I totally did not see that coming. I thought he was going to use the bristles to gently pollinate the flowers like I've heard people doing with qtips. I learned something new!
This trick worked perfectly for me! I have some heirloom seeds I was given in Bulgaria that I planted this season in the pacific north west. My first few flowers had a very low pollination rate. When I saw this video I started using my electric toothbrush on the new flowers. I am now getting 90% pollination and fruit set. Thank you!!
I have been binge watching and I’ve started my own veggie garden. I live in a city in the uk 🇬🇧 so my garden is tiny and only have 1 small raised bed. But I’m so excited to see it grow 🥰
Great tip for those who live in a more and more un-natural environment. And if one do live in such an area now is the moment to realise we all ! have to protect this world. Cause we rely on nature and all its creatures. So let's care for nature - let's plant trees, flowers, let the gardens be a bit untidy, use what nature gives us. And be thankful for all of that. Therefore thanks a lot to you Mark and all the others who share their knowledge so we could all do our best for ourselves, children, grandkids, flora and fauna. 🦋
I bet the fifth dentist has no teeth to floss. Also nice video I stumbled into your videos by accident but they are very educational I'm definitely going to try this next season with some of my heirloom tomatoes next season!
It's currently December 6th in San Diego California, and my tomato plants had about 100 blossoms and no tomatoes. The bees aren't out much. After seeing this video, I bought a cheap electric toothbrush and started vibrating the blossoms. IT WORKS!!! I now have tomatoes starting. Thank you so much for this video and this information.
I've been using this trick since the first flowers appeared, it 100% works. Last year the pollinators were late and I missed out on a lot of tomatoes. This year every flower has set on both my chillies and tomatoes. Neighbours must think I'm mad though 🤣 Thank you!
@@carlosferegrino290 Do it everyday to any open flowers (it only take 5mins to do a dozen plants you only hold on each branch for a few seconds). A fan would be random and could blow pollen away, you want it to drop straight down, this is treating each bud. As he stated and this has been proven, the buzzing mimics bee's and causes the plant to drop pollen. I've been using this for several years and get 90% fruit from open flowers.
I always love seeing a notification that you have put a video up. You are so informative and knowledgeable, and you do it in a way that is fun and enjoyable. It is obvious that you love what you are doing in your garden. Often people who are providing information about sustainability and self-sufficiency are too serious, and forget that you need to add joy and fun into the mix. You do an amazing job!! Cheers!
This is really cool! I recently started a bunch of tomato plants by accident. I tossed some food scraps with tomato seeds into my compost pot on the balcony and forgot about it for a few days. Within weeks I have 2ft tall tomato plants so I have been watering and taking care of them. I'll have to try this out!
I love it!!! My dad used the paint brush method, this is the 1st video I have ever seen using a paint brush, my dad in heaven, I am sure is very proud of you! I am going to go charge up our spare tooth brush!
G'day Mark. Yonks ago I watched a video where a bloke actually smacked his tomato plants with a rolled up newspaper. He said they always set well and he had beautifully full plants. I reckon just tickling would work fine. Thanks for sharing.
Fellow Aussie here. Long time viewer and short time subscriber, this is one of the most helpful videos on your channel thus far. Makes too much sense and makes me smile at the same time. You keep doing you, Mark :)
HA, so. Cool. I have used this same method for years. This is what I found imitates the vibrations of a bee. I grow Brandywine tomatoes and this method of a battery operated toothbrush shakes down the pollen: postal & stamen. I have showed this method to only a few neighbors, telling them I am making love to my veggies. Glad it is now published by a well known gardener!
One of the best pollinator-attracting plants I use (Newport, UK) is 'Borrage'! Every year I sit out enjoying the constant buzz of bees etc in amongst the self-seeding Borrage with its gorgeous blue flowers that just keep opening (along with my pink foxgloves) while waiting for my giant sunflowers to open (first one did yesterday... yippee). Borrage flowers taste lovely on salads or even alone and the leaves, while spikey, taste and smell like cucumber. Keep up the good work Mark.
@@carlosferegrino290 I'll add my 2-cents here if you don't mind... all I do to help pollinate my tomatoes is repeatedly tap the stems with my first and second fingers while wiggling them quickly (pretend they're little legs and you're jiggling those fingers like they were running!... sorry for the analogy but I'd rather risk being patronising than being unclear... words are hard to get get exact meaning across sometimes)... the vibrations make the flowers jiggle very rapidly and this shakes pollen loose. Takes a couple of seconds. I do this most times I'm near to them while either watering or inspecting or just walking past (maybe once every one or two days?). Works like a charm.
