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Greenhouses & Garden Structures

For newbies: pollination in greenhouses

17 years ago

With so many folks doing greenhouse gardening for the first time I thought I would share something with you. I've been growing veggies in my greenhouse for 2 years now & , duh, I just figured out what's wrong with my squash. OK, I'm a little slow :>) Greenhouse = no bugs = equals no pollination. Yep, I've been hand pollinating the tomatoes with a little paint brush but for some stange reason (old age maybe?) it did not occur to me to hand pollinate the squash. They would get to about 2" long, the blossom would fall off, & the squash would fall off. As soon as I started hand pollinating I got beautiful squash! My neighbors also had the same problem with their outside garden this year because we had no honey bees around. I expect that next year we will have a bumper crop of squash.

Also, some varieties of veggies are "parthenocarpic" and are able to reproduce without pollination. I think I must have gotten some of these types of plants, like seedless cucumbers, by accident last year. Next year I will hand pollinate like crazy!

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Comments (10)

tsmith2579
17 years ago
Every winter I am in the greenhouse with my bird feathers fertilizing citrus blooms. By spring I have a bumper crop of calamondins. Been doing it for years.
CarolynA
Original Author
17 years ago
Well, I found out why there are no bees around here this summer. They got some sort of, pardon the pun, bug. I thought it was odd that there were zero bees. I sure hope they make a comeback!
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It been working fine even with the near 100 degree temps, but if no pollinators can get in, I have to rethink my methods. I built my GH 12 feet tall with the idea of letting the heat rise up high away from the plants. It's pretty hot up about head high, but down low where the plants are it stay pretty cool. Anyway, I am going to pull the fans out and enlarge the holes and make louvers. I found some heat actuated automatic louver arms on Amazon for $40 with pretty good reviews. I am going to order them and give that a try. If they work and my GH stays cool enough I will save enough money on electricity from not running the exhaust fans to pay for them in a year. I wish I would have thought about pollination when I first designed this thing. But I expect to have to make some modification since this was my first time to do something like this.
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User
17 years ago
Carolyna, put away your paintbrush...all you have to do to pollinate tomatoes in the greenhouse is to shake the plant once a day; best to do this midday.

Tsmith, I hate to tell you this, but my research indicates Calamondins are self-fertile and self-pollinating.

SB

Here is a link that might be useful: Calamondin link
clavero
17 years ago
I have no problem with tomatoes forming fruit in our small gh. The door is open most of the day but I can't say I've seen bees around inside.

I've not shaken them either but the 24/7 fans keep them "swaying in the breeze" day and night.
agardenstateof_mind
17 years ago
Like clavero, my cherry tomatoes formed fruit last winter without my making any efforts regarding pollination. There was a small fan running 24/7 in the greenhouse, and, of course, just tending to the plants "shakes" them a little bit. Perhaps some varieties are just easier than others.
jimmydo2
17 years ago
I thought that even if a Plant was.
"self-fertile and self-pollinating.", you still need to get the pollen from one flower to another somehow...
nathanhurst
17 years ago
jimmy, I think self-pollinating means that after a certain period of time the flower closes down and fertilises itself. self-fertile means that a single plant can provide the pollen and the egg.
ole_dawg
16 years ago
StressBaby,
Well you have just taken a load off my mind. So I don't have to worry about the tomatoes being beeless? Why shake them? Is that enough to send the pollen into the air? Just curious about that. The rest of the stuff going in there does not require pollenizing (SP)Lettuce and Microgreens.
Thanks for the info
1eyedJack and the Dawg
User
16 years ago
So I don't have to worry about the tomatoes being beeless? - no

Why shake them? Is that enough to send the pollen into the air? - yep

SB
NotEnuffMana
12 years ago
I have two cherry tomato plants but one got late blight so i quarantined that ass with the quickness. but my last plant which is marvelous is in a deep water culture has many flowers but they keep falling off! i have made a buzz-pollinator out of a vibrating razor handle and a toothbrush head. I've also made a centrifugal dremmel out of a cap on the end of the dremmel with a spinning cotton swab in the middle. But theres been some freakishly hot weather since the flowers opened! anybody have an idea where to buy pollen perhaps? or any surefire over-the-top ways to make this work(cooling methods, trapping a bumblebee in my room for the day)? I dont want the past 80 days to be for nothing. The mornings have been about 80F reaching 93F noon.

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