A gardener on Instagram said that he uses an electric toothbrush in his garden, and claims that the trick “tripled” his harvest. Jeff revealed the unqiue practice on his Instagram page @realfarmerjeff, where he shares advice on how to grow “the freshest ingredients” to his 78,800 followers.
The unorothodox method was used by Jeff on one particular plant, and with the UK expected to experience more days of scorching hot temperatures towards the end of the month, this advice, while unusual, will certainly come in handy. Jeff admitted that despite being allergic to pollen, he still self-pollinates his tomato plants “because it tripled my harvest”.
Pollinating is crucial for plant reproduction as it transfers pollen from the male plant of the flower to the female part, which results in fertlisation and the development of seeds and fruits.
In an Instgram post, the farmer explained: “Tomatoes do not need to move pollen from one flower to another because they have ‘perfect flowers’ in which the male and female parts are in the same flower.
“Even though tomatoes are ‘self pollinating’ this does not guarantee 100% pollination but just means a single plant can pollinate itself.”
Pollination can be more challenging during high temperatures as heat can damage pollen grains, reducing the production and quality. It can have a negative impact on pollinators, such as bees who can struggle with heat stress, as well as dry out plants, reducing their attractiveness to pollinators.
To self pollinate with an electric toothbrush, Jeff said: “Touch the green, bell-shaped part of the flower that is behind the petals with a toothbrush, gently hold the flower if necessary, use the non-bristle head of the toothbrush, and touch the flower in just one spot for one to two seconds.”
He also suggests doing in in the morning and said the method can be used on other plants too, including aubergine, and some types of peppers.
One gardener asked if they need to do anything to the pollen that falls out, to which Jeff responded: “Nope! Because tomatoes have perfect flowers that have the male and the female parts in the same flower! So the pollen just has to shoot out.”
While another who tested it out shared that they got “lots of new tomatoes” from doing it.