or add in yet another resistance to a plague

something we should have done with the good bananas.

Step 1: Tomatoes are mostly cleistogamous (self-pollinate before opening) and perfect flowers. So the anthers need to be removed 2 days before bloom. The exposed stigma is usually marked and covered to prevent cross pollination.

Step 2: Pollen is collected from flowers of the "male" parent by vibrating the shit out of them over a test tube about 3hours hours after opening (depending on humidity). The pollen remains viable for a few days after shedding in refrigeration (longer in liquid N).

Step 3: On the 2nd day the pollen is applied to the stigma from the test tube. The pollinated stigmas are marked again.

Step 4+: successful pollinations begin to swell. Plants are pruned/trellised carefully. This ensures they develop well off the ground with less pressure from diseases and pests.

This robot does the first part of step 3. It's arguably the least time-consuming and easiest part of the entire process. Its sort of interesting but not a time saver.

Also hybrid tomato seed is a huge value market, but it's not a huge volume in the grand scheme of things on the production side. The COGS is a negligible part of the process. Its a 97-99% gross margin crop last I saw the numbers. The seed companies can easily afford to pay more for the COGS. Higher pay + shorter hours = higher success rate by hand pollination. Paying double for the workers for 1/2 the day and then sending them home has a much higher success rate and is cheaper overall.

Most of the cost of developing new varieties is on the research side. With cost running as high as 30-40% of the annual sales to constantly develop new varieties or add in yet another resistance to a plague.