Content
- Fertilize tomatoes - this is how you accelerate the fruit set
- Without pollination no tomatoes
- So you help the fruit set on the jumps
- Tips & Tricks
Fertilize tomatoes - this is how you accelerate the fruit set
Thanks to its hermaphrodite flowers, fertilized tomato plants in the field completely independently. However, where wind and busy insects are missing, a little tuition is needed. To promote a lush fruit approach in the greenhouse and on the windowsill.
Without pollination no tomatoes
If the hobby gardener lovingly treats his tomato plants, he will not reap any fruit without successful fertilization. Only when a pollination takes place within the flowers, the longed-for fruit set develops. That's how easy the natural process works:
Tomato plants are hermaphroditic. A flower contains both the female stamp and the male pollen. In the open air, the wind or insects make sure that the pollen gets on the stamp. Botanists call this process 'pollination'. The pollen now fertilizes the female egg cell and thus sets in motion the growth of the fruit set, from which develops a magnificent tomato.
All non-pollinated flowers throws the tomato plant unceremoniously, because in this they do not want to invest any more energy. A lush flower habit alone does not guarantee a rich harvest for a long time.
So you help the fruit set on the jumps
As a self-pollinator, a light breeze suffices for a tomato plant so that the pollen spreads to the flowers and fertilization succeeds. Hard-working bumblebees and bees also do pollination in the open air reliably. Since both factors are missing in the greenhouse and on the window sill, the hobby gardener acts as a substitute pollinator. This is how the plan succeeds:
The efforts to manually fertilize tomato plants, on the other hand, only have a chance of success if temperatures fluctuate below 30 degrees Celsius. In addition, the humidity plays an important role. If the value is over 80 percent, the pollen clumps together. Pollination is therefore impossible. A thermometer and a hydrometer are therefore standard equipment for the tomato gardener.
Tips & Tricks
If the desired number of fruiting starts on a tomato plant, all other flowers are broken out. In this way, the plant saves energy early on, which it can invest only in plump, voluminous fruits.