Just a tickle.....

Just a tickle!

Did you know that besides good soil, water and sunshine, your tomato plant needs a tickle?

Many home gardeners would have seen their tomato plants bearing many yellow flowers. Very often, in spite of having many flowers, the same plant gives very few fruits later.

One way of getting most of the flowers to become fruits is to tickle the flowers at the base.

A tomato plant has both it's male and female parts in the same flower. In the natural course of events, because of pollinators such as wind and insects, the pollen from the male part gets transferred to the female part. In absence of these pollinators which could be due to several reasons, the flowers are unable to pollinate and do not become fruits.

One way of getting a good yield of fruits is by tickling or shaking the base of the flowers for just a few seconds. This helps in pollination.

So go ahead and tickle your tomato plants to enjoy it's fruits!