Newsletter

I wanted to share with you the picking and eating of our first tomato today. It was so tasty and flavorful, that Mo almost did a back flip. I know that some of you have already gotten tomatoes, so this may not be that exciting for you. I'm trying to decide if I should use "wall o water" next year to get tomatoes even sooner. For those of you using "wall O water," did you get tomatoes in June? We had several varieties of tomatoes and transplanted them May 27, 2008. I finally got the "hoop house" tomatoes transplanted on June 28th. The first fruit set on those last Friday. The variety we ate this morning was an "Indische Fleisch."

Most of you already know this, but I thought I would share some tomato info with the new gardener. "Birds and Bees" lesson one. Tomato pollination is very similar to the fertilization of a woman's egg. You have a 3-day window to fertilize the egg, or the egg dies, and you have to wait for the next cycle. When the tomato flower opens, it has three days to pollinate, or it will dry up and fall off. During that 3-day period, we hope that the wind, or a bee, or some other insect will crawl into the flower and pollinate it. Most of you have seen the tomato flowers drop off after a few days, or if you shake the plant, have noticed that the dried flower falls off.

So, we cannot depend on the wind, or bees or insects to get the pollination job done. Most of us think that the bees pollinate the tomato flowers. In all my years of gardening, I have seen very few bees, if any, in my tomato flowers. On some bright sunny day, just sit and watch your tomato plants for 15 minutes. Notice how many bees you see, or don.t see. Then notice other parts of your garden and see how many bees you see.

This is one time that it will pay you to assist mother nature with the pollination process by shaking the plant "vigorously" every day, or at least every other day. The best time to do this is late morning and into the late afternoon. This is a better time to pollinate than morning because it gives the pollen in the tomato flower a chance to become dry and powdery. Have you ever noticed the fine mist of pollen coming from flower when it is shaken? If you have more than one tomato plant--and who doesn't--try this experiment with one plant and see what happens. You should notice more tomatoes setting, and less blossom drop, in the next 5 to 10 days. OK, enough already!

I also use a "vibrator" ( made strickly for tomatoes) to pollinate my tomatoes. I have been doing hydroponic gardening for about 10 years now, and the best place to get one is http://www.hydro-gardens.com/ Click on "products," then "hydroponic gardening supplies" and scroll about half way down the page. They are $15.95 plus shipping. Probably about $22 total. If anyone is interested, you could probably do a group order and save a little on shipping. I also use this tool to pollinate peppers and eggplant. Have a great day.

Blessings,
Frank