It all started back in July. Or perhaps June. Somewhere around there. I was given some tomato, eggplant, and celery seeds. I had never really grown anything from seed before, so I just put them in some dirt and waited.
“I put so many seeds in there, why won’t they grow?”
Little did I know, it takes a bit more than just putting seeds in dirt and waiting for plants to sprout. A few of them did germinate, however. One tomato, and 2 eggplant.
Around this same time, I was also given these leggy little guys.
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"Cherry" tomato transplants.
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I was told they are “cherry” tomatoes, but I didn’t believe it. What he described didn’t match up with what I know of cherry tomatoes. Since I had never grown tomatoes before (especially in this climate), I asked how I should grow them. He described what I needed to buy, and how often I should apply the fertilizer and pesticide. I debated going organic, but since I had never grown tomatoes before, I decided I should just do as he says for the first go-around.
I transplanted them into makeshift potters, bought the necessary supplies, and waited. It was rainy season at the time, so I didn’t have to worry about watering them, but I did experience them getting too much water. A bunch of the guys didn’t do so hot, but some of them made it.
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| Notice the moss? Yeah, it rains a lot here. |
I had been doing some research on growing tomatoes, and decided that I wanted to do something different. I had heard of upside down tomatoes, but had never seen it done before. After much research, I decided to try it. I bought 2 5-gallon buckets, cut a 3 inch diamater hole in the bottom of each, filled them with soil, and planted. “Hey, why not try eggplant, too?” And so I did. 1 “cherry” tomato plant, 1 eggplant, and 1 more tomato plant in a 3-liter plastic soda bottle. Why not? I also planted 1 eggplant and 1 tomato plant in regular planters, as a control for my experiment.
I had my plants in the 5-gallons sitting right side up (bucket upside down) for a little while to allow the roots to set. The tomatoes took off, and the eggplant not so much. I hung the tomatoes and decided to let the eggplant grow right side up for awhile longer. In the top of the 5-gallon with the tomato plant, I planted 2 celery plants and 2 spinach plants – just because I had them.
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| The original 5. |
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| 2 spinach, 2 celery up top. |
El Salvador has an interesting climate for growing plants. It is sunny and warm all year, but for 6 months it rains (and I mean it RAINS) every single day for a couple hours (at least). I was having a little trouble with the soil being too damp. In the hanging 5-gallon I put plastic over the top to control the moisture, and in the hanging 3 liter I hung the bottom of the bottle over the top of it. I put a hole in the planters on the ground up near the soil to allow the standing water to drain.
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| 5-gallon hanger with DIY 'moisture control' |
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| 3-liter hanger. |
The hanging 5-gallon tomato grew very well, and the one in the potter didn’t do so hot. I thought the little guy was gonna die, but I didn’t pull him. The hanging one was flowering already and everything. The eggplants (both) were also doing very well. At this point I should have hung the eggplant, but I decided to just let it grow in the upside down 5-gallon. It was doing so well, and the 3-inch diameter hole allowed very little water to get in, which helped it keep from staying soggy.
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| The "was going to hang" eggplant. |
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| Eggplant. |
The hanging tomatoes keep growing like weeds (with help of granule fertilizer 12-12-17-2). They first grow up towards the sun, and as they start to bare fruit the weight makes the plant slowly bend downward, creating a funny bend in the stalk.
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| Flower and first fruit from hanging 5-gallon. |
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| Not only do they bend funny, but they grow small roots out of the stem from the water dripping down. |
