Pollinating tomatoes......

I've heard before that shaking them is all that's needed.

All I do Craftnutter is tap ,tap,tap on the cane that's staking the plant up and hey presto! Tomatoes, tap tap tap every day the flowers are out. You can also spray water mist on the flowers with an atomiser that works to .

Thanks Llew and Mac! That is also a really useful tip!

It just seems too easy, but I guess they must just all be self pollinating then and not necessarily needing bees to do the job!

I was just a bit loath to put the toms out each day, as the plants may get damaged.

if you want to make it 'harder' take a paint brush around all the flowers dusting pollen from one to another. but no point just tap the canes/flower :o) easy peasy.

and if you want to make it even harder you could capture a bee and put a lead on him and walk him round each of your plants, make sure he visits every flower and dont let him go till his ankle socks are full of pollen.

hey macc its the girls that do all the work in the bee world [my world too :o)]
the males are just there to drone on [pun intended] about how good they are in the mating game .... :o))

So what does Mr Bee actually do? Surely not Seaburn I have heard the saying "busy bee" so it must be a man thing? :-} ...... . . . . what do you think?

Hehe! Very funny you two!

My hubby always says it takes a man to finish a woman's work!

trust a man to turn up when the jobs nearly done eh Craftnutter!!
Id like to see a chap take over near the end of giving birth
x x x

Hehe! You're right there Mookins! I'm used to my hubby saying outrageous things tho', he only does it for a 'larf!!

Well if you want other info about tomatoes (They are wind pollenated in the wild) then try this. The seeds are designed to germinate after passing through the gut of a primate. That is why you get lots of seedlings if you buy and use sterilised sewerage sludge as garden fertiliser.

Oooh, thanks for that Owdboggy! That is fascinating!