Abstract
Stingless bees are considered particularly promising for use as commercial pollinators, but studies testing the effectiveness of these bees in pollinating grape tomatoes in greenhouses have not yet been made. This study aimed to analyse the floral biology of the grape tomato and evaluate whether additional pollination performed by Melipona quadrifasciata Lepeletier, 1836 generates an effective increase in production and improves the quality of this variety of tomato when grown in greenhouses. The research was conducted in two greenhouses located in Araguari, Minas Gerais state, Brazil. In one, we only used a mechanical method of pollination and, in the other, pollination by the mechanical method was associated with pollination performed by the bees. The productivity of the greenhouses was compared by recording the number of flowers and fruits formed on different branches, and the quality of the tomatoes was assessed by analysing their size, weight, number of seeds and total sugar content. Tomatoes originating from flowers visited by M. quadrifasciata workers produced about 47% more seeds and their concentration of sugar was approximately 14% higher. These results suggest that using M. quadrifasciata for tomato pollination shows promise, since positive effects were generated on fruit quality.
Abstract from the paper’s OpenAlex record; open copy licensed cc-by. Read at the source ↗
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Claims 3
Claim · model-written summary
Bee-visited tomato flowers produced about 47% more seeds.
- Taxon
- Solanum lycopersicum L.
Solanum lycopersicumt0 - Treatment
- visited by M. quadrifasciata workerse0
- Interactor
- M. quadrifasciata
Melipona quadrifasciatae0pollinator - Outcome
- seedse0
- Direction
- moree0
- Value
- about 47%e0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Tomatoes originating from flowers visited by M. quadrifasciata workers produced about 47% more seeds”
t0“Solanum lycopersicum L.”
Claim · model-written summary
Bee-visited tomato flowers yielded fruit with approximately 14% higher sugar concentration.
- Taxon
- Solanum lycopersicum L.Solanum lycopersicumt0
- Treatment
- visited by M. quadrifasciata workerse0
- Interactor
- M. quadrifasciataMelipona quadrifasciatae0pollinator
- Outcome
- concentration of sugare0
- Direction
- highere0
- Value
- approximately 14%e0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Tomatoes originating from flowers visited by M. quadrifasciata workers produced about 47% more seeds and their concentration of sugar was approximately 14% higher”
t0“Solanum lycopersicum L.”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors suggest using M. quadrifasciata for tomato pollination to improve fruit quality.
- Taxon
- tomatoSolanum lycopersicume0
- Interactor
- M. quadrifasciataMelipona quadrifasciatae0pollinator
- Outcome
- using M. quadrifasciata for tomato pollinatione0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“using M. quadrifasciata for tomato pollination shows promise, since positive effects were generated on fruit quality”