Thanks to their hermaphrodite flowers, outdoor tomato plants fertilize completely independently. However, where there is no wind and busy insects, a little tutoring is required. This is how you promote lush fruit set in the greenhouse and on the windowsill.
No tomatoes without pollination
No matter how lovingly the hobby gardener cares for his tomato plants, he will not harvest any fruit without successful fertilization. Only when pollination takes place within the flowers does the desired fruit set develop. The natural process works as simply as this:
Tomato plants are hermaphroditic. A flower contains both the female pistil and the male pollen. In the open air, the wind or insects ensure that the pollen gets onto the pistil. Botanists call this process 'pollination'. The pollen now fertilizes the female egg cell and thus initiates the growth of the fruit set, from which a magnificent tomato develops.
The tomato plant throws off all unpollinated blossoms because it doesn't want to invest any more energy in them. A lush flowering alone does not guarantee a rich harvest.
This is how you help the fruit set on the jumps
As a self-pollinating tomato plant, a light breeze is enough for the pollen to be distributed on the flowers and fertilization to be successful. Hard-working bumblebees and bees also reliably carry out pollination in the open air. Since both factors are missing in the greenhouse and on the windowsill, the hobby gardener acts as a substitute pollinator. This is how the plan works:
- promote air circulation through regular airing
- from the beginning of flowering, shake the tomato plants daily around noon
- vibrate the tomato blossoms with an electric toothbrush to make the pollen fall out
- stroke a soft brush over the flowers
- carry out manual insemination for several days in a row
Efforts to manually pollinate tomato plants, on the other hand, only have a chance of success if the temperatures oscillate below 30 degrees Celsius. In addition, humidity plays an important role. If the value is over 80 percent, the pollen will clump together. Pollination is therefore impossible. A thermometer and a hydrometer are therefore part of the standard equipment for the tomato gardener.
tips and tricks
If the desired number of fruit buds are on a tomato plant, all the remaining flowers are broken out. In this way, the plant saves energy at an early stage, which it can only invest in plump, voluminous fruit.