"Starting" Over: a photo tour

Since getting back a month ago I've had to re-start the garden. With warm tropical temperatures day and night and just enough sunshine in between rainstorms, my new seeds have been spoiled into sprouting! Here's a rundown of my recently-started starts:

the results of a mixed bag of bell peppers. i can't wait to find out which varieties i've got.

and turning over a new leaf: turnip top greens! Seven Top turnip greens are grown only for their leaves, with no edible root to speak of. their flavor is much like mustard greens, they lend a spicy zing to sandwiches.

Not sure what type of chile peppers I have here--a friend brought the seeds from Mexico. Its gorgeous red peppers have a light, fruity spice

Gulp, here i go AGAIN with the upside-down tomatoes. i am so determined to have a healthy tomato plant!! (If you are unfamiliar with the upside tomato technique, see my Last attempt which was not successful; I did actually cultivate fruit during my first time around.)

Out in the garden, heavy rains nonwithstanding, my bush beans sprouted and are growing with a ferocity that would impress old Jack. Beautiful violet blossoms just showed up.

Finally, I started new luffa seeds, as my first plants have all died off. Since the luffa grow along the fence, I also planted a few cucumber seeds thinking they may be a nice climbing pair. Now i am unsure which is which!
The old luffa harbored one last fruit, which was looking a little too brown by the time I went to pick it. Our frequent rains are great for growing plants, but don't allow much time for anything to dry out. Several of the final luffa fruits rotted on the vine. anyway, as I was leaning in to harvest this last one, I stopped short. Someone was taking advantage of its dark color!

do you see who i see?

I didn't want to disturb the speckled one, so the rotting luffa remains.

TomatObession

In the manner of all obsessions, I didn't realize it was happening until it was too late. A little spaghetti here, a bowl of chili there. A BLT for lunch, a zippy pico de gallo as a snack. Before I knew it, french fries, burgers, and dogs all were naked without ketchup; friday night was and is eternally Pizza Night; and every salad is incomplete without fresh sliced tomatoes.

Needless to say, when I prepped my first garden plot last year, tomatoes were at the top of my plant list. little did i know....

tomatoes are very sensitive. Factor in my severe wet and dry seasons and newbie gardener skills, bam: the perfect recipe for disaster.
In my desperation, I have gone so far as to grow tomatoes upside-down, hanging in a bucket. The latest of such experiments ended up with late blight, a yucky fungus that will ultimately destroy your plant and spread to others.

However, the reason i write today is not to whine, oh no. On the contrary, a pledge to persevere. Rest assured: this is not a passing fancy, a forgettable whim. Deliciously homegrown tomatoes remain my fixation and despite discouraging setbacks, I will not be deterred.

Selecting from an impressive assortment of tomato seeds that kind visitors smuggled in for me over the past year, i picked out disease-resistant varieties.
My latest crop has been fortified with preventative measures of every sort:

• To reduce contact with soil, i.e. soil-born fungi, i have mulched with newspaper and cardboard.
• Note that the plants are raised on mounds, allowing the heavy and frequent rains to run off rather than collect in moldy puddles.
• The tomato bed is surrounded by beneficial plants: anti-fungal garlic, nematode-resisting marigolds, & pollinator-attracting borage
• Branches are appropriately staked on string, & low hanging limbs and leaves are removed immediately to prevent mud saturation
  

My efforts are already paying off:

happily fruiting tomatoes!

To the early blight and late blight, blossom end rot, tomato hornworm, leafminers, and creepy red spider bugs: Gracias for humility & first hand experience; the tomato quest prevails!

seeds

For the most part, every plant i'm growing i started from SEED: not always an easy task. There are several nurseries in the area, but they are typically ornamentals or fruit trees. Plus i've been attempting the monumental (or dim-witted?) enterprise of growing north american crops down here where i am learning that the two distinct seasons (wet and dry) are equally extreme and challenging in their completely opposite ways.
Por eso, it seems smart to save as many seeds as i can, which i'm still trying to get the knack of. some plants make it easier than others:

Scarlet Runner Beans, always an eye-catcher!
Sadly though, this is one of only 4 pods that I harvested from the 10 plants that i started! Transplanted in January, the little starts seemed happy enough...leaves were large and green, tendrils began to curl and climb. BUT, they were not destined for high places i suppose, as the leaves repeatedly began to yellow and eventually fall off. When red buds finally appeared on my one would-be show stopper, I cheered thinking it would grow and flourish.
Despite the hopeful blossoms, you can see the leaves continued to wither and die. I suppose i should count myself lucky that there were any beans at all? The question remains: what the heck was wrong with them??

