My Experiments & Experiences with Tomatoes

For a couple of reasons I just love growing tomatoes! You get a lot of varieties to try out; they are quite hardy, and even kids love to eat them. All they need is sun (the more the better) and a little care.

I got some organic seeds from Navdanya from their newly opened store in South City 2, Gurgaon. I have tried a local variety from a nearby nursery, but I am more anxious about some seeds I received from Bangalore. One gentleman had posted about them on a gardening email group and on my request was kind enough to send them to me. Gurgaon’s weather is little different from Bangalore, so I wasted some seeds as the weather was not appropriate enough (in August) for this variety to germinate.

An interesting – and hopefully successful (!)- experiment I am doing is with upside down tomatoes. Here is a picture – hope it is clear enough to give you an idea!

Surprisingly, it was very easy to grow this sapling upside down and it grew better the normal ones. I don’t know if gravity had any role to play here.

Another thing I was testing this time was to grow tomatoes in different sizes of pots to see the difference in growth. Similar saplings were grown at same time and I concluded that tomatoes like bigger pots that have lots of space for roots to grow. The bigger pot plant has grown almost double the size of the one grown in small pot.

About the problem of pests like aphids and also the problem of curling leaves, I have tried spraying them all with neem sprays and garlic sprays, details of which can be found at http://www.esvasa.com/?q=organicpesticide. I still have a lot of problem insects on my plants and sometimes I have to resort to removal of aphids by hands, but it’s all worth it when I am able to see some small tomatoes in my plants.

Winter Sowings

This is an appropriate time to get the vegetable saplings and get started on sowing them. I have put up a lot of containers on my terrace. The vegetables I’m going for this season are tomatoes, spinach, cauli flower, methi, broccoli, lettuce, mix of beans, pumpkin, mustard, chillies and brinjals. The main difficulty is in getting the right seeds for the right season. Tried growing Pok Choy but all the plants died soon after sprouting  :-( .. do share your experiences especially if you got them right ..

Preparing saplings of Pok Choy..

Tried my hands at preparing saplings for tomatoes and lettuce and shared them with friends around. It’s fun to see the beautiful plants grow from seeds and grow on to give fruits. These came out great!

For more than one reason I believe pots are better than land. I find them much better to maintain, easier to weed and monitor. I kept a small patch of land for growing my veggies too this year and had to fence it to keep my curious dog away but it is much difficult to keep weeds away and manage the land.

Being a big promoter of container gardening, I have tried to grow Peas, Beans and chillies in pots. Here are some pictures.

Termites are another problem with growing plants on land. The soil you put in pots is easy to clean since it is defined and you get the right proportion by mixing it with manure. Before putting the soil in pots, it is easy to keep it in open sun to disinfect it too.

Next I will post more on progress of my winter veggies and also about my experiment with growing tomatoes upside down..

Some tips on growing veggies in containers

Today, I present a short reckoner to grow organic healthy vegetables in containers. In addition to these, a little patience and hard work is also required.

Choose to grow vegetables according to sunlight available

• Partial Sun – less than 6 hours of sunlight – Try growing lettuce, onions, carrots, beets, herbs

• Full Sun- 6 hours of sun – Tomatoes, brinjal, squash, peppers

Container depth

• Low depth – 9”-12” – Lettuce, Onions, Radish, beets, herbs, spinach

• Medium Depth – 12”- 14” – Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, peppers, peas, egg plant

• Deep ones – 16” – 18” – Beans, cucumbers, squash, cherry tomatoes, potatoes

Bigger the pot, better the yield.

Containers if being reused, need to be disinfected properly – Potassium Permanganate solution can be used.

Take care that drainage holes are not blocked.

Cover the lower 3”-4” with crocs and course gravel or dried leaves.

 Filling the pot

You should use bone meal, leaf mould, coco peat, sand, farmyard manure to the soil for giving proper nutrition to the plant and balance to the soil.

Ideal mix –

• Garden soil – 2 parts
• Cowdung Manure – 1 part
• Leaf mould – 1 part
• Sand – ½ part
• For every pot, add 2 table spoons neem cake and 1 table spoon bone meal.
• You may add coco peat to help increase water retention.

Try and get good verities of seeds, appropriate for container gardening, high yielding ones are preferable.

Some of the vegetables and herbs can best be planted using saplings like brinjal, tomatoes, cauliflower, broccoli

Water appropriately; most plants are lost with overwatering and under watering.

