Pollination for indoor grow

[sherrie p cockram]

My Aquaponics system is strictly indoors. I'm using MH lighting over lettuce and switch to Sodium Halide for bloomers and veggie bearing on the other end. My cucumbers begin growing and then dry up and my bell peppers are in full bloom but producing no fruit. How do I pollinate? The room is large and my system has 2 floating rafts and 2 media beds along with the 300 gallon fish tank..Lettuce and herbs are beautiful...Should I put a couple of bees in there? I released 500 ladybugs in there last week for Aphids.

[Devoid]

I wouldn't put bees indoors.

Just need a little cheap artist paintbrush.

http://bonnieplants.com/2012/07/pollination-problems-give-hand-poll...

[Roger Baldwin]

With solanaceae family (tomatoes,  peppers, and eggplant), the flowers can pollinate themselves, so a good shake of the plants every day or so should pollinate. Cucurbitaceae family (cukes and squash) on the other hand have unisex flowers, so if you pick a male flower (a flower with no fruit at the base), rip off all the petals and expose the stamen.  then use the stamen as your "paint brush" and paint the inside of a female flower (a flower with a small immature fruit at the base where it connects to the plant), that should pollinate them.  Cuke flowers tend to open in the morning and then close as the day goes on, so it is best to do this first thing in the morning.

[Ben Rodman]

For those self-pollinating plants, those cheapie vibrating toothbrushes like Costco has can approximate the buzz pollination frequencies that bumblebees generate...