From day one, sunflowers have had a presence in the garden. Braving a thirsty dry season, the first batch never grew over 4 ft (though the package claims that Mammoths will reach 12 feet high!) Being a favorite decoration as well as healthy snack, I was eager to harvest the tasty seeds.Supposedly an heirloom variety, these seeds should be viable. however....
most every single one is shell with a dried up carcass inside. Maybe they needed more fertilization??

Moving on, borage, a lovely edible flower as well as butterfly attractor, is a fun flower to harvest seeds from.

Little green pods open to reveal four round seeds, which when dried, turn brown and are released.

i am waiting to plant these guys, as i read that borage is an avid self-seeder. But if not, i've got seed stock ;)

Maybe i've mentioned them before, but i am continually proud of the bell pepper plants i nursed from seed to start and now FRUIT!

Because it was a mixed bag of bell pepper seeds, (and i just discovered that all pepper plants start out green regardless of their end color), the identity of my eight pepper plants remains secret!

Glutton for punishment?

you tell me. i couldn't resist trying again, this time with a supposed heat resistant variety. Upside-down Tomato Experiment : take 2

Solar Muffins, upside-down tomates

Latest solar fare:
Banana Crunch Muffins, loosely based on this recipe http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Banana-Muffins-with-a-Crunch/Detail.aspx?src=etaf


sun-tanned delicious!




And finally the time has come to harvest from the Upside-Down Tomato experiments! Out of the 4 i planted, this is the only plant that appears healthy. The other 3 produced a few tiny tomatoes but their branches have dried and withered.

It was affirming to hear that many other folks who planted the UC-82 variety were also met with a disappointing, flavor-less tomato crop. The seeds were gifted to us by a local agricultural co-op, a sandinista program i would guess, that collaborates with the university to provide ag-info, workshops, seeds, and probably much more. We recently attended a lecture on zompopos (leaf-cutter ants), an ingenious insect that farms its own mushrooms (!!) and often destroys coffee crops in the process. The little einsteins harvest chunks of leaves and haul them back to their underground fungus farm, then feed on some bacteria or micro-organism that lives on the mushrooms. In Costa Rica there are eco-tours offering hikes to see leaf-cutter ants in action! Admittedly, it is cool to see a long line of them trekking back to the nest, the slices of bright green leaf seeming to herald the arrival of a medieval ant calvary.
In the lecture i was very impressed at the the organic approach to managing the pest, including the application of neem oil and the value placed on understanding the zompopo life cycle.

Back to the dangling tomatoes: as far as UC-82s go, these were not bad! Good color, typical square-ish shape, slightly juicier than the in-ground crop.

All in all, i'd say it's not a bad idea if you lack ample garden space. Otherwise......they weren't worth the precarious balance act of watering on a stool.

Upside-Down Tomatoes

Checking in on my tomato experiment, 2 months now growing upside-down in buckets in my backyard. The idea is that tomato-lovers without ample cultivation space can still grow their favorite fruit. And I read online claims that in the bucket, the tomato plants are less susceptible to pests and disease.this is what I've ended up with. what'd ya think?

To be completely honest, these tomato plants have not been as pampered as their Right-Side Up kin--they receive less sunlight because of the walls in the back patio, not to mention the shade of the bucket! I am also dubious of how much water their root balls are actually receiving. Current results are scraggly, disfigured plants with small fruits.
Maybe it's too early to give an overall assessment of the experiment, but can you see the skepticism on my face? Perhaps I should not be too harsh; I'll be certain to give a detailed account of their flavor when ,and if, they ripen.