Peppers and Tomatoes advice

[porshiepoo]

This is my first time ever growing veg in the greenhouse and I'm doing it blind (not literally!) so I could do with some advice please.

I have Tomato plants growing but I don't know whether I'm supposed to pollinate them? Or do I just leave em and they do it themselves?
Same goes for Sweet peppers. One of my pepper plants has a yellow flower on it just now and I haven't a clue whether I'm supposed to pollinate the plant or leave em alone?

Also, same advice for Cucumber and Courgettes.

Heeeeeeeelp!:)

[Foxy]

I don't pollinate my tomatoes and peppers and they fruit ok. Courgettes i pollinate them, the flower with the fruit behind is the female and the flower on a long stem is the male. The best time to pollinate is at noon when the flowers are wide open take off one male flower and rub it in the centre of the female :eek:. I hope this makes sense. I don't pollinate cucumbers and they usual grow ok but maybe someone else may have other ideas.

[gardeninginagale]

I don't pollinate any of these, and always have a crop - of sorts, depending on the season! Keep your greenhouse or polytunnel open as much as possible, to let the bees and other insects in. They will do the job for you.

One thought on cucumbers - if you are growing ridge varieties, let nature take its course. But many greenhouse varieties actually don't want to be fertilised. In fact, you should remove the male flowers to avoid pollination, which results in bitter fruits.