THE TOMATO GROWING THREAD 2018

Not a great idea, I'm sorry to say. You will also stop the pollinating insects getting in; then no tomatos.

 

Hi Jane...do you have any roof vents and louvre vents? if so the pollinators will still get

My doorway is covered by mesh and my greenhouse has a regular supply of bees and flies, all I seem to do is catch the bees and set them free.



Just out of curiosity, Redwing...if you give the trusses / flowers a little tap, will that not cause pollination?

 

Tomatoes have perfect flowers, both male and female parts, so don't need a polinator, just a vibrator

 

There you go, Jane...you keep doing what you are doing and enjoy it, and just give your trusses a little tap to be on the safe side, then if no pollinators make it into your greenhouse you'll still get loads of tomatoes

Thanks for clearing that up, Zigs.

 

That might be funny....but they do need a pollinator. In some parts of the world where there are insufficient insect pollinators, people are employed for a pittance to hand pollinate acers upon acres of greenhouse tomatos.

IMO your crop will be significanty reduced if you put a mesh screen over the door. A few will get in via the roof vent but why compromise your crop for the sake of eliminating a few flies? What flies are the pesky ones......don't understand this logic. There is nothing in there to attract the nasty house flies but plenty of good flies will come in to work and insure you get a good crop.

 

Hi Redwing...will hand pollinating give you a reduced crop of tomatoes?

 

Never seen a bee or a fly on a tomato flower in 48 years of gardening

I'll keep an eye open and let you know if I do see one, but they come in the greenhouse and go straight for the opium poppies usually

Tomatoes need wind to polinate, there's not enough in a greenhouse even with fans, hence the need for shakey shakey

 

Quick online research confirms that the best pollinators for tomatoes are bumblebees and wind. I have certainly seen bees pollinating greenhouse tomatoes.

 

Slow reality check confirms they don't make the slightest bit of difference with tomatoes

Fantastic for the opium though

Which i'm now going to smoke a large amount of as i'm fed up with trying to point out the bloody obvious

 

I'll volunteer!

 

@JWK I'll take your word for it and not google it.. wouldn't want my little heart to get palpitations or need my fainting couch

My tomatoes are outside so I don't worry about them but I have never seen a bee near them. Maybe it is stealth bees who wait until I'm not looking.

Good reminder though to go out and hand pollinate my super hot peppers to keep them from being unfaithful. .

 

Hi Sheps, I have those black clips that were shown on here but all around the fabric is the sticky stuff which then just sticks to the glass and it works really well. The middle strips are magnetic so closes on its own. I even purchased one for my back door lol