10/21/08
This past spring, in response to our region’s short growing season, and toward the hope of eventually having a little greenhouse, I planted tomatoes and peppers — my two “tropical” favorites — indoors.
Our living room has full southern exposure and is glass on three sides. Ideal! It stays toasty all year, save for deep winter, when the not-high-tech-insulated-glass gets mighty chilly. However, it’s the most consistent, protected, and bug-free environment available so worth an experiment as a pseudo-greenhouse.
I chose a tomato variety simply called “Patio” and a sweet bell pepper called “Red Beauty.” The first thing I learned is that, in the absence of wind and insects, an indoor garden must be pollinated by other means. By hand, in fact. For the tomato, I was advised by the plant seller to use a Q-tip every morning around 10:00 to tickle the open flowers; for the pepper, I was advised by the seller (a different party) to have two plants next to each other to enable pollination, though he mentioned nothing about helping things along manually.
Initially, all three plants grew tall, fast, and bushy but none set fruit. I diligently tickled flowers. Eventually — and MUCH later than the outdoor plants — little tiny tomatoes formed, and one day I spotted a pepper. Meanwhile, the plants grew taller and bushier.
Around midsummer, the tomato started putting them out but ripening so rapidly that in the space of 3 days, little green balls turned into rotten red splats down on the soil. Bummer! So I attended them more closely and eventually caught the rhythm. Meanwhile, a few peppers began forming. In both species, the ratio of leaves to fruit was way out of line.
Outdoors, the same species of pepper plant grew half the height and was wiped out by an unknown worm. Different species of tomato thrived in the lasagna garden and Topsy Turvey planter, but struggled in the hay bales.
Now that those plants have been killed by frost, and we’re looking at our first forecast of snow for the season tonight, the living room garden is taking off. I have harvested more than a dozen little red Patio tomatoes over the past six weeks, and plenty more are bending the branches. Perhaps half a dozen peppers are developing, with that first one, in very slow motion, fading from green to red. I might be eating these vegetables for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Conclusion? I’m not sure yet. Clearly, it can be done. What I did wrong remains to be obvious. How long these plants will go on is a mystery. But I’m now stuck watering three plants that are 3-4 feet tall and growing in the corner of my living room. Last year, in the same space, I kept strawberries and broccoli alive to see another summer. I hear that tomatoes and peppers are perennials in the tropics. Wouldn’t it be great if I could pull that off in Vermont?
We’ll see . . .
Carolyn Haley
Author: Open Your Heart with Gardens
Posted by: Opening the heart, gardens, gardening, yard, plants, cultivation — Carolyn Haley
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