When I had an apple orchard (my first farm, so very limited knowledge), my apple trees stopped producing. I went and spoke to an old apple grower man and he told me to go out in the spring when the sap was coming up and beat the tree with a baseball bat. He said the shockwaves go down to the root and make the tree think it's dying and thereby sends all kinds of energy into blooming. BEST BUMPER CROP EVER! So I suppose the vibration does a lot of different things! Love your tip!!
Thank you! I am a dental hygienist so I found this really amusing....and of course I have several electric toothbrushes so I am prepared to use this method!
I like your suggestion about using a family members toothbrush. It’s the way to go. I tried it and I could actually see pollen puffs coming from the plant. Several days later I checked plants and yeh boyyyyyyy, it worked! Thanks a bunch..Bob
I usually tape one of the cheap battery operated toothbrushs on the end of a long stick so I can touch the top of flowers that are out of my reach, it is the only way I have been able to get tomatoes in years! It really helps when you have those 15-20 foot tall tomatoes running up single stem strings, haha
Hey, I love this self sufficient guy, but, just another perspective. I live in New England, which has a lot of issues with Tobacco Mosaic Virus for tomatoes. If you don't have a disease problem, the electric toothbrush or shaking method seems really like a good option. If you have a potential disease problem, like us Yankees do, then this method spreads the disease. leave well enough alone if you've got any possible disease issues. The crop will be better without help. Soooo, know your environment and know your soil before adopting someone's method for fruit propagation. That said, Mr. Self-Sufficient absolutely knows the best program for his part of the world! I totally respect him and enjoy his videos. Just don't assume it's all-purpose advice. He's great though.
Ah well, as a resourceful self sufficient type you obviously will know that if one trick doesn't work on one, you can try it on another and it might work very well. But, as a female, I suggest you stick to using the tooth brush on the tomatoes, not certain highly sensitive parts of the female anatomy... Got to use implements correctly to get results. Vibrators for teeth might not be such a brilliant idea, either. Too much rattling noise I bed at night, when your partner is trying to sleep...But tomatoes won't mind. Just get up at about 3am if feeling sexually frustrated and unable to sleep and just give the tomato plants a go with the vibrator and watch them bloom next morning, bright and early, in the sunrise...Tell your sleepy head sexually boring partner where you went and what you did, how etc last night. Make them so jealous...
So u r vibrating your tomato plants, after sweet talking to them. And the tomato responds with a, "Love is a beautiful song, tr-la la-la-la la lala" and gives u what u want. U have given me some good ideas.
While trying this out my wife accused me of being the only man concerned with the erogenous zones of a plant. Maybe you did this just to laugh at us. ha ha.
I am going to buy an electric toothbrush pollinator. I was just about to give up on tomatoes until I watched the video. None of my tomatoes had fruit this year. Last year the possums and other animals ate my great tomato crop. My husband built a great enclosure to protect the plants this year. Nor I realise I must have locked our the pollinators or the bushfires effected them. I have just bought some tomato plants and will really give it another go. Thanks for the advice. Love the videos.
and you can cover multiple tomato plants is a very short amount of time, just a slight touch on the top of the flower and you are done, if you can get the sun behind the flower you can see the pollen quickly drop down to the stamen, very quick and easy
I can’t tell you how much we enjoy your vids! You’ve become a household name for us here in Vermont! Thanks for the daily dose of entertainment and brilliant suggestions! We’ve been “getting into it!”👍
I just tap the tomato cage. Shakes the whole plant. Usually happens just by working in the garden. We have bees and birds that work ours. The birds eat caterpillars, bees work flowers. Plants get jostled by birds, too. We always get loads of tomatoes.
this gent is just so earnest in what he does, you watch his videos one after the other :) much praise to you good sir, all the way from Mozambique, one farmer to another :D
My dad was telling me to do something like this. He told me that I needed to go out and "Spank my Tomatoes". I thought he was totally crazy, and just pulling my leg. After research and several TH-cam channels later it's true! Craziest thing I had ever heard of, but it works. We like to shake the trellis that they plants are tied too. It works really well.
Ive been doing this for a couple of years now and it's quite effective. You'll often even see a puff of pollen on a flower that's 'ripe'. One critique.... you don't have to have the brushes that move and in fact I would advise against it, as tomatoes flowers are pretty fragile. There are plenty of vibrating toothbrushes that do just that with no oscillating bristles. Means you don't have to take as much care and can just reach into a cluster without such precision. Means you can move through a lot of flowers much faster. Just a suggestion. Love your vids man!
Unless it's a cold hardy or heat resistant tomato variety, typically tomatoes have an ideal temperature for fruit setting, around 55 to 80*F (12 to 26*C) night time temperature, when it's out of this range there will be blossom drops and immature fruits. I don't bother with manual pollination except for indoor, although you can skip this too if you run a standing fan at the plants.
