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pastor_steve

pollinating heirlooms...

pastor_steve
14 years ago

I just read in a post that hybrids are better at "self-pollinating" than heirlooms...

Since the bees are few so far this year and the plants are covered in blooms...

How does one help nature along? Is that a good idea, assuming you can?

Comments (3)

  • jwstell42
    14 years ago

    Tomatoes are all self pollinating. They don't even need bees if the conditions are right.

    Heirlooms are possibly more stubborn sometimes, and there are a lot of people who do various things (use an electric toothbrush on the flowers, shake the tomatoes once a day etc etc), but I haven't found it necessary once temps are right (70-90 ish during the day, 50-70 ish at night).

  • carolyn137
    14 years ago

    I agree completely with jw.

    A tomato blossom is a tomato blossom and the blossoms of hybrids and OP's have the same male and female sexual structures.

    And it's also true that bees are not necessary since blossoms self pollenize about 95% of the time when temps and humidity are favorable. Those of us who save seeds from OP varieties actually don't want to see sweat bees around b'c they can cause cross pollination of varieties unless the blossoms are bagged or isolation distances are used.

    You might want to click on the FAQ link at the top of this page and scroll down to the article on How to Prevent Cross POllination which gives more information about the basic anatomy of a tomato blossom.

    Having grown tomatoes for many decades and having grown over two thousand varieties, both hybrids and OP's, I've never felt it necessaarty to do anything to the plants to facilitate fruit set.

    Why don't you wait a bit to see what happens with fruit set with your plants before doing anything.

    many folks in many areas are experiencing lots of rain and cool temps right now and tomatoes aren't happy about that, but eventually the rains will stop, the sun will come out, it will get warmer and all will be well.

    Carolyn

  • windclimber
    14 years ago

    Like a breath of fresh air........all will be well......

    High humidity here after rain events every week for the last month.
    There was a period of perfect weather 80+ with middle 50's at night. had some fruit set during that period then higher humidities w/ blossom drop.

    I remember Carolyn speaking to the effect of humidity, clumping the pollen inside the anther cones, so that it is not in a state to float into the stamen and down to the ovem.
    I believe I have that right.............:)
    Look for high humidity to be your main concern for blossom drop?