I saw a thing online that I thought looked interesting. Basically you encourage pollination with an electric toothbrush.
The story goes that the pollen produced in tomato flowers is unsavory to bees and other pollinating insects. But since each flower contains both male and female parts you can just shake the plant a bit to pollinate. An electric toothbrush provides just enough vibration to pollinate the flowers without damaging them.
I gave this trick a try and I have been doing it every few days for over a week now. Basically I just touch most flower cluster with the brush for literally a second. You can sometimes see the pollen shake out and that seem like a good thing. It might be my imagination or just a coincidence of timing but there is also a rapid increase in tomatoes on the plants.
This is such a fascinating idea! I never thought an electric toothbrush could be used for something like this. It’s amazing how simple yet effective this method seems to be. I’m curious, though, have you noticed any difference in the quality or size of the tomatoes since you started doing this? Also, do you think this could work for other types of plants, or is it specific to tomatoes? I’d love to try this in my own garden, but I’m wondering if there’s a risk of over-pollinating or harming the flowers. What’s your take on that?