Sound science to boost tomato pollination and fruit production

Challenge

Tomato production in glasshouses and controlled environments faces a significant hurdle to achieve reliable and efficient pollination. Without access to natural pollinators like bumblebees, growers are forced to rely on labour-intensive mechanical techniques such as vibrating wands, trellis tapping and air blowers. These methods are not only time-consuming but also labour costly, with the global industry spending billions of dollars each year on manual pollination strategies. The challenge is compounded by demand for scalable and automated production solutions that can sustain modern food production, reduce costs and boost grower efficiency.

Solution

Associate Professor Chris Cazzonelli from the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment at Western Sydney University, with funding support from Future Food Systems and Perfection Fresh, led a collaborative team of plant scientists, PhD and honours students, engineers and industry growers, to explore a more sustainable alternative geared for precision automation. The project investigated a theory that bioacoustics generated by a buzzing bumble bee might also trigger floral self-pollination. By studying vibrational frequencies generated from bees to bats, ranging from 50 to 10,000 hertz, the research team contrasted a conventional electric vibrating wand, speaker and subwoofer’s potential to mediate pollination, produce seeds, and enlarge fruit size. The subwoofer speaker emitted bass-forming sound waves that don’t cause physical contact. The research showed that sound moving through the air could unzip entangled floral hairs and vibrate male reproductive structures to promote pollination and boost tomato fruit production. Sonic pollination appears to mimic the natural action of bees – it’s controlled, super-precise and scalable.

Impact

The project demonstrated that biological natural sonication frequencies can enhance pollination, seed set and fruit yield, achieving outcomes comparable to conventional mechanical methods. This approach offers significant potential to reduce costs and reliance on manual labour. The research, conducted by higher degree students, was published in the world’s leading Horticulture Research journal.

The success of this blue-sky project has paved the way for a translational phase focused on further research and intellectual property development. Working alongside industry and government research partners, Chris and the research team aim to engineer precision pollination technology and integrate robotic automation to ensure efficient pollination and fruit production.
Next-generation automated pollination represents a sustainable horticultural future for maximising food production. Sonication is also expected to enhance strawberry pollination, with trials currently underway. By aligning circular economy principles with high-tech glasshouse innovation, the team is helping to shape a new future for sustainable buzz-pollinated food production.

Prospects

The research team is seeking industry partners and venture capitalists with expertise in sound wave sonication and robotic technologies to support trials in glasshouses and the translation of these innovations to large-scale commercial field operations. Their mission is to develop compact sonic devices mounted on robotic arms, integrated with autonomous vehicular units, to deliver phytoacoustic frequencies that can sustain a horticultural future driven by precision artificial pollination within protected glasshouse environments.