Growing Cherry Tomatoes In Containers ~ Finally!

Finally bearing some tomatoes after a couple of weeks of TLC, shaking & wiggling the tomato branches LOL :P

Seems like no bumble bees were around to assist in pollinating them...hmm...

"Tomatoes, as well as other members of the Solanaceae require a special kind of pollination to achieve proper fruit set. This form of pollination is known as "buzz pollination". Buzz pollination is accomplished by Bumblebees (Bombus), by gripping the flower with their legs and vibrating their flight muscles, honeybees (Apis) are incapable of doing this. In small gardens, bumblebee populations can be insufficient to properly pollinate tomatoes and related plants. Here's how to buzz pollinate your plants to produce larger fruits."
Quoted from  Instructables : Pollinating Tomatoes.


"Whatever the deal is, you can actually help your tomato plant set more fruit this season by showing it some tactile love.  You just take the flowering branches and give them a gentile shake. The pollen will drop from the stamen of the flower onto the pistil.  

There's no magic number of times you should shake your tomato plants; you just sort of wing it. Gardeners usually do it two or three times a day to ensure good pollination. Left alone, the wind would shake the blossoms, as would the fluttering of bees' wings. But, gardeners everywhere swear that they harvest higher fruit yields with this simple technique."
Quoted from : Vegetable Gardener's Blog : Help Pollinate Your Tomato Plants

"You rarely get satisfaction sitting in an easy chair. If you work in a garden on the other hand, and it yields beautiful tomatoes, that's a good feeling." -Dan Buettner