As My Thumb Turns Green: How do I do this again?

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.

"Cherry" tomato transplants.

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.

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.

The original 5.

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.

5-gallon hanger with DIY 'moisture control'

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.

The "was going to hang" eggplant.

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.