Vegetable Gardening is Like Raising Children (Agriculture)

Hello. I am Takahiro Ogawa, an agricultural management supporter. I often think that growing vegetables is similar to raising children. There are truly many similarities, such as how the experience of raising children helps with vegetable gardening, and conversely, how the experience of growing vegetables helps with raising children.
I suppose it is similar because you are raising living things.

So today, let's think about vegetable gardening by comparing it to raising children.

The seedling stage is like "infancy to elementary school age", the period from planting to harvest is like the "adolescence" of "middle to high school students", and the peak harvest season is like "adulthood".

Parents provide meticulous care when children are small, but as they grow, children start to act independently, and parents also learn to leave things to their children's autonomy. Vegetables are the same. It is important to help them become independent early on and gradually reduce the amount of care you provide.
First, during the seedling stage, grow them without giving them too much fertilizer or water, and get them used to a harsh environment. This allows the seedlings to develop the strength to extend their roots to seek out water and nutrients on their own. In raising children, as the saying goes, "the soul of a three-year-old lasts until a hundred," providing firm discipline while they are young greatly influences their future way of thinking and living. Similarly, if you provide firm discipline while they are seedlings, they will become independent and grow sturdily after being transplanted to the field.

Then, during the adolescence phase, when they grow tall and start to flower before harvesting begins, you should clearly show them the path for how they will be trained in the future. In human terms, this is the time to teach them how to live and show them their career path.

And when they reach the peak of the harvest season, you should leave them mostly alone and continue to harvest the fruits while trying not to stress the plant as much as possible. Care for vegetables requires a sense of balance, and it is important to take good care of them while the plants are still small.

〇 Fruit vegetables undergo vegetative growth and reproductive growth simultaneously
Looking at it a bit more from a cultivation perspective, fruit vegetables must grow their own bodies while also leaving behind offspring. Fruit vegetables like tomatoes and cucumbers undergo "vegetative growth," where they grow their stems and leaves, and "reproductive growth," where they produce flowers and fruits, simultaneously from the seedling stage, and this continues until the end of the harvest.

If vegetative growth progresses too much, only the leaves and stems will grow and no fruit will be produced, and if reproductive growth progresses too much, nutrients will not circulate through the plant's body, causing it to become thin and weak, eventually leading to the plant failing and a decrease in yield.

To balance the two, care after planting the seedlings is important. In human terms, it is important to discipline them strictly in childhood, provide firm training in the sense of guiding them with their future in mind during their middle and high school adolescence, and create an environment where they can work hard when they are in their prime as adults.

It is easy to spoil them when the plants are young, but just giving them fertilizer and water because you think it is for their own good is not enough; teaching them toughness is also important to make them fully capable. It is a balance of carrot and stick!

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