Abstract
Bumble bees (Bombus) are the primary pollinators of tomatoes grown in greenhouses and can significantly increase fruit weight compared with tomatoes that receive no supplemental pollination. More than a million colonies are sold worldwide annually to meet pollination needs. Due to mounting concerns over the transportation of bumble bees outside of their native ranges, several species native to western North American are currently being investigated as potential commercial pollinators. Here, two western, Bombus huntii Greene and Bombus vosnesenskii Radoszkowski, and one eastern species, Bombus impatiens Cresson, are compared for their efficacy as pollinators of greenhouse-grown tomatoes. In two experiments, colonies were placed in greenhouses and compared with control plants that received no supplemental pollination. In the first experiment, seed set was significantly increased with B. huntii pollination in one variety of cherry tomatoes. In the second experiment comparing all three bumble bee species, fruit weight was an average of 25.2 g heavier per fruit pollinated by bees versus the control, and the number of days to harvest was 2.9 d shorter for bee-pollinated fruit. In some rounds of pollination, differences were found among bumble bee species, but these were inconsistent across replicates and not statistically significant overall. Additionally, fruit weight was shown to be highly correlated to fruit diameter and seed set in all tests and, thus, is shown to be a reliable metric for assessing pollination in future studies. These results suggest that commercialization of western bumble bees is a viable alternative to the current practices of moving of nonnative bees into western North America to pollinate tomatoes.
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Claims 8
Claim · model-written summary
B. huntii pollination significantly increased seed set in one cherry tomato variety.
- Taxon
- tomatoes
Solanum lycopersicume0 - Material
- one variety of cherry tomatoese0
- Treatment
- B. huntii pollinatione0
- Interactor
- B. huntii
.jpg?width=60)
Bombus huntiie0pollinator - Outcome
- seed sete0
- Direction
- increasede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
.jpg?width=500)
Verbatim
e0“seed set was significantly increased with B. huntii pollination in one variety of cherry tomatoes”
Claim · model-written summary
Bee-pollinated tomato fruit weighed 25.2 g more than controls.
- Taxon
- TomatoesSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Treatment
- pollinated by beese0
- Interactor
- beesAnthophilae0pollinator
- Outcome
- fruit weighte0
- Direction
- heaviere0
- Value
- 25.2 ge0
- Comparator
- the controle0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“fruit weight was an average of 25.2 g heavier per fruit pollinated by bees versus the control”
t0“Tomatoes”
Claim · model-written summary
Bee-pollinated tomato fruit reached harvest 2.9 d sooner than controls.
- Taxon
- TomatoesSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Treatment
- bee-pollinated fruite0
- Interactor
- bee
_Apis_mellifera_(female)_-_on_viburnum_tinus_flowers.jpg?width=60)
Apis melliferae0pollinator - Outcome
- number of days to harveste0
- Direction
- shortere0
- Value
- 2.9 de0
- Comparator
- the controle1
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
_Apis_mellifera_(female)_-_on_viburnum_tinus_flowers.jpg?width=500)
Verbatim
e0“the number of days to harvest was 2.9 d shorter for bee-pollinated fruit”
e1“versus the control”
t0“Tomatoes”
Claim · model-written summary
Differences among bumble bee species were inconsistent and not statistically significant overall.
- Taxon
- TomatoesSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Interactor
- bumble bee speciese0pollinator
- Outcome
- differences were found among bumble bee speciese0
- Qualifier
- inconsistent across replicatese0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“differences were found among bumble bee species, but these were inconsistent across replicates and not statistically significant overall”
t0“Tomatoes”
Claim · model-written summary
Tomato fruit weight was highly correlated with fruit diameter.
- Taxon
- TomatoesSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Outcome
- fruit weighte0
- Qualifier
- in all testse0
- Comparator
- fruit diametere0
Not reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“fruit weight was shown to be highly correlated to fruit diameter and seed set in all tests”
t0“Tomatoes”
Claim · model-written summary
Tomato fruit weight was highly correlated with seed set.
- Taxon
- TomatoesSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Outcome
- fruit weighte0
- Qualifier
- in all testse0
- Comparator
- seed sete0
Not reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“fruit weight was shown to be highly correlated to fruit diameter and seed set in all tests”
t0“Tomatoes”
Claim · model-written summary
Fruit weight is a reliable metric for assessing tomato pollination.
- Taxon
- TomatoesSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Outcome
- reliable metric for assessing pollinatione0
- Comparator
- fruit diameter and seed sete0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“fruit weight was shown to be highly correlated to fruit diameter and seed set in all tests and, thus, is shown to be a reliable metric for assessing pollination in future studies”
t0“Tomatoes”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors suggest commercializing western bumble bees to pollinate tomatoes.
- Taxon
- tomatoesSolanum lycopersicume0
- Interactor
- western bumble beese0pollinator
- Outcome
- commercialization of western bumble beese0
- Comparator
- current practices of moving of nonnative beese0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“commercialization of western bumble bees is a viable alternative to the current practices of moving of nonnative bees into western North America to pollinate tomatoes”
The same questions in other papers
pollination · yield · Solanum lycopersicum (tomato)Positive and negative results
26 papers in the same direction as this paper · 3 in the opposite direction
- negative
- no effect
- no effect
26 papers more in this group
See all 30 papers →pollination · Anthophila · Solanum lycopersicum (tomato)Results agree
2 papers in the same direction as this paper
- positive
- positive
Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.