Aerogarden abuzz with the Buzz Pollinator
Aerogarden are always interested in how our customers are using the garden and the tips and tricks they love to share with us.
Recently one of your customers shared his little pearl of wisdom, to pollinate his tomatoes he’d modified an electric toothbrush and attached a cotton bud. I was intrigued so I decided to do some research into the science behind this crafty little contraption.
In nature pollination is carried out by bees and the wind. With the Aerogarden being sheltered indoors we need to give the tomato’s a helping hand to ensure a good fruit yield. Using a toothbrush, it appears that this method of self pollination imitates the ultrasonic waves of a buzzing bee and is known as Buzz Pollination.
Here are our recommended steps if you’d like to make your own Buzz Pollinator and give this way a go.
1. Take a standard electric toothbrush
2. Remove brush fitting and fit a cotton bud onto the end. (some people just use the brush head but we’ve found the cotton bud works best)
3. Put the Buzz Pollinators cotton bud on the back side of any open flowers you see (refer to video below)
4. Hold the Buzz Pollinator to the flower until you don’t see any more pollen falling from the flower.
5. Repeat daily
The Flower will not look immediately different after pollination but after several days the yellow blossom will wilt, dry up and fall off. If the entire flower drops off unfortunately that flower wasn’t pollinated.
This is all that is needed to produce a high yielding Aerogarden Tomato crop.
Feel free to leave a comment sharing your experiences!
If you don’t have a toothbrush handy the I’d recommend you use the Shake technique
The most common self pollination technique is to simply grab a branch or stalk and shake gently to help the pollen drop down to the stigma of the flower. You can gently shake the plant 2 to 3 times a day around the time you start to see flowering.
If you require any other assistance with your tomato plants we’d recommend you check out our Tomato Plant Troubleshooting blog
