>In my quest for farmers to rent my hives to I found a gentleman that raises
>papayas , pomegranites and other tropical fruit in greenhouses. In the
>summer months he opens the greenhouses up for ventilation.
>
>          Does any one have info on pollinating tropical plants ?
>
>         I realize a hive would not survive in a green house in the winter.
>What if there was a "back door" in the hive where the bees could go either
>into the greenhouse or forage out doors?
 
To be quite frank, you should bear in mind that many plants have evolved
with pollinators *other* than honeybees. Folks seem to start from the
assumption that all pollinators are created equal, and any plant can be
pollinated if you just use enough honeybees. Papaya, for instance, is a
plant apparently "designed" for pollination by hummingbirds and/or hawk
moths. Some researchers claim it is *wind-pollinated*, too. Pollination by
bees is known, but is probably not the normal mode of pollination, at any
rate. In other words, in this case, honey bees may help, and give
noticeable fruit set, but they may not be ideal. Likewise, pomegranates are
apparently beetle-pollinated in nature, and there is no *direct* evidence
that honeybees have any effect on fruit set (but people still use them,
because no one has ever proven them to be INeffective, either).
        What you should do is get a copy of the 1976 "Insect Pollination of
Cultivated Crop Plants", USDA Agriculture Handbook No. 496, by S.E.
McGregor, which is where I got the information above. It is an invaluable
resource, and frequently demonstrates how little anyone actually KNOWS
about crop pollination.
Cheers,
 
Doug Yanega      Illinois Natural History Survey, 607 E. Peabody Dr.
Champaign, IL 61820 USA     phone (217) 244-6817, fax (217) 333-4949
  "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
        is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82