Pollinating tomatoes

[svalli]

I have noticed that the bumblebees are not getting into the greenhouse to pollinate, so I have been doing the work my self daily. First I used an old battery operated toothbrush, but then I found an electric flosser, which has not been used lately and took it to the greenhouse. It works really well for this purpose and I see clouds of pollen come from the flowers when I buzz around with it.




Sari

[Nan6b]

Great idea!

[Growing Coastal]

Nice pollen cloud! Yes, Sari. Seems to be that tooth brushes used to vibrate more in past years. I now use a small too soft, massager with a pipe cleaner attached.

[pepperhead212]

I use a Vegibee (got a deal on a battery operated one years ago, when I think they were switching to rechargable) early every season outside, to buzz the earliest blossoms, when I'm not seeing any bees. I also do this with my eggplant blossoms. Eventually, there are so many blossoms, there is no way to keep up with them, plus the bees are showing up, outside.

[Gardadore]

It was always my understanding that tomatoes do not need bees to pollinate as they are self pollinating within the flower. Vibration with an electric toothbrush is useful to allow the pollen to drop down in the bud or flower to pollinate. Instead I go out every day and tap the flower stems gently to jar them a little. Since I want to save seeds I prefer not to have bees pollinating and possibly causing cross pollination. Since I have individual varieties planted next to each other bees can really be a problem rather than a help if they go from plant to plant. Ever since I added Dolomitic Lime to the planting holes I find I get more flowers. Having a good year with pollination so far but the oncoming high humidity for the next few day could change that temporarily.