From chance to your own personal jungle: What happens when you bury a whole tomato?
The autumn experiment of burying a whole tomato is one of the most popular spontaneous experiments among hobby gardeners. What initially seems like a simple and logical method for obtaining a new harvest usually develops into a true botanical adventure in the height of summer.
What happens underground over the course of the year?
Autumn and winter: The tomato pulp gradually decomposes, creating a naturally moist environment for the seeds. However, the fruit juice contains natural growth inhibitors that prevent the seeds from germinating prematurely during the first autumn thaw.
Spring: As soon as the soil warms up, the frost thaws, and the inhibitors are washed away by the meltwater, hundreds of seeds from a single fruit germinate simultaneously.
Summer: Instead of a single buried tomato plant, a neat bush with 30–50 shoots sprouting from a single point grows.
The result in midsummer: chaos or a bumper crop?
If the seedlings aren’t planted in spring, a veritable, impenetrable thicket develops by midsummer. Since the roots of all the plants are intertwined and compete for limited nutrients and light, development usually follows one of two scenarios:
Race for survival: The plants stretch, become thin, and their leaves become densely matted. This creates ideal conditions for waterlogging and the development of blight.
Small-scale fruit growing: The bush may flower and even bear fruit, but due to resource scarcity, the fruit remains significantly smaller than the usual size for the variety, despite being present in large quantities.
How can this experiment succeed?
Thinning in spring is crucial for a bountiful harvest from the buried tomatoes. Once the seedlings reach a height of 5–7 cm, they must be carefully dug up, divided, and replanted at least 40–50 cm apart.
The experiment with buried tomatoes is a wonderful example of the power of nature and illustrates the incredible similarity between seeds and life, even with minimal human intervention