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Tomatoes are among the simplest fruits to cultivate, but without adhering to basic techniques, your harvest may be small and of poor quality. Regardless of whether you're growing your tomatoes in your garden, at home or in a greenhouse, there's a three-minute task all gardeners can undertake to significantly boost their yield.
An expert gardener known as Jamie Walton of Nettles & Petals has taken to Instagram to share a straightforward 'tapping' method that can greatly enhance your tomato plants, reports the Express. He captioned his video: "Here's a few simple things I do to help increase tomato harvest from my vegetable garden and maintain healthy tomato plants."
Below, we've detailed his 'tapping' advice.
How does tapping function?
Jamie clarified: "Tomato flowers are self-pollinating, but they do require a little help, usually from the wind or pollinators. But tapping the trusses can do this too, helping to release pollen onto the stamen, therefore reducing gaps on the truss."
"It is particularly useful when growing them indoors. Opening greenhouse windows, poly tunnel doors and side vents can help to improve pollination too."
According to a gardening expert who spoke to Ideal Home, tomatoes are self-pollinating as they have male and female parts, so all they need is movement to enhance pollination, which will, in turn, increase crop yield.
Gardeners cultivating tomatoes in a greenhouse should be tapping their plants to replicate nature's function by encouraging pollen to drop and enhancing pollination.
How to 'tap' your plants
Daniel Carruthers, director of sales at Cultivar Greenhouses, explained: "The good news it that tapping tomatoes only takes a few minutes and is very easy - simply take hold of the stem and gently shake it so that pollen is released or tap the end of the flowers directly."
He also recommended: "If you have a fine paintbrush to hand (the type that you'd paint a picture with, not decorate your home), you can softly brush the inside of the flower in a twirling motion and then transfer the pollen collected onto the tip of the centre of the flower. If art isn't your thing, a cotton bud will also do the same job."
Another specialist at Home & Gardens, who trialled the method, suggested starting to tap your plants when they reach approximately 10 inches in height and have developed their first cluster of flowers. Gardeners should then carry this out daily or every other day.
If the approach proves unsuccessful, you may be letting your plant down in other areas, such as insufficient watering or not providing the soil with adequate nutrients.
Additional advice on cultivating robust tomatoes
During his video, Jamie also offered further guidance on producing a thriving crop. He explained: "If fruit splitting and pests are an issue, try removing tomatoes once the colour change has started.
"This means that the fruit has passed the breaker stage, and that it no longer requires nutrients and sugars from the plant to be able to fully ripen and can do so off the plant without much loss in flavour."
At this point, the delicate layer of cells in the "Abscission Zone" (where the fruit attaches to the plant) has developed considerably and starts to break the connection, which is why it's called the "breaker stage."
Jamie concluded: "If possible, I do leave the fruit to fully ripen on the plant, but if you're struggling, this method is much better than losing them altogether."