Potato flowers

[bramblebee]

Are Potato flowers of any use have hundreds of acres of them round here
Or there are beans about to come into flower as well

 

[aberreef]

Beans are good. I don't think they use potato though

 

[Winker]

Add to the lavender field just across from my house... Ohhh Just comming into floower

 

[Steve Dyer]

Are Potato flowers of any use have hundreds of acres of them round here

According to the Journal of the Kansas Entemological society 66(2). 1993 pp.252-254 b (qv) potato flowers are pollinated almost exclusively by a few species of Bumbles and Honey bees did not go for the flowers in tests.

 

[huntsman666]

I have both potatoes and broad beans in flower at the moment.

Honeybees are working the beans but not the potatoes

 

[thedeaddiplomat]

A local farmer warned me a couple of weeks ago that he was about to spray his potatoes (they are for seed). Too far away from my hives for the latter to get caught in any drift. Checked then on internet and with my spray liaison officer. Both indicated that honey bees do not work potato flowers.

 

[Midland Beek]

Never seen any type of bee on a potato flower. Are the plants sterile and do not require pollination?

 

[huntsman666]

<Are the plants sterile and do not require pollination?>

Only for breeding new varieties.

Normally small potatoes about the size of a hen's egg (called 'seed potatoes') are kept over to plant the following year.

 

[bramblebee]

I thought as much
I have not seen them on potatoes and thought it was only 1 or 2 varieties of bumble bees that worked them
will find some beans and move my hives to them

 

[gavin]

Potato flowers need to be buzzed to get the pollen out, and that works only with a few varieties (many are sterile). Like tomatoes. The anthers have tiny pores and the pollen comes out only when the flower is vibrated. No nectar, and honeybees can't do the vibration trick whereas bumble bees can (and do).

Beans? Great sources of pollen and nectar. The flowers are a bit tough for honeybees but they can open them. They find them easier after a bumble bee has already visited. Also, some bumble bees bite holes in the back of the flower and honeybees can rob nectar through the holes. Beans also have nectaries on the stipules, leafy scales on the stem. Bees will take nectar from them too.

Gavin