Well first of all, you don't need to tie up the plants.
I have been trying to sprout jalapeno seeds for 2 months. Four have sprouted so far, and two have lived. Here's a photo of the one that's most far along in its growth.
Yeah, I know. It looks like the stem of this little seedling is growing from an upward place.
Let's start at the beginning, two months ago, when I put 8 seeds on a piece of cotton, in a jar, and wet the cotton. The plan is for the seedlings to grow their roots into the cotton. Then I can push the cotton into the dirt without damaging the thread-like roots. More on that later in this post.
Let's look at the process
I needed two identical rectangular pots. I took one of them and drilled some holes in the bottom. Plastic does not drill very well. Then I have a rubber mat that goes on the inside and that gets a smaller hole. Here's the same plant (above), our cover photo, about 6 weeks ago.
I filled the one with the holes in it, with an inch of soil. Then I took the other pot and put in on top of the soil and pressed it. Then I used shrink wrap to hold the two pots together and I flipped it so that the holes were on top.
My plan was to fill each hole with a jalapeno plant, and then put them outside in a roots-up attitude. Well, the seeds did not all sprout at the same time and they still have not all sprouted. I had three that were planted and it was time to get the pot outside so they can learn how to grow upside down.
This photo is from six weeks ago. The day that I did the above.
You can see the double pots after I cut the shrink wrap off.
Prior to putting it outside, I had to water the seedlings with a dropper. Now I can water them like any other plant - from the top. I mean bottom. Well, you know what I mean. It is all about perspective.
I had to be careful when setting it into the wall mount pot stand. These are the first three, the one in the back was destroyed. I think a bird came and stole the seed and leaves, leaving only a stem.
Then I marked the exact alignment of the pot so that I do not damage the plants if I have to lift it up later. One of the bars runs between two of the plants as seen above.
I will not remove any more of the shrink wrap until the plants are thriving. They are so tiny as you are about to see.
Planting one late bloomer
Today I saw one of the seeds in the cotton had sprouted. So I clipped it out, leaving plenty of cotton to keep it from falling out in its upside down orientation.
Still hoping the other six will come to life. This is what all of them sprouted in. You see the others that are refusing to sprout.
Planting them
The first few were easy to plant. Just set them on top of the dirt. Planting upside down, is different.
The part I clipped off of the main wad of cotton was size and shape of a small bean pod. That way I have the ends to push on and I do not disturb the root in any way.
I used a chop stick to push on one side, nowhere near the root, and then on the other side, again nowhere near the root.
Here is what the new seedling looks like in its place.
Above, you see what the whole project looks like today. At the way left, you see an onion plant. I want to see how chives, garlic, and similar plants will react to this strategy because when I plant chives, they always flop and are all broken when I go to harvest them.
Conclusion
It is all about getting more plants in the same amount of space.
In the past, I would take this same kind of pot, put it on the holder, fill it with dirt and then drop in seeds. that would take all of 15 minutes.
Now, I start during winter and I get some plants growing from the bottom out. Then, whenever I want, I can just fill the pot and plant seeds. The old way, I would only get a harvest from one set of vegetables. The ones that grow upwards.
This new way, I get double the harvest! Doubling the harvest means I use half the space for the same amount of vegetables, or conversely I free up space for double the amount of pots that are producing fruit.
Another good reason
Also, I used to grow chilli peppers and I got hundreds from four plants. The difficulty was that the plants tend to break if they are not tied up properly. I am thinking that peppers will be less maintenance intensive if they are already hanging when they grow.
What do you think?