How to pollinate tomatoes

Q: A few of my friends have discussed the pollination of tomatoes. We would like to try. Where can we find information about this?

A: Tomato plants have secrets regarding breeding them for seed. There is an excellent book, “Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties,” by Carol Deppe, published by Chelsea Green Publishing Company (www.chelseagreen.com). Most types of tomato plants have the anatomy to self-pollinate.

For heirloom varieties of tomatoes, you do not have to do anything. The flower structure causes them to fertilize their own flowers with no human interaction required. The anther (male part of the flower) prevents pollen from other types of tomatoes from fertilizing the flower.

For hybrid tomatoes, you will have to first remove the pollen sacs so that no self-fertilization will take place. Then, you have to introduce the pollen for fertilization from another desired tomato plant by hand with forceps (tweezers) by placing the pollen directly on the stigma of the flower. This is a tedious process.

Most seed companies hire Taiwanese employees to do this because they are skilled, inexpensive labor. Each successful pollination usually produces about 200 seeds. Usually, this process takes place early in the morning about 6 a.m. The flowers that are just opening are the best and easiest source of pollen. Also, most successful crosses are made under cool, wind-free conditions.

The color of the tomato fruit at maturity determines how much carotenoids — carotene (orange color) and lycopene (red color) are found in the fruit. Carotene can be converted by our bodies into Vitamin A. Lycopene has no vitamin A value. Orange tomatoes contain no lycopene and large amounts of carotene. Unfortunately, people usually prefer the red color with less nutrition value instead of the orange color with five times the amount of beta-carotene.

But in blind taste tests the orange-colored tomatoes fare better than the red-colored tomatoes.

Also, meaty tomatoes are not as full-flavored as juicy tomatoes.

For seed production, you usually use overripe tomatoes that are way past the eating stage because you can separate seeds easier. Tomato seeds are coated with a gelatinous material. This gel makes cleaning the seeds difficult. Usually, you will need to allow the collection of fresh seed to ferment to clear off the gel material. You do this by washing the seeds. It is important to clean off all the gelatinous material to release all the germination inhibitors. Then, dry the seed, usually on newspaper, as soon as the fermentation process has been completed to keep viability of the seed.

You will know that fermentation is complete in one or two days when bubbles stop appearing and mold begins to form. If you over-ferment the seeds, they will lose some of the viability.

Clean the seed by running water until there is just the seed itself remaining. Then, dry and separate the seeds so that they do not stick together. Now, you know why tomato seeds are so expensive with all of these seed treatments usually done by hand.

This story was originally published July 28, 2016 at 7:00 AM with the headline "How to pollinate tomatoes."