These images show the enormity of some of the vegetables that have come out of gardener Jon Dewey’s garden using his invention, the Waterstick.Eggplants the size of footballs. Spinach with leaves so broad they dwarf a grown man’s hand. Tomato plants that tower to the height of a two-story house. Pumpkins that pack on pounds faster than a couch potato.
To most gardeners, these probably sound like Big Veggie Tales, if not outright fibs. In a book released last December, however, green thumb inventor Jon Dewey of McMinn County details a series of techniques he says can help backyard gardeners grow vegetables by the bushel with a minimum of fuss.
“This method I’m trying to teach people is designed to grow the most food possible in the smallest amount of space possible with the least amount of work,” Dewey says. “I figured out several years ago that plants need vitamins and minerals just like people do. If you give them the right ones, they’ll grow huge and you’ll get lots of vegetables, too.”
“The 20 Foot Tomato Plant: How to Grow More Vegetables Than You Ever Imagined Using the Waterstick Grow System” ($7.69, Amazon), is now available as an e-book. The book provides step-by-step instructions for building the Waterstick, Dewey’s patented device that delivers water directly to a plant’s roots through a feed tube buried in the soil.
This method, he says, allows gardeners to use one-quarter as much water and grow roots that are bigger and spread deeper. In the book, he also provides instructions for mixing his fertilizer blend, which he calls Super42Vitalizer, and for making Bug Juice, an organic insect repellent. Both the repellent and the fertilizer can be delivered to the plants’ via the Waterstick.