Tomatoes are among the easiest fruits to grow, but if you don’t follow simple techniques, your bounty will be small and of low quality. Whether you’re growing your tomatoes in your garden, in your home or in a greenhouse, there is one 3-minute task all gardeners should do which can increase their harvest significantly.
Taking to Instagram, an expert gardener who goes by the name of Jamie Walton | Nettles & Petals, has shared a simple ‘tapping’ technique which can make a big difference to your tomato plants. He captioned his video: “Here’s a few simple things I do to help increase tomato harvest from my vegetable garden and maintain healthy tomato plants.” Below, we have explained his ‘tapping’ advice.
How does tapping work?
Jamie explained: “Tomato flowers are self-pollinating, but they do require a little help, usually from the wind or pollinators. But tapping the trusses can do this too, helping to release pollen onto the stamen, therefore reducing gaps on the truss.
“It is particularly useful when growing them indoors. Opening greenhouse windows, poly tunnel doors and side vents can help to improve pollination too.”
According to a gardening expert who spoke to Ideal Home, tomatoes are self-pollinating as they have male and female parts, so all they need is movement to improve pollination, which will, therefore, increase crop yield.
Gardeners who are growing tomatoes in a greenhouse should be tapping the plants to help simulate nature’s role by encouraging pollen to fall and improving pollination.
How to ‘tap’ your plants
Daniel Carruthers, Director of Sales at Cultivar Greenhouses, shared: “The good news it that tapping tomatoes only takes a few minutes and is very easy – simply take hold of the stem and gently shake it so that pollen is released or tap the end of the flowers directly.”
He also advised: “If you have a fine paintbrush to hand (the type that you’d paint a picture with, not decorate your home), you can softly brush the inside of the flower in a twirling motion and then transfer the pollen collected onto the tip of the centre of the flower. If art isn’t your thing, a cotton bud will also do the same job.”
Another expert at Home & Gardens, who tested out the technique, suggested beginning tapping your plants when they are around 10 inches tall and have produced their first set of flowers. Gardeners should then do this daily or every other day.
If the technique does not work, you may be failing your plant in other ways, such as under-watering or not feeding the soil enough nutrients.
More tips on how to grow healthy tomatoes
Throughout his video, Jamie also provided more tips on how to produce a healthy crop. He shared: “If fruit splitting and pests are an issue, try removing tomatoes once the colour change has started.
“This means that the fruit has passed the breaker stage, and that it no longer requires nutrients and sugars from the plant to be able to fully ripen and can do so off the plant without much loss in flavour.”
At this stage, the thin layer of cells in the “Abscission Zone” (the point where the fruit connects to the plant) has matured significantly and begins to sever the connection, which is why it’s referred to as the “breaker stage.”
Jamie concluded: “If possible, I do leave the fruit to fully ripen on the plant, but if you’re struggling, this method is much better than losing them altogether.”