Subject: Hand pollination

From: [email-masked] (John Perry)
Date: Wed, 26 Jun 96 19:56:00 GMT

Hi
Where can I get some info on hand pollination of tomatoe plants?
Thank you to all.
John Perry

---

From: don <[email-masked]>
Date: 3 Jul 1996 19:29:26 GMT

Real easy to hand pollinate - just shake the vine gently, or you can dab 
back and forth between flowers with a tiny artist's paint brush.  
Actually, I'm of the opinion that most tomatoes are self-pollinating, as I 
have grown them indoors under lights, where there were no bees and I 
didn't do anything to them.  The reason that the first flowers don't form 
fruit seems to be more because root system is not ready to support fruit 
yet, or night temperatures are too cold.

Don Chapman
Bio/Organics Supply Center
Camarillo CA
<http://www2.bio-organics.com/bio/>

---

From: [email-masked] (Henry Kuska)
Date: 4 Jul 1996 13:38:29 GMT

><http://www2.bio-organics.com/bio/>  
    Is anyone aware of any literature concerning pollinating with liquid 
solutions (or slurrys) of pollen?

From Henk Beentje Sun Jul  7 14:44:13 EDT 1996
Article: 11481 of bionet.plants
Newsgroups: bionet.plants
Path: newz.oit.unc.edu!news_server.cs.unc.edu!news-server.ncren.net!taco.cc.ncsu.edu!biosci!bcm.tmc.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!dish.news.pipex.net!pipex!tube.news.pipex.net!pipex!lade.news.pipex.net!pipex!rbgkew.org.uk!usenet
From: Henk Beentje
Subject: Re: Question - Ficus Benj. bears fruit??
X-Nntp-Posting-Host: hbeentje-pc
Message-ID: <[email-masked]>
Sender: [email-masked] (News Daemon)
Organization: The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, TW9 3AE, England
X-Newsreader: <WinQVT/Net v3.9>
Date: Thu, 4 Jul 1996 07:47:55 GMT
Lines: 24

[email-masked] writes:

>Figs of course!
>
>[email-masked] (James Yorton) wrote:
>
>>I have a Ficus Benj. that appears to be bearing some type of
>>little berries.  They're green and appear in pairs.  They're maybe
>>one-eighth to one-quarter inch in diameter.  I've noticed about 3
>>or 4 spots on the tree where this is occuring.
>
>>It's about 3 feet tall and I've had it for 3 years.  It's quite
>>healthy.
>
>>What are these little berries?  I never saw any flowers.  Anyone
>>know?

Your berries (or figs) have the flowers, and later the fruits, on the 
inside. near the top of the fig there is a tiny hole by which the 
pollinators get in. These pollinators, the fig wasps, actually breed
inside the fig as well - there are fig flowers especially for the wasps
to breed in, and a different kind of fig flowers to become fig fruits.
It is a beautiful and intricate system, a classic of mutually advantageous
symbiosis - but you wouldn't guess it from the rather boring looking figs!