Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thats awesome! I put my plants in a few days ago and they are looking sad Probably didnt like the transplant from a pot to the AP system. Not yet anyway

Next on the list to put in is some tomatos. Plenty of bee's here seeing as i live near a bee keepers reserve

I was using a q-tip and was debating getting a cheap electric toothbrush when someone told me she just flicks them. I gave it a try and my pollination rate is darn near 100% now. Super easy - just tap them gently with the back of your nail a few times.

Never heard of the toothbrush method before, then read the local rag on saturday and hydroponic toms are all done with vibrating brush.

I just use a 6" long Q-tip (one sided) for each species.... and use it over and over....

so for works great..

JT

Yay, saw a bee buzzing around the plants this am. Cooler this am and the threat of rain. A bit muggy out there. Another good bit of news, haven't been usng a cotton bud, but my big fat finger, presto, plenty of fruit starting to show. Have also pruned aout a bit of the growth to try and get a bit more light/air into the plants.

Damnit, the IBC is not big enough to have 12 tomato seedlings accros the back. Setting up stakes and string try and hold up the foliage. First toms starting to go orange.

Chucked in quite a few seeds over the weekend, some starting to sprout already, some probably gone through to become fish food.

What do APers do with strawberry plants when they stop flowering/fruiting, do you split them up and keep them growing over winter or chuck em and start again next spring?

Hi dr bee

Glad your toms are back on track. So now your GBs look a bit like spider webs as well. The string works a treat hey!

Strawb plants should just keep on going. If they put off runners, wait till they form roots then snip the runner to separate from its mummy. Wait a while then move the baby if you want

All i do is grab the stem wiht lots of flowers and give em a good shaking! ever time new flowers pop up shake the shit outa them.. seems to work for me..

Now I am getting heaps of fruit, but they seem to be disappearing just before they start going yellow. Really want them to ripen on the vine. Must be some sort of bird geting them, as I finally found one with chew marks in it. Whole tomatoes are going, and strawberries too. Hung shiny objects, fail. Made a tunnel of Chicken wire, fail. Put up bird netting, fail. Ensured netting wrapped around IBC with no holes, fail. Have put plastic bags over tomatoes. Hopefully they go red before they go rotten.

Any other ideas?

Could it be rats getting them? Do you have a photo? I know that bobtails will eat them if they can reach them.

I suspected there were two legged rats of the human kind, but razor wire on the fence is illegal... apparently. Considering putting up web cam as the dog was accused of barking all day long while we not at home. hook up and record on PC?
I was thinking bob tail or blue ongue, especially when whole roma tomatoes (not minis) were disappearing, no droppings, no left overs...no damn tomatoes left for me

An employee at Lowes where I got my supplies suggested I lightly pinch the flowers closed at the tips, early in the mornings. Said it worked well for him on his tomatoes.. I'm going to try it on one of my plants, and compare it to the other. That way I have a test group and a control. He sounded like it worked well, figure its worth a try and a share. Goodluck!

About mid morning the pollen will be able to be tapped out of flowers onto your finger, then dabbed onto the stamens of others.

I just flick the flower branch or shake the whole bush. Worked all through winter when there were no pollinators around.

As far as I know, most Tom are self pollinating.

Yes, but some of the heirlooms have protruding stamens so getting pollen onto the ends of them is not easy for the plant to do itself. Wind helps of course.
All the usual suspects that are sold in nurserys, like Apollo, Grosse lisse etc should self pollinate quite easyly

Just brush an old worn toothbrush over each flower, each day... 100% successful...