Does honey attract pollinators ?

[brooklyn boy]

Does smearing honey or sugar water in close proximity to your vegetable plant attract honey bees i might sound stupid but i remember back in the day when i was in camp that we once tired to attract the bears to come visit us so we smeared a tree with honey and the next day we had a heck of allot of honey bees on the tree (the bears never came...)

[!potatoes!]

likely to attract more yellowjackets and other hornets, which will pollinate only minimally...

[brooklyn boy]

likely to attract more yellowjackets and other hornets, which will pollinate only minimally...

Do have a better solution? (hand pollination never really worked by me)

[rainbowgardener]

It's not going to solve your problem today, but what you need is to have a lot of flowers in your garden that attract them. Things like:

basil, lavender, agastache (anise hyssop), globe thistle, marjoram and/or oregano, rosemary, sage, zinnia, ironweed, joe pye weed, goldenrod, black eyed susan, penstemon, coneflower.

[brooklyn boy]

It's not going to solve your problem today, but what you need is to have a lot of flowers in your garden that attract them. Things like:

basil, lavender, agastache (anise hyssop), globe thistle, marjoram and/or oregano, rosemary, sage, zinnia, ironweed, joe pye weed, goldenrod, black eyed susan, penstemon, coneflower.

basically I'm screwed because i need my vegetable flowers to be pollinated from "now" till the end of the season which is frantically only a short time left... so obviously i can't plant basil plant etc. this season ,the only thing I'm thinking of is buying impatiens from the nursery by this time in the season they all have flowers on them will they also attract pollinates like the plants you mentioned

[mmmfloorpie]

From my experience they love sunflowers.

Most plants can pollinate themselves so don't stress too much.

[garden5]

From my experience they love sunflowers.

Most plants can pollinate themselves so don't stress too much.

Yeah, my sunflowers almost always have at least 1 or 2 honey bees or bumble bees on them at any given time (especially mornings).

[TheWaterbug]

when i was in camp that we once tired to attract the bears to come visit us so we smeared a tree with honey and the next day we had a heck of allot of honey bees on the tree (the bears never came...)

I assume that by now you realize how lucky you were that your experiment failed!

[applestar]

What are the vegetable you are trying to get the bees to pollinate?

Also, honeybees are not the only kind of pollinators. It may surprise you to know many weed flowers, including grass, will also attract pollinators. Do you have weeds going to flower?

[brooklyn boy]

What are the vegetable you are trying to get the bees to pollinate?

Also, honeybees are not the only kind of pollinators. It may surprise you to know many weed flowers, including grass, will also attract pollinators. Do you have weeds going to flower?

I have cucumbers , sugar baby watermelons i did manage to get 2 cucumbers ,i guess I'll try the pebble/water thing the other guy mentioned here... by the way i saw today a small bee/fly the size of a big ant on a flower does it mean that it pollinated it or it must be specific type of bees?

[TheWaterbug]

likely to attract more yellowjackets and other hornets, which will pollinate only minimally...

Minimallys need to be pollinated, too

[brooklyn boy]

when i was in camp that we once tired to attract the bears to come visit us so we smeared a tree with honey and the next day we had a heck of allot of honey bees on the tree (the bears never came...)

I assume that by now you realize how lucky you were that your experiment failed!

yah that camp was in north east PA we used to have black bears a few times during the summer when they wake up from hibernation

[Moley]

Bees Love Borage!!, they absolutely go nuts for it, first time with it this year, going to let it go and let it reseed itself.

The weather in the city, sans the last week, has been awful for pollination, the severe heat was killing the flowers on my tomato and squash plants, however we have close to 75 days of growing ahead of us, fear not camper.

You can self pollinate cucurbit plants (squash, melons) fairly easily, do a forum search for a wealth of info.

I see tons of bumble bees on my tomato plants every morning, but early in the season i just gave them good shaking, and had a lot of fruit set before the heatwave.

[rainbowgardener]

Moley's right. Cucurbits (which also includes cucumbers as well as your watermelon) have separate male and female flowers, which are identifiable as such. If you are not getting fruit set you can hand pollinate the one with the other.

And no it doesn't need to be a specific kind of bee, although larger ones are probably more efficient at it. But it does need to be more than one!

[applestar]

Here's a previous post from TZ that might be helpful:
http://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/v ... 473#128473
...another one:
http://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/v ... 1481#71481
(I'm actually looking for the post with sweat bee pictures which I think might be your large ant looking wasp.... )