This is brilliant! I f you can believe it, we swapped out our old electric toothbrush last night as it doesn’t hold a charge for long. So now we have an old toothbrush we can repurpose. 🙌
Where I live in Franklin, Pennsylvania I very rarely see any bees anymore. Some black and white bumble bees. I used to see those little bees, but I haven't seen any of those. People keep using chemicals. My brother in law lives next to us, not real close but uses all that stuff and round up. Sad we are killing all our bugs and useful insects.
Yes unfortunately chemicals don't discriminate between good and bad bugs so bees are often a big casualty. We can all do our little bit though. Cheers :)
I live in Corry, PA. This year we noticed a bit more than we have in previous years. Which is a good thing. Be sure to plant plants that attract pollinators and leave some clove for the bees in your yard as it grows. We have a couple of neighbors doing the same with the chemicals,but found that we can still attract them from elsewhere. We also heard that there isn't enough plants attracting the bees either while they fly around to land on and rest in.
@@TracyR4 I did plant lots of flowers and we do have clover in the grass. I did see a few more bees this summer than ever. My Bil had nose cancer from smoking and never quit smoking. He is a bullhead. He is 76 or so now.
Just watched the Australian Broadcasting Commission Gardening show that had a segment about moths explaining their usefulness. They are night pollinators!! and account for a large percentage of pollination. Unfortunately many people use those electric bug zappers that kill everything.
I tried this (the electric toothbrush to pollinate) on tomatoes and as far as I can tell, works perfectly. Just a reminder to label it and keep the “tomatoe” toothbrush away from others, especially if you have kids (haven’t had a mix-up, but I don’t want it to). And does take time, but kids also like the idea of “be the bee” and you can often get them to do it.
Enjoy hearing your explanations and instruction, but also love the visual ... Clips here and there that illustrate your points. Nicely put together. Thanks for all the instruction and encouragement!
Those are great ideas. Specially planting tomatoes in the fall. I may try that this year. Right here in central Florida, US I am getting to many diseases this summer in my plants. Thank you.
I just learned which veggies need help pollinating and which plants "self pollinate". Squash & Zucchini need a lot of help, if you don't have many bees. Tomatoes, lettuce, Okra, kale, etc., don't need any help pollinating. Tomato flowers contain both the male & female sex organs to self pollinate...so a tap or your electric toothbrush, are huge helps. Beets, carrots, etc., don't need pollination as they are "tubers or Rhizome" plants. Thanks Mark, the toothbrush is a good idea!
I live in the south I very seldom see honey bees some bumblebees not many of those. I will be brushing my tomato blossoms. Thanks for the information. I love it!
I grow superhot peppers and some varieties are hard to get fruit set so I have been using the electric toothbrush pollination method for a few years and it works great. I also do it with the tomatoes in my greenhouse. Great tip!
hi Mark Love the Videos, We live just up the road from you on the sunny coast. i have been looking at homesteading videos from the US, and am soooooo happy to find yours!!!!!!! I am planing on starting raised garden beds/ growing our own vegs & chickens. do I start a composting pile first or just place the raised beds as I get them? I need to clear some garden beds for the raised beds to go in to. thanks heaps NGM
Walgreens has their own brand for about $9.00 I'm sure Amazon can get you a sim ilar price one. It works briliantly, you can see the pollen fly out of the plant. PS Use it on pepper plants as well, same flower structure.
Thank you for this!! I will plant Thai Basil! But, living on the middle floor of our apartment building, not many insects come to our balcony - so, electric toothbrush it is!! The best part is that one can buy single battery dependant (AAA) electric toothbrushes (Colgate, Arm & Hammer) and keep it just for this! Thank you again! btw - it looked as if there was powdery mildew on the cucumber or squash plant near the tomatoes - I have good luck spraying mine with a powdered milk mixture.
Informative and funny demo. Thanks. I'm a total tomato plant growing boob here. Although, in 1980, I grew a plant someone gave me on my fire escape and it produced nicely but, lots of wind probably helped it along. I recently did a crop in my Aerogarden and not one tomato! So, I went to Amazon and saw that thingy Aerogarden sells which basically is what you are using...an electric toothbrush. Cool. I got one in the closet. I've watched a few videos and all I saw was pollen going out of the flower with this method and, I wondered how the pollen "knew" where to land properly. But you said something interesting about the process when bees do it...that some of the pollen their buzzing loosened up goes into the air but, some finds it's way to the stigma and goes into the ovaries where the fruit is formed (something like that). So, that's what I'm aiming for then? Just to shake things up a bit in the flower stage in order to loosen up the pollen and get it to go back down into the plant to self pollinate it?
