It seems everyone's growing tomatoes this year, and it's no mystery why. They're easy to grow, can be grown in small spaces and deliver high yields, but they do sometimes need a little help to produce more fruit.
From knowing how to prune tomato plants to ensuring you're watering your garden properly, there is basic knowledge that is key to getting fruit from your plant. Luckily, tomatoes are particularly easy to keep happy and healthy, but they sometimes need a little encouragement to produce fruit out of their yellow flowers.
So if you are looking to get more fruit out of your tomato plants this summer, here's a rather unusual pollinating trick that's been making waves online - with gardeners using electric toothbrushes to get results.
A post shared by Wendy (@thekwendyhome)
A photo posted by on
Whether you're learning vegetable gardening for beginners this year or are always on the hunt for ways to get more out of your plants, this hack is certainly one to add to your list.
Sharing the hack on her Instagram (@thekwendyhome), Wendy explains, "Apparently, this is a gardening hack. Use an electric toothbrush to pollinate tomato plants to yield 2-3x more tomatoes. Just gently place your electric toothbrush head (in my case, this is my cleaning tool) on the flowers to help release pollen so they grow into tomatoes."
Even when you add lots of plants for pollinators into your garden, it doesn't always mean every flower on your tomato plant will be visited by a bee, butterfly or other insect.
However, by manually pollinating each flower or groupings of flower heads, fruit is more likely to be produced instead of the blossoms simply drying up and falling off.
Now, while Wendy has used her electric cleaning brush and others opt for an electric toothbrush, the concept of hand pollination is not new.
In fact, you can actually purchase special hand-pollinating products to add to your essential gardening tools. They're inexpensive and great for when you don't have an electric toothbrush lying around.
You can, however, use your hands for the same effect, but it won't necessarily thoroughly pollinate each flower.
A post shared by Catherine Gardens (@catherine.gardens)
A photo posted by on
As you can see with Catherine's post (@catherine.gardens on Instagram), you can also use your hand to tap tomato blossoms.
"Tap your tomato blossoms! Tomatoes are self-pollinators, and tapping them helps distribute the pollen and increase tomato production. Some folks even use an electric toothbrush on the blossoms," she says.
So if you're saving money in the garden this season, a simple manual tap will do the trick too.
Another way to ensure your tomatoes provide an impressive harvest is to make sure you know how often to water them. The better they're watered, the bigger the fruit will grow.
