Some gardeners assert that shaking your tomato plants gently every day can enhance pollination and increase tomato yields. There seems to be some evidence to support this practice. Do you shake your tomato plants?

Tomatoes are self-pollinating plants. They have “perfect” flowers that have both the stamen and the stigma (male and female parts) on the same blossom. Pollen from the stamen falls onto its own stigma, pollination occurs and the fruit forms. Wind and insects also aid tomatoes in pollination.

If your plants are sheltered from light breezes or off the beaten path of bees and other pollinators, say growing high on a balcony you can aid pollination and fruiting by gently shaking the plants once a day to ensure pollination.

And by the way, beans, eggplant and peppers are self-pollinating, too, but I’m not shaking them. They produce abundantly in my garden.