you play bee.
I use a cheap electric toothbrush and vibrate the back of the flower stem for about two seconds.
I even do it on the outside plants.

Ok thanks, that doesn't sound too bad. Also how many times a day do I want the nutrient/water to cycle up into the plant roots?

That's a very subjective question based on medium used, plant size, ambient temperature, humidity, life cycle stage, and I'm sure a few other things. I can't really say. I'd start with something around 1.1/2 hrs then check the medium and increase and decrease as needed.
If you have a well draining medium, it's very hard to over water them so you could play it say and do 15 minutes on and 60 min off.
Could you post a picture of your system? hydrofarm makes a lot of hydroponic systems so a picture would be helpful. also, what is your medium?

luvahydrangea
It has been a while since I read this article in full: Berry Bonanza: Growing Indoor Strawberries

But in the section titled Care and maintenance it it reads:

"Once flowers have formed, they will need pollination assistance. Outdoors bees and insects are responsible for strawberry pollination and although the flowers are self fertile, they benefit from some assistance when grown in greenhouses or indoors. Commercial hydroponic growers use large âÂÂair blowersâ which direct a moderate blast of air over the flowers each day -" this is sufficient to release the pollen and allow it drop from stamen onto the receptacle of each flower. Indoor growers can carry out the same process with a hair dryer (on cold setting) or by tapping the flowers."

I also have another article written by the same author saved to my computer. I copy and paste the articles (including date, anther, and link to the online article for reference) into a text file so I can save them, and/or print them out. But for some reason the link isn't opening for me at this time. I don't know if the article is no longer available online, or if it's just a temporary website glitch. But if your interested in that article too, here is the link.

HOW TO GROW STRAWBERRIES (Guide for growing hydroponic strawberries)
http://www.growingedge-dot-com/community/archive/read.php3?c=GR&q=913

Just replace the (-dot-com) with a real (.com)
for some reason this forum has blocked links to the growing edge magazine.

In case you were interested, she also has a book out called "Hydroponic Strawberry Production" (by Dr Lynette Morgan). I don't have it yet, but it's been on my list of books to get for about two years now. Last I checked it runs about $60, I just don't have the money to spare yet, or I would have gotten it a long time ago. I haven't been able to find it in any library either. But the free online articles are still a wealth of good information for me.

Oops,
for some reason I thought you were planing to grow strawberry's. I think it's because I mis-read the system you were using for the hydro-stacker, which is most commonly used for growing strawberry's.

Anyhow The two most common ways to pollinate tomatoes is by shaking the plant/flowers (like grizz mentioned), and/or through air currents by using oscillating fans. Here's a link that explains in more detail: Tomato Pollination

Thanks for that info, homehydro, its very helpful.

This is the system I'm using, grizzman:

It has a submersible pump so I guess its an ebb and flow system. :)

It seems I stumbled across a pot growers forum while searching out how many times I should cycle the nutrients and the pot growers all do 3 to 4 times a day for about 30 minutes; so thats what I'm doing. But I"m not growing pot, I'm growing peppers and tomatoes. Do you think that's good?

You have a capillary system and you don't have to run a liquid pump to get nutrients to the plant, the wick does it.

You are not growing pot.....chiles have very different requirements than pot, for instance.

That looks like a Hydrofarm Megafarm ebb and flo system with Hydroton grow rock. What kind of tomatos and peppers do you have in there? Unless they're a super tiny variety (like Red Robin cherry tomatoes) you will not have enough room for all those plants

Maryann, I actually only have one tomato plant in there, but you are right, there probably isn't enough room in there for even one, lol. I've dedicated the rest of the hydrofarm to lettuce, as that seems to be best suited given the room I have. Here's an updated picture. I can't wait to eat my lettuces!