Pollinating Tomatoes under HPS and MH Grow Lights
by Jerry Morse
(Vicksburg, MS USA 39180)
I have a Better Boy tomato that is growing under indoor grow lights. It is blossoming now and has been for about 2 weeks. Will an oscillating fan cause it to pollinate, or do I have to pollinate manually? I have read the article about using an electric tooth brush to pollinate, but I am lazy, do not understand that technique and prefer the oscillating fan if it will do the trick.
Answer: While certain crops, like corn, are exclusively pollinated by the wind, tomatoes rely quite a bit on the action of bees for pollination. The difference between corn and tomatoes is that corn flowers open up to release their pollen, while tomatoes produce their pollen inside a protected part of the flower that does not open to release the pollen....these "pollen sacs" have only a very tiny hole from which pollen can escape.
Normally, the pollen has a very difficult time escaping. The pollen tends to cling to the inside wall of the pollen sac. Even when it is struck, as with the flick of a finger, only a little pollen comes out. However, when a bee lands on the tomato flower, the high frequency vibrations caused by the flapping of its wings prevents the pollen from clinging to the walls of the pollen sac.... the pollen begins to pour out of the pollen sac like sand through a time glass.
The reason an electric toothbrush is recommended is because it simulates the high frequency vibration, helping the tomato flower to release large quantities of pollen. A vibrator could be used also. Even this, however, is not enough to ensure lots of tomatoes (or to ensure you get large tomatoes). Once the pollen has left the tomato flower, it needs a way of getting onto the pistils of all the other tomato flowers.
The least productive way to do this would be to allow the natural air currents take the pollen where it will. You can increase the effectiveness of this method by increasing the air movement in the room while you are releasing the pollen (such as with an oscillating fan). However, if you want to guarantee large numbers of fat tomatoes on every plant, you either have to let the bees have access to your tomatoes (not an option in winter) or else you have to hand pollinate.
To pollinate by hand, you first need to collect some pollen.....the more the better (this is where the electric toothbrush comes in handy). Then, dip a very fine paint brush into the pollen and brush it over the pistils in the center of each tomato flower. I have read that each grain of pollen becomes a seed in the tomato, therefore more pollen equals fatter tomatoes. Direct contact, by bees or by paint brush, are the best ways to accomplish this.
If you do nothing and simply let nature take its course, you will still get a few tomatoes on each plant. On the other hand, considering all of the time and effort it takes to grow the tomatoes, it might be worth the extra step to ensure a bountiful harvest. For those who would like more information, visit my page on growing tomatoes.
And by the way, I would love to hear how things turn out when you're all finished!
AffordableGarden Design&Setup
Hi everyone, Jason from Jason's Indoor Guide here. When I got started with hydroponic gardening more than 24 years ago, my first garden used rockwool cubes and B.C. Nutrients....and I remember thinking to myself yeah, sure, there may be a lot of advantages to gardening with hydroponics, for example there are very few pest problems, therefore very little pest control, no weeding, no plowing or tilling the soil, no soil testing or having to add things into the garden soil, no watering the garden....but for someone who just wants to grow their own vegetables and have more control over their food supply and the quality of the food that they eat, the cost of constantly having to buy grow media and hydroponic nutrients makes this an expensive hobby for most people...
Epic Nutrient Change
I suppose when you take into consideration how much money you save NOT
having to buy food at the grocery store, it is surely cheaper to grow
your own food hydroponically even with the cost of high quality
nutrients. Nevertheless, I didn't have a whole lot of money to work with
and I needed to make my efforts as affordable and effective as
possible....and in the last 24 years I HAVE learned a thing or two!
As you browse through Jason's Indoor Guide, you will notice all of the
systems that I use personally are homemade systems. As I got 3 or 4
years of experience under my belt, I quickly adopted a preference to
standing water systems and systems that use expanded clay pellets or
lava rock, because the media is re-usable and it eliminates a huge
operating expense. So once a hydroponic system is built, garden
maintenance is minimal- check and adjust the nutrient solution daily,
and to change it completely every 2 weeks....and the biggest operating
cost is the hydroponic nutrients. (and the electric bill, lol)...
Homemade Cloner
And, regarding the cost of the nutrients....I experimented for about 3 years with making different compost teas and nutrient teas, but there is still a lot of expense $$$ associated with making high quality nutrient teas....like kelp meal, liquid seaweed, rock dust, bat guano, un-Sulfured molasses, worm castings. You can eliminate a lot of this expense by becoming an expert at making high-quality colloidal humus compost, and use your properly made compost as the basis of your hydroponic nutrient solution.
Unfortunately, I have been gardening for over 24 years and I have only
just recently mastered this difficult skill....and even then, only
because I happened to find a very easy to follow, high quality technique
and decided to follow the instructions to the letter. I produced more
high quality compost in just one week than I was able to use in a whole
year! If you can master the technique, I highly recommend it. It is one of the top 3 things you can do to
increase the productivity of your food production efforts, while at the
same time decreasing the amount of effort required to grow all of your
own food, and decreasing the total cost of operating your food
production system.
And when I say decrease operating costs, I mean decrease them to almost
ZERO, especially if you are producing your own nutrients...
High Efficiency
Hydroponics
The ultimate solution to eliminate the cost of your hydroponic nutrients: Imagine a hydroponic system that does not require you to buy any nutrients, does not require you to make your own compost, and does not require you to brew your own nutrient tea. Seriously! No cost and no effort as far as providing nutrients to your plants! Plus, at the end of the gardening cycle you harvest all of your garden vegetables, PLUS YOU HARVEST FISH from the system--->
Aquaponics
This solution is aquaponics. If you are serious about producing all of your own food and being self-sufficient, this is the ultimate solution for reducing expenses (as much as possible), reducing the total amount of work required, and maximizing the productivity of your gardening efforts. I have been gardening for over 24 years, and it is the perfect food production solution in my opinion.
Besides mastering how to make high quality compost, learning aquaponics is one of the top 3 things you can do to increase your garden productivity, reduce your total costs, and reduce your total work. The product that I learned from is called Aquaponics4you. With all of my hydroponic gardening experience, the first time I came across the Aquaponics4you product I knew immediately that it was something very special! Place an aquaponics system outdoors and use the sun instead of grow lights, and you have reduced every garden expense to nearly ZERO!
The Same System/ 10 Weeks Later!