I was thinking maybe my neighbours drum and bass music she likes to share with us neighbour's might just come in handy after all then, if the bees don't mind.
Absolutely love Your videos. Keep up great work. Been flicking my tomatoes last year... it's work The vibrating stuff won't work. The neighbours are far too close. Greatings from Scotland 😉
You're the man Mark. First time gardener and you've quickly become my go-to for tips and instruction. Cheers.
Thank you Sean! Cheers mate :)
Same here Mark
Hey mark
Same
Best Gardener on YT.
Oral "Bee" Substitute.
YOU WIN !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gold.....
HAHAHAHA!!!!
That's a beauty! Cheers :)
I see what you did there
Oral "bee" substitute is my favorite . Love your channel!!!
vibee
I totally did not see that coming. I thought he was going to use the bristles to gently pollinate the flowers like I've heard people doing with qtips. I learned something new!
Hahaha 😂😂😂😂 Me Too haaaa
Pls never stop uploading
Frustrated tomatoes meet vibrators. I am sure that they are very happy now.
Great tip 😊
Just the tip
This trick worked perfectly for me! I have some heirloom seeds I was given in Bulgaria that I planted this season in the pacific north west. My first few flowers had a very low pollination rate. When I saw this video I started using my electric toothbrush on the new flowers. I am now getting 90% pollination and fruit set. Thank you!!
Bulgarian tomatoes best tomatoes 🤛
Nevhr can’t wait for my Bulgarian Pinks! Best 🍅 in the world.
@@Vepoch I know! I hope you have a great harvest, ours are starting to ripen! Enjoy!
How often to you do the toothbrush hand pollination during the flower phase? Thanks!
Karen Page just once per flower. Every time I see a new flower I hit it with the tooth brush then don’t need to do it again.
Found your channel in the last week and half.. Absolutely hooked on your content and knowledge. Very likable guy! Keep the content flowing!!!!
This channel is AWESOME !!!!!!!!!
Mark's the greatest, huh?
I have been binge watching and I’ve started my own veggie garden. I live in a city in the uk 🇬🇧 so my garden is tiny and only have 1 small raised bed. But I’m so excited to see it grow 🥰
Reminds me of the tomato patch down by by the old ROOT canal.Right next to the CAVITY of blackberrys,in miss flosse's backyard!
Great tip for those who live in a more and more un-natural environment. And if one do live in such an area now is the moment to realise we all ! have to protect this world. Cause we rely on nature and all its creatures.
So let's care for nature - let's plant trees, flowers, let the gardens be a bit untidy, use what nature gives us. And be thankful for all of that.
Therefore thanks a lot to you Mark and all the others who share their knowledge so we could all do our best for ourselves, children, grandkids, flora and fauna. 🦋
Four out of five dentists recommend flossing in between harvestings. ;)
LOL very good advice! :)
@@Selfsufficientme 😜
I bet the fifth dentist has no teeth to floss. Also nice video I stumbled into your videos by accident but they are very educational I'm definitely going to try this next season with some of my heirloom tomatoes next season!
John is a dentist so we cant show his cat face on TV.
@@Selfsufficientme if I plant tomato in NSW now can I grow a strong stem to be ready for the season?
It's currently December 6th in San Diego California, and my tomato plants had about 100 blossoms and no tomatoes. The bees aren't out much. After seeing this video, I bought a cheap electric toothbrush and started vibrating the blossoms. IT WORKS!!! I now have tomatoes starting. Thank you so much for this video and this information.
I've been using this trick since the first flowers appeared, it 100% works. Last year the pollinators were late and I missed out on a lot of tomatoes. This year every flower has set on both my chillies and tomatoes. Neighbours must think I'm mad though 🤣 Thank you!
I've been doing this for my tomatoes and my peppers this year. The set rate for both has been great!
How many times in a week - month do you pollinate tomatoes with a toothbrush? Why you don't just use a fan to create wind and make pollination?
@@carlosferegrino290 Do it everyday to any open flowers (it only take 5mins to do a dozen plants you only hold on each branch for a few seconds). A fan would be random and could blow pollen away, you want it to drop straight down, this is treating each bud. As he stated and this has been proven, the buzzing mimics bee's and causes the plant to drop pollen. I've been using this for several years and get 90% fruit from open flowers.
I always love seeing a notification that you have put a video up. You are so informative and knowledgeable, and you do it in a way that is fun and enjoyable. It is obvious that you love what you are doing in your garden. Often people who are providing information about sustainability and self-sufficiency are too serious, and forget that you need to add joy and fun into the mix. You do an amazing job!! Cheers!
