Growing Tomatoes Without Water?
So, I can't keep this thing a secret anymore...
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Pascal Poot is the creator of a Tomato Conservatory unlike any other, in a region of France where the ground is rocky and the climate is arid. He now grows over 400 varieties of tomatoes, each one with a DNA so strong, the plants do not need to be watered.
Pascal has found a way to let his tomatoes (and other veggetables) fend for themselves. While he doesn't water them, fertilize them or privide any maintenance, every sqare meter yields up to 25kg (55 lbs per sqare yard)!
...And they are so delicious!
I've only had one variety, grown from seed by my ant and my father and you know what, they were the most juiciest and tasty tomatoes I can remember ever eating!
Ask me what my favorite food is, if you want!
There isn't a lot of info on Pascal Poot's method in English, but if you look deep enough you'll find enough to make your own decision on it.
Mr Poot, says that with a little know how and patience we can educate plants to be more or less self sufficient. Ok so it may take a lot of patience, but after just a couple harvests, you will start seeing a difference between store baught seeds and your increasingly more resistant seeds you harvest year after year.
Please note that this method is for in ground cultivation.
In essence, the method is pretty simple, germinate your seeds as you normaly would, transplant into the ground, walk away and come back when it is time to harvest. Easy, right?
The most difficult part of it is un-learning our watering habits, or holding ourselves back from fertelizing, watering and tending to them, as we're all used to doing.
Teaching plants the art of resistance:
According to Pascal, all you have to do is harvest the survivors. When a plant resists to pests or disease, it sends that resistance into the DNA of it's seeds. As for water and food (other than the sun), the strongest of plants will send roots searching deap for what it needs and in turn pass on the knowledge into the DNA of it's seeds.
By harvesting seeds from the survivors, every year, they become more resistant to the elements.
The result:
Juicy tomatoes full of vitamins and minerals that take less effort to grow...
In permaculture the words imitate nature always come up. It is part of it's core principle realy. Here, Pascal Poot was once struck by the idea that forests are amongst some of the most abundant system on our planet while not being maintained by humans. Everything grows without our help, and so he imitated the forest, he goes as far as not even supporting his tomato plants with stakes!
I would love to hear your feedback on this one but most of all I want you to try the Pascal Poot method and see where it leads us. I will be trying it for sure this year and will report back from No Man's Land later this season about it.
Here is The Seed Shop again for those of you who may decide to skip the transformation period of regular seeds to airloom seeds...
After all, a dream will remain a dream, if you do not start doing anything.
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Hey @senorcoconut, I am a curator of the Whaleshares Curation Team. I have selected your post to be presented in a live curation discussion on Monday 9th April. Your post will be awarded a 100 Whaleshares vote on the night. I do hope you can come along and spectate. The event will be held in The Curation Lounge on the Whaleshares server.
Here is a post that explains things:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@nikflossus/4ewumc-the-20th-whaleshares-curation-show-new-time-22-59gmt-or-5-59est
Hoo. This is exciting news! I will be there. I had been trying to make time to be a part of the thursdayband sunday shows where we can self-promote our post. But no luck thus far...
I've had many life events to deal with.
Thank you so much for this opportunity @lindahas!
That is great to hear! :)
Thanks again, that was fun!
Thank you for coming! :) The extra vote should be on your post soon enough.
Ooh nice! Thanks for the invite.
https://steemit.com/@a-0-0
I am so glad you're sharing this exciting discovery. The method makes a lot of sense really, but those who try to implement it will surely need lots of patience and an iron will to not water. I wouldn't mind trying this out too when we start growing again. -Aimee
An iron fist will to not water
I re-watched a few of his videos and shortly after he started, he also stopped using stakes to hold up the plants! He also mentions that it took him 3 harvests to start getting better results than traditional farmers. So you have to be patient but in the grand scheme of things, 3 years isn't very long to turn your seeds into heirloom wonders!
I will be trying a patch with this method this summer for sure.
LOL at iron fist will!
Patience is key and I think having a test plot to start with is a great idea. We will probably go that route also. -Aimee
Awesome, I'm happy to hear others will try it too. I won't be alone in the crazy idea!
You definitely won't be alone! We will be crazy together. -Aimee
Excellent news Aimee, thanks for the support.
