Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

My tomatoes are flowering with gay abandon, but hardly a fruit in sight. I never see any bugs flying around. Any ideas on how to polenate (maybe by hand), or how to get insects quick before this season runs out?

I live in stupid suberbia and my neighbours just pulled out all their flowering shrubs and I have none growing yet so there are no bees to be seen.

Small soft paint brush, toothbrush something similar.
Just stick it in the flowers 1 by 1 and gently wiggle it around.
Simple as that

Get a native bee hive...very cool. And they don't sting and the honey is amazing

Sent from my Chinese phone using Tapatalk

Where do u source a native bee hive?

where do you source a chinese phone....

"Alibaba"

You are in Perth...good question, bit of googling turns out that it might be a bit hard.
Actually very hard...

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If you ever want to find the cheapest place to buy computer/phone electronics type stuff use
http://www.staticice.com.au

Say if you wanted to find the cheapest "Samsung Galaxy S2" phone type that in and presto!

Nuidui,

Thanks will give it a try. Hopefully not too late in season,as only another month of warm weather.

There is people with bee hives in kalgoorlie

I would look at using a spray of potassium (eg eco rose fungicide) to assist with fruit set assuming there are pollinators (eg bees or you).

The high nitrogen and probably low potash (especially in new systems) is in my experience with toms and related crops not a good combination.

I spray all my plants with eco rose every couple of weeks. I can’t say that it works for me as I have no control plot where it is not applied but it would be reasonable to assume that it would be assisting with any potassium deficiencies.

Hand pollinating of tomatoes may be difficult as they use a form of pollination is known as "buzz pollination". Buzz pollination is accomplished by bees, by gripping the flower with their legs and vibrating their flight muscles to release the pollen. I have used a small kids paintbrush with an electric tooth brush providing the vibration to release the pollen.

This is what I use for my greenhouse grown egg plants.

Lets us know how you go

also look at planting some bee attracting plants like lavender near your system. It keeps the "war office" happy and should attract bees.

Problem with the bees ATM is they are flat out working the redgum which are flowering. Could organise to lend you a hive of bees but they will probably be more interested in travelling to the redgum and you'd just upset the neighbours. good luck
We, across the river, are in the same boat!

Plus one for the electric toothbrush. Been using one for years and I really think they help.
Also as Marc says above , in new systems the balance of nutes will be wrong for tomatoes. My tomatoes only did well this year in the greenhouse system that is nearly two years old. The newer systems did not produce well with several tomato plants tried.