This is really cool! I recently started a bunch of tomato plants by accident. I tossed some food scraps with tomato seeds into my compost pot on the balcony and forgot about it for a few days. Within weeks I have 2ft tall tomato plants so I have been watering and taking care of them. I'll have to try this out!
Oh wow that's a nice little surprise 😄 I struggle to keep anything growing
I did the same and ended up with a tomato plant which has just opened the flowers today after a few weeks! I hope it will fruit.
Well I had a few but kept the 2 biggest plants. How long before it fruits once the flower has blossomed?
You are always so cheery! You had me laughing so hard when you stole the toothbrush!
I love it!!! My dad used the paint brush method, this is the 1st video I have ever seen using a paint brush, my dad in heaven, I am sure is very proud of you! I am going to go charge up our spare tooth brush!
G'day Mark. Yonks ago I watched a video where a bloke actually smacked his tomato plants with a rolled up newspaper. He said they always set well and he had beautifully full plants. I reckon just tickling would work fine. Thanks for sharing.
LOL Helen, smacking tomato plants - never heard that one but if it works why not! Cheers :)
Guess it depends on the personal inclinations of the plant lol
Fellow Aussie here. Long time viewer and short time subscriber, this is one of the most helpful videos on your channel thus far. Makes too much sense and makes me smile at the same time. You keep doing you, Mark :)
Like some old gardener once said, "Spank your tomatoes good!"
HA, so. Cool. I have used this same method for years. This is what I found imitates the vibrations of a bee. I grow Brandywine tomatoes and this method of a battery operated toothbrush shakes down the pollen: postal & stamen. I have showed this method to only a few neighbors, telling them I am making love to my veggies. Glad it is now published by a well known gardener!
One of the best pollinator-attracting plants I use (Newport, UK) is 'Borrage'! Every year I sit out enjoying the constant buzz of bees etc in amongst the self-seeding Borrage with its gorgeous blue flowers that just keep opening (along with my pink foxgloves) while waiting for my giant sunflowers to open (first one did yesterday... yippee).
Borrage flowers taste lovely on salads or even alone and the leaves, while spikey, taste and smell like cucumber.
Keep up the good work Mark.
I have grown borrage before and I agree it's a great plant - I should grow more of it! Cheers :)
How many times in a week - month do you pollinate tomatoes with a toothbrush? Why you don't just use a fan to create wind and make pollination?
@@carlosferegrino290 I'll add my 2-cents here if you don't mind... all I do to help pollinate my tomatoes is repeatedly tap the stems with my first and second fingers while wiggling them quickly (pretend they're little legs and you're jiggling those fingers like they were running!... sorry for the analogy but I'd rather risk being patronising than being unclear... words are hard to get get exact meaning across sometimes)... the vibrations make the flowers jiggle very rapidly and this shakes pollen loose. Takes a couple of seconds.
I do this most times I'm near to them while either watering or inspecting or just walking past (maybe once every one or two days?). Works like a charm.
When I had an apple orchard (my first farm, so very limited knowledge), my apple trees stopped producing. I went and spoke to an old apple grower man and he told me to go out in the spring when the sap was coming up and beat the tree with a baseball bat. He said the shockwaves go down to the root and make the tree think it's dying and thereby sends all kinds of energy into blooming. BEST BUMPER CROP EVER! So I suppose the vibration does a lot of different things! Love your tip!!
This video came at the perfect time for me. Think I'll use my beard trimmer for lack of electric toothbrush. Thanks.
Buddy YOU Truly are genius You love your plants like your own babies I admire your devotion keep it up .....
Thank you! I am a dental hygienist so I found this really amusing....and of course I have several electric toothbrushes so I am prepared to use this method!
I like your suggestion about using a family members toothbrush. It’s the way to go. I tried it and I could actually see pollen puffs coming from the plant. Several days later I checked plants and yeh boyyyyyyy, it worked! Thanks a bunch..Bob
I usually tape one of the cheap battery operated toothbrushs on the end of a long stick so I can touch the top of flowers that are out of my reach, it is the only way I have been able to get tomatoes in years! It really helps when you have those 15-20 foot tall tomatoes running up single stem strings, haha
Hey, I love this self sufficient guy, but, just another perspective.
I live in New England, which has a lot of issues with Tobacco Mosaic Virus for tomatoes. If you don't have a disease problem, the electric toothbrush or shaking method seems really like a good option. If you have a potential disease problem, like us Yankees do, then this method spreads the disease. leave well enough alone if you've got any possible disease issues. The crop will be better without help.
Soooo, know your environment and know your soil before adopting someone's method for fruit propagation.
That said, Mr. Self-Sufficient absolutely knows the best program for his part of the world! I totally respect him and enjoy his videos. Just don't assume it's all-purpose advice.