Matthew here - 100 years ago most seed would be treated this way by default. Every region had their own locally adapted varieties. It is only recently that we have gotten away from this.
That makes sense it used to be that way. Sometimes water would be harder to come by I'd imagine. It's sort of like people. At least in north america, we have become so sensitive, any minor misunderstanding and people break down... Got to get back off facebook, I started a war and already spent too much time reading stupid comments! Something about sensitivity.
Love it. However I am doing wicking beds for summer crops next year.. they just cant hack the little amount of water I give thrm..
Are the wicking beds on the ground? Maybe that would work too.
You say they just cant hack the little amount of water I give them. That's exactly what the theory is about, in the event that there will be some plants strong enough to survive, those are the ones to harvest seeds from. It is a lonh process, Pascal says in 3 harvest time, you will start seeing result.
Hm. Maybe I am doing something wrong then. I neglect them as much as he does! Wicking beds arent in ground. You build boxes, pop gravel in then a layer of geofabric then soil. The water stays in bottom amd the roots find their way there. They use this method in the desert.
Oh ok I see... I am for sure not an expert in the gardening world. But this guys has been called crazy by many and now the french agricultural agents are now coming to him to learn!
Patience and collect the seeds... three years before you see results.
This might work for people like me where all my plants dies because either water too much or not enough, can never figure out where I went wrong !
Could be drowning? I don't know why either, I am only a very novice gardener, but give it a try if you have seeds to spare, why not?
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I have cravings for those vitamins now... the colours :) We had some unexpected tomatoes growing from the rest of one that fell, and it gave no tomatoes the first time, but at the end it started to render a few :) I'm planting it again :) new cycle... even if it was coded not to grow cos it was altered, it did :)
Nature will provide!!! I heard it on the @nikflossus' Whalshare curation show tonight. It's amazing. A friend of mine use to do exactly the same thing you did on purpose so his tomatoes would grow again on it's own the next year.
Good to hear that.
Beautiful voice you have by the way @yidneth
Thanks for your comment
Those tomatoes look so good! Upvoted :)
Thank you @crystalpacheco30!!! Yea don't they look delicious. The second best tasting tomotoes I had were when we crossed over into Hungary from Austria some 15 years ago!
Its like survival of the fittest and then taking the fittest ones. Brilliant concept!
Yea and it makes complete sense too. I think of antibiotics for us in the same way... I think they'l make our immune system lazy.
Thanks for looking @karinxxl
Exactly..thats why we all are reducing giving out the amount of antibiotics. To prevent the superbug from growing like a maniac hehe
What did you mean by reducing giving it out? Are you doctors?
That superbug sounds scary... In some way that makes me think of evolution. So if the masses are using antibiotics, and vaccines, wouldn't theu survive in survival of the fittest situation involving crazy viruses and superbugs?
I work surgery in surgery but a nurse yeah.
With reducing I mean that back in the days we would give antibiotics for everything and I mean everything with that. While studies prove that its not necessary all the time. The body can restore itself for a lot of things. So now we only give out antibiotics when it is indicated to prevent a super bug from growing which is resistant for all of this. MRSA is one of these superbugs
Ok yes I see. Just reading up on it a little...
So mrsa is a strain of staph resistant to some commonly used antibiotics. I mean it makes perfect sense, all organisms (I'm not sure if that's the right word) or living things adapt to their environment for survival. I can see a bug can become immune to antibiotics after while.
Thanks for making me think about that.
I saw your post on the Whaleshares Curation Show. Congratulations on that!
How simple is this process? We tend to make everything much harder than it has to be, don't we? One day, when I have a little piece of ground at my disposal, I look forward to giving this a go! Upvoted & resteemed!
Thank you so very much for all that upvoting and resteeming!
I remember your name on the show. Yea it's amazing how it works for him. I think it's brilliant, this guy created strands of tomato plants that are really motivated to thrive and survive... inspired by the eay forests grow.
Genius!
Thanks again
You are very welcome.
Thrive and survive...sounds like an excellent way to live for plants and humans! ;)
Hehe yes indeed. We are working towards doing just that for our little family and leaving the vig city to build a homestead in the woods.
What an adventure. I wish you the best!
Thank you!