplants. Buzzing all over them now.

[gorbelly]

To answer the original question, I have noticed more bumblebees on my coyote plant than on the others.

[joseph]

Originally Posted by joseph

Two seeds germinated yesterday from [Brad X LA1777].

Those plants are still at the cotyledon stage a couple months later... Doesn't seem like a good combination.

[Nematode]

Hi Joseph,
Bumbles will casually visit most toms here, but seem to have a preference for and settle in on sungold and sunsugar.
Not sure that helps as they are not OP.

[joseph]

I love growing the descendants of hybrids!!! I'm growing a lot of Sungold F2 this growing season, and some that are about F5 or F6.

[joseph]

Last evening there was a honeybee working the wild tomato flowers.

Honeybee on Solanum habrochaites.


Honeybee on Solanum peruvianum. Photo taken about sunset, so the flowers had already closed for the night.