Tomato tips & inventions

[StrongPlant]

Here I will share with you the little knowledge and ideas I acumulated over the past few years of growing tomatoes,and I hope others will share theirs too.

I'll start with a pollinator I made,I've been using it for years and it's extremely useful and efficient.


It is about a meter long,so I don't ever need to bend my spine or stand on toes to reach the flowers.There are a couple of feathers at the end that are vibrating fast,these reach multiple flowers at once and polinate them without damaging them at all.The vibrations come from a motor that spins the counterweight.With this thing it takes only a few seconds/plant,for my 65 plants in the greenhouse I'm ussualy done in about 2-5 minutes depending on the plant's sizes.
Anyone interested I can post more things and instructions but it's really simple and anyone can make it.

[SteveP]

I have had good luck using a cheap electric toothbrush. Quick and easy!

[StrongPlant]

Originally Posted by SteveP

I have had good luck using a cheap electric toothbrush. Quick and easy!

Toothbrush is no match with my mega-pollinator 2000

A tip with support.I do it by twisting them around strings,by far the easiest and quickest method I found.Here's the tip: both up and down the string is tied to a strong wire.This allows me to move plants to an extent at any time of the growing period! For example if I have 2 varieties growing next to each other and one is growing slower and is smaller than the other,I can move the upper part of the string a little away from the little plant to give it more light.Also if an entire plant needs to be pulled I can move appart the adjescent plants giving them more light and space.

[SteveP]

Originally Posted by StrongPlant

Toothbrush is no match with my mega-pollinator 2000

A tip with support.I do it by twisting them around strings,by far the easiest and quickest method I found.Here's the tip: both up and down the string is tied to a strong wire.This allows me to move plants to an extent at any time of the growing period! For example if I have 2 varieties growing next to each other and one is growing slower and is smaller than the other,I can move the upper part of the string a little away from the little plant to give it more light.Also if an entire plant needs to be pulled I can move appart the adjescent plants giving them more light and space.

Well, enjoy yourself. It sounds like you are having fun. I prefer to keep things simple and let nature run its course. Different strokes for different folks.

You could call it the Tomato Fluffer 2000.

[StrongPlant]

Originally Posted by SteveP

Well, enjoy yourself. It sounds like you are having fun.

Oh I do.When people see it they ask me what the hell is it,then I say "just touch it" and I turn it on at that moment.Always gets them

[oakley]

I would be interested in seeing this in action, a video. I like the tinkering and inventing.
Good job.

[Worth1]

I thought about using a sawzall one time and decided against it.
Back to thumping stems daily.
Worth

[Gardeneer]

e-brush works pretty good BUT you cannot reach with it everywhere. So I like your invention better.
The counter weight idea to make it vibrate is novel . It is patentible.
Now you got me thinking to make something mechanical, no motor , no battery.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

e-brush works pretty good BUT you cannot reach with it everywhere. So I like your invention better.
The counter weight idea to make it vibrate is novel . It is patentible.
Now you got me thinking to make something mechanical, no motor , no battery.

Adult novelty toys/vibrators have counter weights to make them vibrate.
Worth

[Gardeneer]

Originally Posted by Worth1

Adult novelty toys/vibrators have counter weights to make them vibrate.
Worth

Joseph uses those to vibrate his tomato flowers.

[StrongPlant]

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

Joseph uses those to vibrate his tomato flowers.

Well it works doesn't it? LOL

Here's how I do crossing-quick,easy & cheap:

It all starts with a tiny buzzer I made myself.Practically the same thing as the pollinator rod,but smaller.The motor is from a broken cellphone(they all have these tiny motors with counter weights,that's how they vibrate).
The flower from a pollen donor is touched with the needle on this device while it's turned on,and it is very effective at draining the last drop of pollen from the flower,while silmutaneously pollinating that flower as well.

The pollen is collected in tiny receptacles made from paper that has one black side(obviously you want to use black so you can see the pollen)

The flowers are then emasculated and pistil pressed gently into the pollen pile at the center of the pollen receptacle.
Every flower needs to be tagged.I make tags from plastic bottles.

I scratch all the information on it with this here tool,it's just a stick with a piece of glass at the end to scratch the plastic with.Glass works best because it's very hard:

Tagged flowers:

The thin wire can be found in every electric motor,i wound it gently aroud the flower.As the pedicel expands the wire bends outwards and does not choke it:


The tags made this way are resistant to the elements and can even be re-used.With this practice I've pretty much had 99.99% pollination success and zero off-types in offspring so far.

[Bodhi Peace]

Patent and market. Patent and market. You better be on Shark Tank by next year. The market for this is HUGE!

[HudsonValley]

Wow. I thought I was clever for using plastic knives as plant tags and colorful twister ties for bagged-blossom fruits last year, but you folks take it to the MacGyver level!!!!

[MrBig46]

Can you describe in more detail how to make the pollinator from a cellphone?
Vladimír

[StrongPlant]

Originally Posted by MrBig46

Can you describe in more detail how to make the pollinator from a cellphone?
Vladimír

Find a metal tube that has diameter of AAA or AA battery.Cut the tube to a sligthly longer(5-6mm)length of 2 batteries of a chosen size(AAA or AA).Seal the bottom end with anything made from metal(I used a screw nut I jammed on the end).Put a small metal spring inside the tube(you can find those in pens).
Now the entire tube acts as a cathode or anode,depending how you put the batteries in,which doesn't really matter because we don't care if the motor spins clockwise or counter-clockwise,we only need the vibration.
For the other end of the tube you need to use some electric insulating material,I used thick rubber,but you can use plastic or wood as well.Then screw in a small screw so the pointy end sticks out of the tube and the screw head is touching the other end of the battery inside.
Attach a large needle or a safety pin to the tube so they're touching(you can just tape it).Now attach the small motor to the needle and solder one output of the motor to the needle.The other output goes into one of the outputs of the tiny switch.The other output of the switch is connected and soldered to the screw that's sticking out.Now when you press the switch the motor should vibrate.I used superglue to attach the motor and the switch.

The small motors can be found in various cell phones and they all have 2 output pins or wires:


The tiny switches can be found in various electronic devices such as laser pointers.

Making of this requires the most basic knowledge about electronic circuits,if you don't know about it you can read a bit online,it's really simple.