The birds and the bees: tomato style

Yesterday morning, after doing some research, I found out my ideas of tomato reproduction are incorrect.  I knew tomatoes are self-pollinating, which I thought meant that one flower from the tomato plant can pollinate another flower on the same plant.  This is not true!  In fact, one tomato flower can pollinate itself.  And it turns out the way it gets pollinated is by the vibration of bees' wings sending the pollen from the male part of the flower to the female part.

Luckily, I had already given my flower a little shake for some reason.  I hope I got the job done because it seems like the flower is starting to go limp.

approximately 8 weeks old

I have two other flowers open, and several more that should be open in the next couple of days!

I have been shaking them daily.  I think I should know within the next couple of days whether the pollination was successful.



I have been trimming my green basil every couple of days because it keeps hitting the light.  The purple basil is finally starting to catch up.  Even the oregano looks like it hit a growth spurt.

The mighty mini cherry tomato seeds I planted a week ago are coming up too. 

6 days old

I have not seen signs of the peppers appearing yet, but they are in a different kind of sponge with a deeper but narrow hole.  It kind of drives me crazy not to be able to look in on them several times a day.


My lettuce is doing well as always, but with all the changes in my AG 7 I have to confess I forgot to take a picture of the other garden!  Not a lot changes with that one anymore - the lettuce is growing quickly, but it's not really doing anything new.  It's almost at the three month mark - the end of the growing cycle according to AeroGrow, but it does not seem like it is slowing down one bit.  I will keep giving it nutrients until the growth drastically slows or until I find something else that I absolutely can't wait to plant.  Whichever comes first.