Day 63: The first tomato fruits (and my secret weapon)!

This post is a bit overdue. I didn’t have access to the camera for a while and couldn’t post pics. But here is Virender’s first tomato!

The pic’s actually a little over a week old and it’s bigger now. It’s quite strange – I really thought Fathima would be the one to give the first fruit, but she seems more interested in putting out leaves. Well, let her take her own course! I’m not a demanding parent :)

But I’ve seen most of the flowers just dry up and fall off. They weren’t getting pollinated it seems. I used to shake all four of them for a few seconds each day and till now, only two fruits have come and both of them on Virender.

I did a bit of research and found that if the humidity is too high (like it is in Chennai), the pollen grains stick to one another and don’t disperse. And unlike other plants, the pollen grains of tomatoes aren’t outside, but inside the pod and need to be shaken loose. Turns out that the humming of bees provides the right vibrations for this to happen. So I realized I needed to simulate the humming.

Using a vibrating dildo for pollination!

I pulled out the dildo we bought in New Orleans at Bourbon street and turned it on maximum vibration :D . It began to hum and it sounded just like a bee. I placed it on the stems and the flowers vibrated along with it. The next day, Virender popped out another tomato!

I must use it carefully though since it can damage the flowers and cause the stamen’s filament to drop off. Now waiting for some more flowers to open up so I can re use my secret weapon :)