He's great though.
I used another type of vibrating device I found in the bedroom to do this... now I'm divorced.
You were supposed to use it on the tomato's Frank...!
Ah well, as a resourceful self sufficient type you obviously will know that if one trick doesn't work on one, you can try it on another and it might work very well. But, as a female, I suggest you stick to using the tooth brush on the tomatoes, not certain highly sensitive parts of the female anatomy... Got to use implements correctly to get results. Vibrators for teeth might not be such a brilliant idea, either. Too much rattling noise I bed at night, when your partner is trying to sleep...But tomatoes won't mind. Just get up at about 3am if feeling sexually frustrated and unable to sleep and just give the tomato plants a go with the vibrator and watch them bloom next morning, bright and early, in the sunrise...Tell your sleepy head sexually boring partner where you went and what you did, how etc last night. Make them so jealous...
😂😂😂😂😂
Ha ha ha!!!
OMG I laughed out loud ...Hard belly laugh
So u r vibrating your tomato plants, after sweet talking to them. And the tomato responds with a, "Love is a beautiful song, tr-la la-la-la la lala" and gives u what u want.
U have given me some good ideas.
While trying this out my wife accused me of being the only man concerned with the erogenous zones of a plant. Maybe you did this just to laugh at us. ha ha.
A simple flick will do. I tease my tomatoes grown indoors by flicking each flower, not too hard, but hard enough for them to feel it. .
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Good one
I am going to buy an electric toothbrush pollinator. I was just about to give up on tomatoes until I watched the video. None of my tomatoes had fruit this year. Last year the possums and other animals ate my great tomato crop. My husband built a great enclosure to protect the plants this year. Nor I realise I must have locked our the pollinators or the bushfires effected them. I have just bought some tomato plants and will really give it another go. Thanks for the advice. Love the videos.
You know how Basil grows well with tomatoes? This brings a whole new meaning to the name 'Basil Brush'. Boom boom.
Hahaha
@@coolwater55 lol..
I appreciate the details, how you explain the procedure. For those of us without green thumbs ..... need it.
I thought I was the only one who thought of using my electric toothbrush to vibrate the pollen from male to female parts in the “perfect” flower!
So, if you do something wrong here then it's acci-dental?
It looks a bit weird ha ha. Don't know what my neighbors would think if they see me brushing my tomatoes.
Yes ..there are special institutions for people like that 🤪 lol
I speak to mine...😜
I can’t WAIT for my neighbours to see me electric tooth brushing my tomato plants! They already think I’m a nutter anyways
@@derekcox6531 Wave a packet of floss in the air. They'll really freak out!😜
Hahaha 😆 😂 🤣 FUNNY! 😁
I enjoy the delivery, content and your wit best bit is I learn something every time. Get me buzzing about the garden xx
😂😂😂 funny. I like it when you pretend to get someones toothbrush. 🤣
Who's Pretending.?
The evidence is good
You learn something new every day. This is the first time I've heard about tomatoes requiring vibrating devices in order to bear fruit.
“How you doin’..?” 😏
hahah 🤣🤣
Lol
Lucy S vibrating!
i watch various gardening vids, but Mark's are absolutely the best. Thanks!
My dad used to use a small feather or a child's paintbrush to pollenate the flowers of tomatoes and cucumbers
Did it work well?
I use a small paintbrush as well. When he got the toothbrush, I thought he was going to shake the plant from the base or something.
Brilliant! I tried it and I was floored how easy and effective. Bumper crop. Fruit is setting bountifully... thank you so much!
and you can cover multiple tomato plants is a very short amount of time, just a slight touch on the top of the flower and you are done, if you can get the sun behind the flower you can see the pollen quickly drop down to the stamen, very quick and easy
I can’t tell you how much we enjoy your vids! You’ve become a household name for us here in Vermont!
Thanks for the daily dose of entertainment and brilliant suggestions!
We’ve been “getting into it!”👍
I just tap the tomato cage. Shakes the whole plant. Usually happens just by working in the garden. We have bees and birds that work ours. The birds eat caterpillars, bees work flowers. Plants get jostled by birds, too. We always get loads of tomatoes.
this gent is just so earnest in what he does, you watch his videos one after the other :) much praise to you good sir, all the way from Mozambique, one farmer to another :D
The scene stealing the tooth brush just gained you another sub. That made me laugh, and after a day like today it was much needed. Thank you.
My dad was telling me to do something like this. He told me that I needed to go out and "Spank my Tomatoes". I thought he was totally crazy, and just pulling my leg. After research and several TH-cam channels later it's true! Craziest thing I had ever heard of, but it works. We like to shake the trellis that they plants are tied too. It works really well.
absolutely loving the vids. Keep it up mate big aspirations to have a crop like yours someday
Thank you for your videos. I'm a first-time gardener. I love your content and sense of humor.
