For many home gardeners, the tomato is the centrepiece of their garden and rightly so. When growing tomatoes, gardeners want to make sure they are getting all the tomatoes possible from the plants that they have. To help ensure this, gardening enthusiast Kia Jade has taken to TikTok to share a clever hack that is sure to increase production.

In her tutorial titled “gardening hacks I learned from TikTok”, Kia Jade, otherwise known as @kia_urbangardener shows viewers how to increase a tomato plant’s yield by hand pollinating it.

The process involves manually transferring pollen from a tomato flower to the stamen by gently tapping the plant’s flowers.

This hack is intended to keep tomatoes thriving even if they are not getting enough attention from bees.

She said: “So this is really interesting. Tomato plants have both male and female aspects when it comes to the flower, so they are self-pollinating, and the best way you can supercharge that process is by tapping the flower.”

@kia_urbangardener This hack I discovered from @jerrasgarden and it’s really helped me grow more tomatoes! #gardeninghacks #gardenhack #gardeningtips #gardeningtiktok #gardeninghacks101 #tiktoktaughtme #tomatoes #growingtomatoes #growyourownfood ♬ Dreamy Vibes – Ocean Bay Jazz

Kia explained this in her video, as she lightly taped on her tomato plant, making sure not to be too heavy-handed.

The gardener continued: “Yes, you heard me correct — like, a little tap tap tap.

“Doing that helps release the pollen onto the stamen and that is what the pollination process is, so it means you don’t have to rely on bees or the wind and it does increase yield.”

Tomatoes are self-pollinating, meaning they have flowers that contain both male and female parts, so more than one plant is not needed for reproduction.

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Pollen is produced by the stamen, the male reproductive organ of a plant, which needs to be received by the pistil, the female reproductive organ of a plant, in order for the plant to produce fruit.

However, since tomato pollen is heavy and sticky, it needs to be loosened up by shaking or tapping from the male organ in order to fall onto the female organ.

This pollination “tapping” is typically caused by wind or buzzing insects like bees, and without it, the flower dies.

However, if the weather isn’t cooperating or bees aren’t doing their job, tomato plants may not be able to reproduce and no fruit will develop, which is why hand pollination can help ensure a successful harvest no matter what.

Experts at Gardening Know How agreed that this “easy” and “quite effective” way to pollinate tomatoes by hand.

They explained that as pollen is normally shed from morning to afternoon, with midday the most optimal time to pollinate, warm, sunny days with low humidity are “ideal conditions” for hand pollinating.

However, even if conditions are less than ideal, it never hurts to try anyway. Oftentimes, gardeners can simply shake the plant gently to successfully distribute the pollen.

While this can be done by hand, the experts suggested that gardeners may achieve “better results” by giving the vine a little vibrating instead.

They said: “While you can purchase commercial pollinators or electric vibrator devices to hand pollinate tomatoes, a simple battery-operated toothbrush is really all you need. The vibrations cause the flowers to release pollen.”

Techniques for hand pollinating vary, so use whatever method works best for you should be used. Some people simply place the vibrating device (toothbrush) just behind the open flowers and gently blow on or shake the plant to distribute the pollen.

Others prefer to collect the pollen in a small container and use a cotton swab to carefully rub the pollen directly onto the end of the flower stigma.

Hand pollination is usually practised every two to three days to ensure pollination occurs. Upon successful pollination, the flowers will wilt and begin fruiting.

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