Tomatoes: Lots of flowers, no fruit

People ask me from time to time why their otherwise healthy, prolifically flowering tomato plant does not seem to set fruit properly or isn't setting fruit at all. This can especially be the case here in the Pacific Northwest where we can have cool, rainy, and humid spring weather. With just a little help your tomato plant should be on its way to providing you with loads of your favorite tomato. Personally, I'm looking forward to my Sun Gold Cherry tomatoes. I doubt they will ever even make it in the house though as my family can't help but eat them right off the stem.

Tomato Blossoms, Westergard Garden

Here is little dose of science and big dose of fun how-to, which should get your tomatoes back on track if they seem to be misbehaving this spring. 

One nice thing about tomatoes is that the blossoms are self-fertile, meaning that each blossom can pollinate itself. It doesn't require pollen from another plant or other flowers. The blossom does need a bit of help though, most often through the aid of a pollinator. Bumble bees commonly provide this help by "sonicating." Cool new word, huh? Sonication is the vibration of the bees wing muscles, without the wings moving, and when done while the Bumble bee is sitting on the blossom it causes the dried pollen dust to move off the anther (male part) and onto the stigma and down into the ovary (female parts).  Wala!, tomatoes.

Sun Gold Tomatoes, Westergard Garden

Your tomato may be putting on lots of yellow flowers, but in cool, moist spring weather bee activity may be reduced and the pollen may not be drying out enough to easily move off the anther. Good news though: you can replicate bee sonication by manual giving your tomato plants a vigorous shake on a sunny dry day. Yep, that's usually all it takes. If you have an electric tooth brush this could also be used at the base of the blossoms along the stem to vibrate the anthers and release the pollen. Wind movement also shakes the tomato blossoms and will also cause fertilization.

A couple other interesting facts about sonication from the website Honey Bee Suite are that first, honey bees do not sonicate and second, other plants that may require or do better with sonicating bumble bees include the potato, blueberry, and cranberry. (http://www.honeybeesuite.com/wednesday-word-file-sonication/)

Good luck with those tomatoes!