You failed to mention the best brand of tooth paste for healthy tomatoes 🤷🏽♂️🤣
Thanks!
Thank you for the Super Thanks! All the best for 2024 :)
I know you had a humoristic side in you. Loved the clip when you sniked in the bathroom and took the toothbrusch 😂 Great tip BTW 🙂
Ive been doing this for a couple of years now and it's quite effective. You'll often even see a puff of pollen on a flower that's 'ripe'.
One critique.... you don't have to have the brushes that move and in fact I would advise against it, as tomatoes flowers are pretty fragile. There are plenty of vibrating toothbrushes that do just that with no oscillating bristles. Means you don't have to take as much care and can just reach into a cluster without such precision. Means you can move through a lot of flowers much faster. Just a suggestion. Love your vids man!
This is brilliant. I am definitely doing this. I flick to hard with my fingers. Thank you so much for sharing.
Hi Mark another great video. From one Veteran to another?
“Watch now for a complete demonstration”
100% Defence force teaching technique.
If my family caught me doing this it would be off to the funny farm...😂😂
I’ve put my family onto your videos, thank you for the knowledge you share.
Unless it's a cold hardy or heat resistant tomato variety, typically tomatoes have an ideal temperature for fruit setting, around 55 to 80*F (12 to 26*C) night time temperature, when it's out of this range there will be blossom drops and immature fruits.
I don't bother with manual pollination except for indoor, although you can skip this too if you run a standing fan at the plants.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience! Cheers :)
This is brilliant! I f you can believe it, we swapped out our old electric toothbrush last night as it doesn’t hold a charge for long. So now we have an old toothbrush we can repurpose. 🙌
Where I live in Franklin, Pennsylvania I very rarely see any bees anymore. Some black and white bumble bees. I used to see those little bees, but I haven't seen any of those. People keep using chemicals. My brother in law lives next to us, not real close but uses all that stuff and round up. Sad we are killing all our bugs and useful insects.
Yes unfortunately chemicals don't discriminate between good and bad bugs so bees are often a big casualty. We can all do our little bit though. Cheers :)
I live in Corry, PA. This year we noticed a bit more than we have in previous years. Which is a good thing. Be sure to plant plants that attract pollinators and leave some clove for the bees in your yard as it grows. We have a couple of neighbors doing the same with the chemicals,but found that we can still attract them from elsewhere. We also heard that there isn't enough plants attracting the bees either while they fly around to land on and rest in.
@@TracyR4 I did plant lots of flowers and we do have clover in the grass. I did see a few more bees this summer than ever. My Bil had nose cancer from smoking and never quit smoking. He is a bullhead. He is 76 or so now.
Using chemical should be against the law.....mother's nature's law. Your brother in-law isn't the brightest light bulb.
Just watched the Australian Broadcasting Commission Gardening show that had a segment about moths explaining their usefulness. They are night pollinators!! and account for a large percentage of pollination. Unfortunately many people use those electric bug zappers that kill everything.
I love it! That's the best idea, I have heard to help Pollinate your tomatoes. Thank you🌱🌱🌱🍅🍅🍅
😂😂 I flick mine, can't think of any cavity jokes, vibrations though...best left alone.
yeah i give my tomatoes and peppers a little finger drum solo haha
For best results gently put the center of bristle ends directly up into the flower. I only do the opened and wanting flowers.
I tried this (the electric toothbrush to pollinate) on tomatoes and as far as I can tell, works perfectly. Just a reminder to label it and keep the “tomatoe” toothbrush away from others, especially if you have kids (haven’t had a mix-up, but I don’t want it to). And does take time, but kids also like the idea of “be the bee” and you can often get them to do it.
I'm going to try it. Thank you for the different tips. 🌸🌸🌸
Love watching your videos from here in California. You are the best Aussie ambassador since Steve Irwin. Love ya, m8
Thanks for the info.. your the Steve Irwin of the plant kingdom.. 😀
Checks time stamp to make sure this didn't come out on April 1st (I've been known to 🐝 gullible). I can't wait to try this. 👍
Ahaha :D I was feeling a bit down this morning but your toothbrush skit there has brightened my day. Thank you, sir! :D
Enjoy hearing your explanations and instruction, but also love the visual ... Clips here and there that illustrate your points. Nicely put together. Thanks for all the instruction and encouragement!
I set my phone to vibrate and strapped it to my plant now I just call it every morning......
🤣
Genius.. 👍🏻
LMAOOO
Late comment but Big brain
USL Services Excellent, yours is the best comment so far.
