I'm rather short of bees where I am, so I tried hand pollinating my tomatoes last year and seemed to have more fruit than my neighbour who didn't hand pollinate, so maybe it worked. I basically just shook the flowers with my finger by flicking the stem. I didn't touch the anthers or anything. (Apparently it is the shaking that is important.)

So if you are using an electric toothbrush, I'd try touching the flower where the stem joins the base of the flower. I'm not sure about the timing, I did it soon after the flowers opened, but basically just wandered around flicking the flowers whenever I remembered to do so.

This year's tomatoes are only a few inches high at the moment - it's a while before I'll be seeing flowers. Still, I was even later getting them going last year and I had plenty.

I am now getting loads of nice little green tomatoes by touching the base of the flower when the pistils are pointing down - around midday seems to yield the best results (you can see a miniature pollen cloud being released at the right time). Another giveaway is when the rear petals curl right back, some sources seem to indicate the flower is more receptive to pollination.

On that topic, my Black Russian tomatoes seem to have two different types of flowers! There's the conventional type (what I'm used to seeing), then there are some larger frilly flowers as well which appear to have multiple exposed stamens - any ideas?

I never have to hand pollinate tomatoes as there are plenty of all kinds of insects in my garden I only do that with the pumpkins.

I grew Black Russian tommys two years back. What a flop they were had no luck with Brandywine either or Cherokee Purple and lots of others. The best ones I grow are the little travelers that pop up in the mulch or sprout from the compost.. Then there is the fruit flies too much for the Summer for me..

Best of luck with yours especially if we get a wet Season..

Not too many insects actually are attracted to tomato flowers unfortunately - other nicer blooms such as pumpkins tend to attract more insects around here. I found the wind did a good job when in a more exposed area, but now without it the toothbrush seems to be working.

My Grosse Lisse plants are now taller than me (about 7' and still growing!) and are flowering and setting fruit nicely. My Black Russians and F1 Hybrids are about 2' tall and have two flower clusters each. As for fruit flies, I've found that placing something over the top of the fruit cluster works (e.g. an old rag - the little buggers can't seem to sting upwards it seems).

Yes I'm dreading the sudden deluges of rain - can anyone say cracked tomatoes? It's actually much easier metering out the water via a watering can than having 40mm dump 40 litres on every square metre!

The very reason I dont grow tomatoes in the so called wet season is because they all crack and the fruit fly get in, old sheer curtains are good for that also..

I let some of the plants go to seed in the veggie garden that way there are always flowers there for the bees I find bok choi the best and Cos lettuce, some thyme or similar in a pot would help also.

The very reason I dont grow tomatoes in the so called wet season is because they all crack and the fruit fly get in, old sheer curtains are good for that also..

I let some of the plants go to seed in the veggie garden that way there are always flowers there for the bees I find bok choi the best and Cos lettuce, some thyme or similar in a pot would help also.

Yes! Bok Choi looks gorgeous with its yellow flowers - very nice indeed (if a little bit large for small garden with the flower sprays). I now have over two dozen little tomatoes growing on my plants, and I buzz them with the toothbrush at least a couple of times a day - when the pollen cloud comes out I know the job is done. Fortunately we didn't get too much of that rain last night so no cracks in my larger tomatoes.

Hi...The flower sprays go up in the air so its air space you are using up..

We only got 4.5mm and the tomatoes hubby bought in yesterday had these little pin hole in them I told him not to bring those ones up to the house. I cut one this morning and sure enough there they were about 20 of the horrible little blighter's they are a jolly nuisance..

These are the last of the Winter plants and when they are gone I wont be planting any more till next Feb

My bok choi flowers go up initially, then spread out like an umbrella about 3' across - spectacular but can spread out quite some way. Sorry to hear you have fruit fly problems... I've been lucky enough so far *touches wood*

This pollination seems to be working better than I expected... one of my tomato bushes has TEN tomatoes on the one truss! The majority have at least five... very promising!

I never used to get any tomatoes either and tried pollenating with a toothbrush. But got fed up with that, so planted my tomatoes in meduim sized pot plants and moved them onto....wait for it, the enviroflow tank for our waste water, which is a concrete tank that vibrates continuosly. I did this in october and my plants havnt stopped fruiting ..thats 5 months of tomatoes, not heaps but several every week and the plants are still flowering and healthy, I pinched of the tops recently and stuck them back in beside mum plant and they too are now flowering. A tip worth sharing.

Some of the not-to-distant old timers called it Vibrationsbestäubung then someone decided i would better be called Vibrationssammeln.