kawaiineko, so, they did get fruit but these were small. A varietal characteristic? Are others in your neighborhood growing the crop? Are they more successful? Are nurseries or box stores promoting the sale of these plants? Drew51 made a good point about growing the crop outside of its 'season'. If all the evidence support your efforts, then fertilizer might be the key. I want to suggest additional Potassium but I am wary for two reasons. The first is that potassium is somewhat antagonistic to nitrogen. But nitrogen deficiency is easily diagnosed. Secondly, I would not be surprised if calcium also becomes deficient. So watch for early symptoms of blossom end rot. There! Now you know all I know about tomatoes. This post was edited by ronalawn82 on Sun, Feb 2, 14 at 4:36

Mine set every berry in a greenhouse whether pollinated or not. This yr they had bumblebees during part of the bloom and not the other part. All the fruit set. I lower the pH of my well water to 4.5 when I run out of rain water. They are fertilized with ammonium sulfate and rarely with sulfur and iron sulfate. I leave them inside from fall frost until harvest, about now. Rest of the year they are outside in full sun, and we have lots of sun!! I prune heavily after harvest and some after they start blooming if the crop looks too heavy, which it has been every yr. The Fruitnut

Sean: Gala has a reputation of being partially self fertile. I've read that some commercial growers in WA grow it without a pollinator to save on thinning cost. So I think Pink Lady would be all that is needed. But I've never grown just those two so can't be sure.

I don't use q-tips. I usually break off the entire stamen with the anthers attached and stick them in a baggie if I'm going to store them. I store them in the freezer and honestly have no idea how long it's good for. For the most part it doesn't matter which pollen you use on what plant. I don't know if different brugs (arborea, aurea, sanguinea, suaveolens, versicolor, vulcanicola) can all be used to pollinate each other or if some have different numbers of chromosomes like passion vines. Karyn