For 30 years, a gardener kept the secret of how to double his tomato crop to himself. Now he’s revealed the trick, and it’s quite simple.

If you want to get a big crop of tomatoes, you need to get the best possible pollination process going at the beginning. And if you’re willing to put in the time, you can help your plants a little. Get your paintbrushes ready!

Play bees

Once the tomato flowers are in bloom, collect the pollen from one flower and transfer it to the other using the brush. Repeat this process for all the flowers and continue for several days in a row.

This method of pollination is much more efficient than letting nature take its course. Even if it takes a lot of work, your efforts will yield up to twice as much.

What to look out for?

Tomato flowers are really delicate, so you’ve got to be really careful not to damage them when you’re pollinating them. You might even hold onto a bush and accidentally break it – be careful of that.

Don’t pollinate flowers after rain or after watering when they’re still a bit damp. Instead, choose an afternoon with stable weather. Wait for the flowers to open spontaneously in the sunshine, then get to work.

How to get the best quality tomato crop?

Tomatoes need a lot of light and heat, so choose a spot that gets a lot of light. Make sure they are not shaded by trees, buildings or other plants. Similarly, plant your tomatoes well apart (around 40 centimetres) so that the bushes do not shade each other.

Sometimes tomatoes need to be fertilised – choose manure, compost or wood ash from natural sources. They often lack phosphorus, nitrogen and calcium. You can get these from the ash mentioned above, but you can also buy special fertiliser mixes to supply all the necessary substances.