how to pollinate plants indoorss

[Ron Hogue]

I am new to this in fact my totes will be delivered this weekend to start setting up my system.

I have been reading and I can not find anything about pollinating my plants for an indoor system...

Will this be a subject or non-subject for a system setup in a basement...

I know that bees do it for plants that are outside but inside???  Also will be setting up a small greenhouse outside later and will move my system out to it, so do I have to worry about this then???

I think this would be an important fact to consider but I can not find anything about this within using aquaponics...  Thanks for any help on this subject...

 

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Pollinating plants indoors is the same whether its AP, hydro, pots with potting soil etc..

Methods will depend largely on your particular plant's sexuality. Plants with what are called 'perfect flowers' meaning that each flower contains both male and female parts can be zapped with an electric toothbrush (or any other vibrating device you have lying around in the house), tapped quickly with two fingers, or use a cotton swab (my preferred method) to brush pollen from the stamen onto the sticky tip of the pistil (called the stigma). I try to do this a couple times a day for a few days in a row for each flower to ensure decent pollination. Big-time PITA when you have many, many plants, But not so bad, and rather a relaxing daily ritual when you only have under a dozen or so... 

If your plants have separate male and female flowers you need to use the cotton swab to transfer pollen from the male flowers to the female flowers stigma again. Its pretty much the same deal in any indoor set-up...Nothing "special" needs to be done for AP.

I've been a 'busy little bee' with the cotton swab these past weeks, here are some 'fruits of my labours'...

[TCLynx]

Some types of plants don't require anything (peas) but other plants a little vibration or a fan moving air in the room (sometimes with tomatoes if they are all tied to the same trellis you can make it easy.)  Other plants require the paint brush or cotton swab routine.

Inside a house or inside a sealed up greenhouse the requirements will be about the same.

Bees are not the only pollinators there are other bugs and even birds (sometimes even bats) that sometimes do it depending on the plant in question.

[Ron Hogue]

Thank you both for the info..

I am new to all this...

You say some plants do not require this, so how can you tell which plants do and do not??

And how do you tell the sex parts of a plant???

[TCLynx]

I would say do a search for info on the different plants you intend to grow to find out which ones need help being pollinated and which ones are good on their own. The info you turn up will also probably help you identify the plants that have different gender flowers.

Plants related to cucumbers, pumpkins, squash and gourds usually have male and female flowers.  The female flowers are the ones with the little fruit behind it and for that fruit to form properly you need to take one of the male flowers and touch the female flower with the middle parts from the male flower.  The male flowers are just on a stem without the little fruit behind it.  Some rare plants will have the male and female on separate plants.  Other plants might be fruitful even without pollination (those are usually noted  special in seed catalogs as being good for greenhouse production.)

[Jon Parr]

Q-tip, oscillating fan, and self-pollinating plants like "tasty jade" cucumbers from Johnny's seeds.

[Carey Ma]

I use my ex gf's vibrator to sex my tomatoes. Dot it on the trellis and the we have a tomatofest. 

[RupertofOZ]

Just use an old worn toothbrush.... if you want to impress the neighbours... use an electric toothbrush...

[TCLynx]

How you sex your tomatoes in the privacy of your grow room indoors is your own business and if the neighbors know about it, then they are far too nosy.

[Jon Parr]

Haha, Carey you crack me up. Rupe, you were talking about pollination, right?

[Rick Stillwagon]

There is a company out there that sells a "Bumblebee" colony I think it was a dozen bees and a queen, for greenhouse pollination.

 

[Carey Ma]

@ Rick: Funny, I just saw that (mini Bumblebee colony) here for the first time a few days ago at the strawberry symposium. 

@ Jon: Hehe..I thought it was funny.

@ TC: My yard is walled coz I like to do it in the open, non of this behind closed doors stuff. I'm not ashamed. 

[TCLynx]

You Go Busy Bee Carey