Thanks, I used this tip this weekend and have already seen a huge difference.
Great way to recycle old electric toothbrushes. I have been trying to find a use for them for years.
Those are great ideas. Specially planting tomatoes in the fall. I may try that this year. Right here in central Florida, US I am getting to many diseases this summer in my plants. Thank you.
Make sure that you hit your tomatoes "T Spot"!! lol
This honestly needs more likes. xdxdxdd
I just learned which veggies need help pollinating and which plants "self pollinate". Squash & Zucchini need a lot of help, if you don't have many bees. Tomatoes, lettuce, Okra, kale, etc., don't need any help pollinating.
Tomato flowers contain both the male & female sex organs to self pollinate...so a tap or your electric toothbrush, are huge helps. Beets, carrots, etc., don't need pollination as they are "tubers or Rhizome" plants. Thanks Mark, the toothbrush is a good idea!
Great trick. Thanks for sharing! 💚
I loved this demonstration lol. I am a first time gardener and trying to get all the help I can get. Love your humor. Thanks
I'm going to do this today! I've been flicking, but I think this will be better! Thanks, as always! :D
I love
I live in the south I very seldom see honey bees some bumblebees not many of those. I will be brushing my tomato blossoms. Thanks for the information. I love it!
So technically any personal vibrating device would work?😋
Hahahahaha
Natasha Nagy oh my gosh I think I know what you're thinking
"You gotta try these tomatoes, they're ORGASMICALLY delicious" 😄 😄 😄
Not yourvPersonel Massager By God What were you Thinking Natasha?
Redtail, I like to keep the neighbours on their toes...so to speak
my kids loved the idea! now they want to brush the tomato teeth! you're amazing Mark!
As usual your video was A W E S O M E
God bless you and yours
I grow superhot peppers and some varieties are hard to get fruit set so I have been using the electric toothbrush pollination method for a few years and it works great. I also do it with the tomatoes in my greenhouse. Great tip!
hi Mark Love the Videos, We live just up the road from you on the sunny coast. i have been looking at homesteading videos from the US, and am soooooo happy to find yours!!!!!!!
I am planing on starting raised garden beds/ growing our own vegs & chickens. do I start a composting pile first or just place the raised beds as I get them? I need to clear some garden beds for the raised beds to go in to. thanks heaps NGM
You have a great understanding of nature
I flick mine. The tomato plants can’t have my $80 toothbrush 😄
just change the end o the toothbrush for a used one. Or dont use the end at all. Still going to vibrate.
Walgreens has their own brand for about $9.00 I'm sure Amazon can get you a sim ilar price one. It works briliantly, you can see the pollen fly out of the plant. PS Use it on pepper plants as well, same flower structure.
80 DOLLARS SCUSE ME FOR A DAMN TOOTH BRUSH THATS LIKE A LUXURY MEAL OR LIKE THE BEST KEYBOARD AND MOUSE
Thank you for this!! I will plant Thai Basil! But, living on the middle floor of our apartment building, not many insects come to our balcony - so, electric toothbrush it is!! The best part is that one can buy single battery dependant (AAA) electric toothbrushes (Colgate, Arm & Hammer) and keep it just for this! Thank you again! btw - it looked as if there was powdery mildew on the cucumber or squash plant near the tomatoes - I have good luck spraying mine with a powdered milk mixture.
LOL! I cracked up at, “How are you doing?”, and sneaking a family member’s toothbrush out to the garden.
Informative and funny demo. Thanks.
I'm a total tomato plant growing boob here. Although, in 1980, I grew a plant someone gave me on my fire escape and it produced nicely but, lots of wind probably helped it along.
I recently did a crop in my Aerogarden and not one tomato! So, I went to Amazon and saw that thingy Aerogarden sells which basically is what you are using...an electric toothbrush. Cool. I got one in the closet.
I've watched a few videos and all I saw was pollen going out of the flower with this method and, I wondered how the pollen "knew" where to land properly. But you said something interesting about the process when bees do it...that some of the pollen their buzzing loosened up goes into the air but, some finds it's way to the stigma and goes into the ovaries where the fruit is formed (something like that). So, that's what I'm aiming for then? Just to shake things up a bit in the flower stage in order to loosen up the pollen and get it to go back down into the plant to self pollinate it?
I was thinking maybe my neighbours drum and bass music she likes to share with us neighbour's might just come in handy after all then, if the bees don't mind.
I used this method on chillies when I grew them indoors in a Romanian winter. -20 outside. Works great.
I’m so glad you didn’t call this a “hack”!
Absolutely love Your videos. Keep up great work. Been flicking my tomatoes last year... it's work
The vibrating stuff won't work. The neighbours are far too close. Greatings from Scotland 😉