Two things about organic gardening.

**Kimberlina** · 07-20-2005, 12:02 PM

One is something that just never occurred to me, and the other is a tip that you all probably know already, but maybe tere is someone who will find it useful.

I was watching a show the other day that said you would actually get MORE produce from organic gardening (well, more specifically, not using pesticides) than non-organic gardening, which I think is te opposite of what most people (at least myself) think. The guy said that this is true because you are not killing the beneficial insects that will help pollinate your blossoms. I thought that was neat.

The tip is just to give your plants (tomatoes in particular) a good shake when you walk by- this will also help pollinate them and up the production. I've been giving my tomatoes some good shakes ever since the blossoms started appearing- hope I get a huge tomato harvest!

**jlxian** · 07-20-2005, 02:09 PM

I never thought of shaking the tomato plants to get better pollination! What a good idea.

My dad got so obssessed with his tomato plants a couple of years that he took to swabbing the blossoms with a q-tip. I was only about 12 or 14 at the time and I don't recall how effective it was so can't recommend it (LOL).

**Telephus44** · 07-23-2005, 10:34 PM

I will say, two years ago I had squash plants with huge blossoms but no squash. This year I did the q-tip thing and I now have 5 squash growing. I guess I should have done it more than once.