The Sexin` Toothbrush

I am moving away from short-form posts on Twitter, Bluesky, etc., and trying to do medium-form stuff here. So I was going to drop a Bluesky post about my tomato sexin' toothbrush over on BlueSky gardening, but alas I will just post it here. Here is the toothbrush:

I first heard of people doing this about a decade ago and just now started trying it during COVID-19. I never had a problem pollinating tomatoes in my garden before, but I am now a huge convert to this method because the yield is much bigger.

All you are doing is emulating buzz pollination for the flower's anthers using an electric toothbrush. It all sounds a slightly kinky, but damn if it doesn't work well. You touch the back of the toothbrush ( while on, of course ) to the back of the tomato flower.

I usually wait until they are well in bloom before I do it. I am growing Hybrid 100s this year and they produce a ton of small tomatoes, so each branch that I am working with contains a good half-dozen+ of tomatoes.

This is a super cheap method for a greater yield. I don't have a ton of room for tomatoes, so every little bit helps.