Ruud Kleinpaste: Assisted Pollination

A couple of months ago our tunnel house got smacked by the wind.   Young tomatoes were rescued from their spot and some of them survived in medium-sized pots.   It was a matter of getting rid of that ancient, 8-meter-long tunnel house and replacing it with a new one – half the length but double the strength.   The whole renovation took a few school holidays’ weeks, but it looked pretty darn good.   I decided to plant the few tomatoes that were still struggling in the pots and have a go in the new tunnel house. Plant them in fresh soil with Wet and Forget SeaWeed Tea as a potash-rich fertiliser.   By the time they started getting into good growth again, the plants created tomato flowers with the idea of becoming tomato fruit in the future.   With the tunnel house door open during the day and the odd Bumblebee inspecting the new flowers (getting nectar and pollen) the new tomatoes were getting their treatment known as “pollination”.  Pollination with bumblebees is generally different from the technique of other pollinating insects. Bumbles literally vibrate the flowers in a clever and consistent matter; this allows the pollen to become dislodged and fertilise the flowers.   When autumn arrived the numbers of bumblebees reduced dramatically, I needed to find an alternative assistant “pollinator”. On top of all that, the door of the tunnel house had to be closed from time to time due to rubbish weather.   Did a bit of research and found that the flowers did not care a lot about sequences and electric frequencies.   All you need is an electric Pollinator Wand that would vibrate and loosen the pollen within a few seconds – just move up-and-down the row.  Toothbrush? Shaver? Take your pick!  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.