 Beet Root in a 14” pot

Chilies in a 12” pot

Mustard in a 14” pot

Spinach in 12” pots

Do write to us at info@esvasa.com for any queries or doubts.

Mistakes continued …

The Maalis (Gardeners)

Looks like there were quite a few mistakes I learnt from in my initial forays into gardening, so in continuation to the earlier post, here’s an account of my experience with the maalis. At least here in Gurgaon where I live, it’s difficult to get a maali who is passionate about plants or actually knows about them, OR at least is willing to learn.

Here are some issues I faced with them, and my learnings therein:

Supervise their work – I had a lemon tree in my front yard that I had planted two years ago, and it was just not growing well. After trying many things and thinking that the plant is not getting enough sun, I finally asked my maali to transfer the plant to another sunnier spot. To my horror I saw that the plant still has its roots packed in a plastic bag – the original one that the sapling came in. I was aghast and also surprised at how the plant survived such disaster.

LEARNING: Never leave the maali to do any work in the garden in your absence, or if he is reliable - without clear instructions.

When you start a new pot, you MUST have a good layer of crocs/ gravel at the bottom for good drainage. Most maalis don’t do this - they will just put one piece of stone and think it’s enough.

LEARNING: Even if you don’t know much gardening, don’t assume that maalis are better. Do guide them at every step.

See what they propose and get for you Maalis generally will get some small bags of what they would call chemicals and some fertilizers but they might be just some ash or some waste. So its important to observe what he is getting for you.

There are some training programs for gardeners organized by All India Kitchen Garden Association and you could get in touch with them. It’s a very nominal charge of about Rs. 400/-, so it might be a good investment J

My mistakes this summer

As a city dweller, I can identify with problems of urban gardeners. All my experiments have been in container gardening and how to achieve more results in less space.

The right container

I have tried growing bitter gourd, bottle gourd in big (20”) containers but did not get good results due to a couple of mistakes which I would like to share.

A Free running drainage hole is really important. The commonly available big plastic containers have a slightly convex bottom and very few holes. So it’s difficult to manage proper drainage. Putting earthen crocs increased the weight of the containers a lot, so I had experimented with coco peat, putting the agronet at the bottom etc. but drainage still was an issue. I was not very successful with these and I lost a lot of plants because of water logging.

Another mistake that I discovered I did was to put green leaves at the bottom of the pot. I should have used dried leaves. Talking to some experts, I found that when green leaves decompose, they release a lot of heat and that definitely was not a good idea in the hot Indian summer.

I am doing a couple of modifications for my winter veggies. I made extra holes with a drilling machine. Some one suggested using coconut husk instead of crocs for keeping the drainage hole unblocked, so now I have done that, let’s hope it works. Will keep you posted.

About choosing the container for growing vegetables, I try to use natural materials and avoid plastics. Earthen pots are the best but not available in all sizes. I am using old drums cut in half (vertically) and then put on an iron stand horizontally. It took a lot of effort but it gives a big area to grow leafy winter vegetables.

The bigger containers will not dry out soon but we can’t have too big a container for small plants. So size is also important.

Organic Gardening - Getting Started

Always enthused by lovely gardens around, I never had enough time to pursue this hobby as I was in a full time corporate job till very recently.  Destiny intervened … I quit, and happened to run into a friend who was a member of the All India Kitchen Garden Association!!

A 10 day excellent introductory workshop taught me about the soils, organic manures, organic pesticides, what to grow when and more importantly gave me the confidence to take up my gardening enthusiasm seriously.

Meanwhile, my younger son and I were reading a lot about our health, role of nutrition on our bodies. Also the spread of serious diseases like cancers got me into realizing the importance of what we are feeding our kids and ourselves.  

Slowly but surely, I was getting convinced that you are what you eat.

I had an opportunity to talk to some farmers and other experts and doctors from Pusa institute, and I realized how much excessive use of pesticides is done on our food. The reasons are of course twofold – ignorance and the belief that doing this will make them more profits.

The more shocking part was that the farmers KNEW that excessive chemicals were harmful, and by their own admission, grew fruits and vegetables for their personal consumption separately – which are NOT sprayed with excessive chemicals!

So that made me resolve to try my hands at growing my own organic food in whatever little space I had. This blog is all about that journey with a focus on urban gardening i.e. little space for growing organic food.

Next I will write more about how to accommodate more in less space.