Grow Better Fruit With Natupol®: The Most Reliable Pollination System for Greenhouses
Nov 07, 2025
Achieving reliable pollination is one of the most important steps in producing high-quality fruit. When flowers do not receive enough viable pollen at the right moment, fruit forms unevenly, becomes misshapen, or fails to set altogether. This leads to inconsistent harvests, reduced yield, and productivity losses that can affect your entire season. Greenhouse environments introduce additional challenges, because temperature, humidity, airflow, and light vary throughout the day in ways that directly influence flower receptivity and pollen behavior.
For greenhouse growers looking for a dependable solution, Natupol® bumblebee hives provide the most consistent, efficient, and automatic pollination available. Natupol hives support fruit set from the moment they are activated, and maintain this performance without the labor, uncertainty, or timing issues associated with manual pollination. If your goal is stronger fruit quality, improved uniformity, and a more predictable harvest, Natupol offers one of the most effective ways to achieve those results.
Why Bumblebees Offer Superior Pollination in Greenhouses
Bumblebees play a unique role in greenhouse pollination because they perform “buzz pollination,” a vibration-based behavior that releases a significantly higher amount of pollen compared to tapping, vibration tools, or indirect airflow. They work methodically from flower to flower, visit blossoms deep within the canopy, and operate during cooler hours when flowers are often the most receptive. Their reliability does not depend on the grower being in the right place at the right time; once the hive is active, the colony maintains a consistent pollination rhythm throughout the day.
Download the Pollination Checklist Poster here.
Why Natupol® Is the Preferred Pollination System for Controlled Environments
Natupol hives are engineered specifically for greenhouse crops. They perform exceptionally well in environments where natural sunlight is mixed with grow lights or replaced entirely with artificial lighting, and where temperature and humidity shift throughout the day. Because Natupol hives are calibrated for controlled environments, they deliver stable pollination even during periods of warm weather, strong supplemental lighting, or low natural light.
Lighting can strongly influence bee orientation, foraging patterns, and return behavior. Our downloadable Lighting Manual explains how bees respond to different spectra, photoperiods, and intensities, and how Natupol hives are optimized to maintain reliable activity under these conditions.
Download the Growing Light Manual Here
*Please note that this guide contains information on the wireless bee home door. This equipment is not automatically included in hive orders. If you are looking to pollinate a large space or set of greenhouses and would like the ease of automation please reach out to Anne Coleman at at +1 (734)231-4330.
Choosing Between Natupol Excel and Natupol Excel Startup
Natupol is available in two versions, and selecting the right hive makes a meaningful difference in performance. Natupol Excel is designed for crops that produce a large number of flowers per square meter each week, typically between thirty-five and sixty blossoms. This category includes cherry tomatoes, snack tomatoes, strawberries, peppers, berries, eggplants, and many specialty greenhouse crops. Excel is the right choice for most growers because it delivers strong, balanced pollination across a wide range of greenhouse conditions, including houses that operate with artificial lighting or elevated temperatures.
Natupol Excel Startup is formulated specifically for tomatoes. Tomato plants require aggressive early pollination, especially in high-wire systems where the first flower clusters influence the entire season’s structure, size, and production cycle. Excel Startup stabilizes pollination early in the crop and maintains it through the transition to stronger flowering, making it the ideal choice for round and plum tomato growers who need dependable early fruit set.
How Natupol Colonies Develop and Why This Matters for Fruit Set
After a hive is introduced into the greenhouse, the worker bees begin pollinating immediately while collecting pollen to feed the brood. In the weeks following introduction, new workers emerge from the brood, which increases both colony size and the intensity of pollination activity. As the colony reaches its peak, the hive delivers its strongest performance, ensuring that fruit set remains uniform across the entire plant. Eventually, the hive begins to decline naturally. This decline is expected, because bumblebee colonies are seasonal organisms, but the timing of their lifecycle aligns with greenhouse flowering patterns in a way that provides optimal pollination coverage during the most important weeks of production.
Environmental conditions influence colony development and performance. Warmer temperatures, particularly during heat waves, can affect flower receptivity and pollen behavior. Your resource on plant–pollinator interactions in high temperatures provides in-depth guidance for managing pollination during warm periods so your plants continue setting fruit even under challenging conditions.
Download our guide on Plant Pollinator Interactions in High Temperatures here.
When Growers Should Use Quad Hives Instead
Natupol Excel and Natupol Excel Startup are designed for greenhouses and indoor farms where climate, lighting, and flower density are controlled. Outdoor growers require a different system because open-field pollination involves wider foraging ranges, variable temperatures, and larger flowering blocks. For that reason, outdoor operations use Quad Hives, a four-colony system specifically created for field-scale applications. Quads are not listed on your website because outdoor pollination requires personalized planning. Any grower seeking outdoor solutions or acreage-level recommendations should contact Bee & Pollen Specialist, Anne Coleman at at +1 (734)231-4330, for tailored assistance.
Why Growers See Better Yields and More Uniform Fruit With Natupol
Strong pollination leads to stronger yields. Once bees begin to work, the entire crop benefits from consistent fruit set, more uniform development, and reduced flower drop. Many growers notice improvements in fruit shape, size, and overall harvest speed after switching to Natupol hives. Because Natupol provides a natural, self-directing pollination rhythm, it reduces the labor and timing challenges associated with manual techniques, allowing the greenhouse team to focus on other aspects of crop health and production.
Where to Buy Natupol Hives
Natupol Excel and Natupol Excel Startup can be ordered directly from our website. These hives are the same high-performance systems used by commercial operations worldwide and are ready to begin working as soon as they are placed in the greenhouse.
You can order them here:
Natupol Excel Bumblebee Hive for Pollination
Natupol Excel "Startup" - Bumblebee Hive for Pollination
