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How To 3x Your Tomato Yield

BY:

Rachel


Maximize your garden-fresh tomato yield with this simple pollination trick! How I tripled my tomato production using this easy gardening hack.

GARDENING HACK TO INCREASE TOMATO YIELD

One of my favorite things to grow in my garden each year are tomatoes. My entire family loves snacking on those red, orange and sometimes yellow fruits (that are also considered a vegetable).

A few years ago, I planted my garden during the peak planting season. My tomato plants began to thrive. I had about 10 plants and hundreds of tomato blossoms.

Expecting to find loads of tomatoes growing on the vine over the next few weeks, I was shocked to find very few. What’s up with my tomatoes when there were hundreds of blossoms a few weeks ago.

I began researching and concluded I didn’t have enough pollinators (bees being the main one) to pollinate all those glorious blossoms. With the lack of pollination, the blossoms were dropped with no fruit in the works.

WHAT I DID TO INCREASE MY TOMATO YIELD:

I began asking green thumbs I knew what the secret was to get all those tomato blossoms pollinated to yield a fantastic tomato crop. The answers surprised me… A LOT!

A vibrating toothbrush was my answer! Say what?!?! That’s right, a toothbrush that vibrates. Crazy, right?

Note that I said VIBRATING. This is key. When a bee is buzzing around doing his business, he vibrates the tomato blossom which releases the pollen.

Tomato plants are usually pollinated by wind, insects, and bees but when those things are lacking you can hand pollinate using a vibrating toothbrush.

Crazy! Who would have thought!

I tried it… and guess what?! It worked! I could see the pollen as the brush vibrated. I could see it work.

The real “awe ha” moment came when I had a flood of tomato fruit (like 5x as much as I had a month earlier). After that, I was sold. It worked. I have used a vibrating toothbrush on my tomato plants every year since.

As you can see, my electric vibrating toothbrush for the garden is well used!

How to Pollinate tomatoes

HOW MANY TIMES SHOULD I HAND POLLINATE MY TOMATOES?

I pollinate my tomatoes using a vibrating toothbrush a couple of times a week as I see new blossoms. This has served me and my plants well. I typically water the garden a couple of times a week also, so I find it convenient to pollinate at the same time.

Avoid hand-pollinating every day as you don’t want to over pollinate and loosen all the pollen from the blossoms. If you do choose to pollinate frequently, avoid pollinating blossoms that have already been hand-pollinated.

I DON’T HAVE A VIBRATING TOOTHBRUSH. IS THERE SOMETHING ELSE I CAN USE?

You can also hand-pollinate by gently flicking the blossoms. When I say gently, I mean very soft. You don’t want to damage the blossoms during the process.

Another option would be to purchase a cheap vibrating toothbrush or a pollen brush like this one on Amazon. The pollen brush even looks like a bee. So cute! Haha.

LOOKING FOR SOME DELICIOUS TOMATO RECIPES?

Here are a few of our favorite tomato recipes!

tomato soup

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4 thoughts on “How To 3x Your Tomato Yield”

  1. Not to sound lazy, but I have 8 kids… our trampoline is constantly moving and even vibrating. I plant cherry tomatoes around the perimeter of the trampoline and when the plants are tall enough I zip tie the stems (loosely) to the trampoline frame. Every year that I have done this the plants have grown up to the top of the net (meaning 10’ tall) and they’ve been bursting with tomatoes…tons of them. The kids pick the high ones by walking around the outside of the net on the springs. They also pick the low ones that are under the trampoline. I pick the ones that are facing out. It’s a good system that pollinates the plant really well with very little effort. I hope this idea helps any of you with small children who are short on time. 🙂

    Reply
    • Okay Stacy! This may be the coolest idea I’ve heard. So cleaver and how fun for your kids. We move our trampoline around the yard all summer long but if it were stationary I would totally try this. Thanks for sharing!

      Reply

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