Back in March, we started planting tomatoes, sunflowers, zinnia, sweet peppers, and bell peppers. We knew nothing about plants beforehand, so it took us a while to learn how to properly take care of them.
Getting them to sprout from being a seed was not a problem since all you needed was soil and water. Then they were growing a bit bigger and their needs also began to pile up right before our eyes and after like 2 weeks or so, they slowly died and I didn't know why back then haha.
We had a couple of seeds left and decided to try again. These are sweet peppers.
Tomatoes
Bell peppers
They were growing understandably slow since I was keeping them under shade since I observed that they burn under direct sunlight which was really harsh at that time. I also didn't understand that they need nutrients in the soil... so I just let them be for a while.
Tomatoes
Sweet peppers
I then transferred them to a bigger pot with a garden soil mix which have a lot more organic nutrients than the previous soilless mix. I still wasn't supplementing them with the other rich nutrients like calcium, vermicast, nitrogen, etc. since I didn't know at that time. Hahhaha.
As they were growing, I transferred them to their individual nursery bags. I couldn't tell which peppers are which anymore haha but you can tell which are the tomatoes. :D I added a little bit of vermicast here since then I finally learned that they need the nutrients in order to grow bigger. They were still under shade and they get direct afternoon sun for like 2 hours maybe. I was hoping they would develop that tolerance to the sun.
As they were growing bigger, I started tying them up with a stick because I noticed some of them would get damaged by the strong afternoon wind.
I started giving the tomatoes exposure to direct sunlight since I noticed they don't really curl up anymore and are able to tolerate them.
I added some more fertilizers - vermicast and carbonized rice hull. I just wanted to take things slowly for them since I didn't really know what they need or what maybe too much for them. I didn't want to overfertilize them at the same time if problems arise, I will be able to tell which ones are causing the problems.
Taking things slow also means they grow slow and I don't have to be overwhelmed and panic buy some bigger pots and find spaces for them haha.
Seeing them with no problems with the added fertilizers and the shade they were in, that's when I know I can continue to give them more fertilizers next time.
I also keep an eye on the pests. Here you can see the tomato leaves got some lines in it, which apparently were leaf miners. I spray them with neem oil from time to time as well, careful to not overspray them since they can also get burned if they are stressed.
It was nice to see the tomatoes growing thick and taller.
The tomatoes grew taller but sadly I would often wake up to a bald tomato lol. Something keeps on plucking/biting it and that is my best guess since I would see fallen branches and sometimes broken too, like something purposely damaged it (not by wind or sun burn). Although it would happen, it quickly recovered since it's a tomato... but then some other days I would see it get damaged again.
This was the time I went out of town and I forgot to water them for a few days. The other tomatoes died, understandably, and some peppers too.
Honestly I forgot now which ones are bell peppers and sweet peppers but anyway I noticed their leaves are turning yellow or pale. This could be a sign of a nutrient deficiency and honestly I don't know which exactly. I just put in some calcium nitrate and hoped for the best. Hahaha. They did turn out fine after a couple of days though lol.
The peppers grew surprisingly bigger than their sisters lol. You can see how much it has grown by the stick I previously placed. You can tell that the pot is becoming too tiny for it.
As expected, the roots are hungry for some more space.
I transferred all of them to the new pots as well as adding more vermicast, chicken manure, and carbonized rice hull to the soil mix. I placed them under the sun with the 50% shading net that I temporarily installed. This was a big mistake I think... immediately putting them under the sun after transplanting. 80% of the leaves fell a day after this.
The tomatoes are very resilient and just didn't want to die as 2 days ago it didn't have any leaves at all and now are growing new ones. Like I said in the previous paragraph, I placed them under the sun after transplanting so this died after a few days. RIP my tomatoes. :<
They have now grown big and have plenty of flowers.
Can you spot the peppers???
I didn't even notice them at first and just got surprised to see a lot of them already.
One of them turned red already and looks like it's ready to be harvested.
The rest of the plants are doing fine, although I haven't really paid attention to them since I got some other things to prioritize first. :x
The experience was such a roller coaster of emotions lol. I was sad a lot of them didn't make it. Then we have tomatoes that looked healthy one day and then gets damaged then you lose hope but then it starts growing leaves again and then it dies.
I've learned a lot of things with the experience and I will for sure apply them next time we plant again. Since these are also edibles I have to be really careful with the pesticides and fertilizers I spray/put although I am only currently using an organic pesticide (neem oil) and for sure not spray them when the edible parts have already grown.
Planting is so fun and satisfying though. The things I learned from here will be forever carried with me to the future, to when maybe we can have our own space and plant more seeds and trees. I look forward to planting more seeds I can grow in pots... maybe herbs next? Those mint, basil, and thymes are so interesting. :P
Thanks for reading!
