Saturday, October 15, 2011

What happened to my Cherry Tomatoes?

We are going through some erratic weather conditions  and the single Cherry Tomato Plant wilted away in dry weather.
However it produced hundreds of tomatoes before it died, I scattered seeds all over the place and  I was pretty sure that few will germinate come the rainy days.
This plant was seeded / germinated by the not so frequent birds that come our way.
I know by experience that all the seeds will get washed away like the seeds I used to spread all over our compound but never germinate in our compound but down below on our access road. 
We are at a higher ground.
I remember about the vine that produced a beautiful white plant never germinated in out garden but down below in the neighbors hedge.
The seeds of course I got from the Botanical Garden fence.
Just recently I went to place where / perimeter fence/ I got the seeds and the vine is no more there.
This /story was 10 years ago/old.
The weather is too horrible even the Botanical garden cannot save its plants.

Last weekend I plucked few seeds from this wine and this time I planted  them in a pot.
It is not yet germinating.
Coming back to cherry tomato, with above experience I put large number of seeds in a smaller pot and placed that on a prominent place on big pot where I decided to put the pipal tree which I ill treated for 2 years to see how it survives.
True enough they germinated filling the pot.
They were slender and not ready for replanting.
For three days I forgot to water (I was busy) and all of them dried up.
I went into panic mode.
I could not find a single plant in our compound.
Watered them and only two slender ones survived.
Replanted them on a big pot they were still destined to die.
One tomato plant that was surviving could not take the challenge from the weeds.
I am down to zero now.
The the same weekend I sow the seeds of the vine, I went to put some food for the fish.
I found a small tomato plant just close to the where the mother plant wilted away.
There were no tomatoes seen.
Then just for curiosity sake, I lifted a branch to see there were 3 ripe tomatoes hidden.
I was so excited like the Archimedes, (luckily I was in shorts and securing my integrals) plucked them and sow them all over.
They are germinating now.
They are the second generation plants.
I want to see how many generations I can take them forward.
Interestingly enough there is a folk belief that young plants near the mother plant survive better.
There is a scientific reason for this.
It is called the allelopathy.
The mother plant produce allelochemicls to suppress other invading plants who are competing for the the same territory.
These chemicals saved the day for me not my personal efforts.
Three days of absence did the damage in my case.
Believe in nature and they look after the nature if man does not interfere.
Banana growing in the East is such an endeavor.
They are Nature Vultures.

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