Jon R. Dewey, Class of 1978

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  Jon R. Dewey
William Tennent Class of 1978
   Inventions for Gardening

 

 

 

What is your hobby about?

My hobby for the past 30+ years has been inventing things / devices people need.  I have several patents, I’m a published author, and I just completed my second book on several of my inventions for gardening. In both books I teach people how to grow more food using less water, less fertilizer, and zero toxic pesticides. In my first book “The 20 FOOT Tomato Plant” I teach people how to build my original WaterStick®, make my vitamin based Super42Vitalizer® fertilizer, and my Organic Pest Repellent / Fertilizer called BUG JUICE®. In my second book “The 20 FOOT Tomato Plant II The Next Season”, I teach people how to build my MultiPlant WaterStick®, How to build my raised bed garden, Build an inexpensive Hoop Garden Frame and Cover, How to heat your Winter garden for .25¢ a day, how to make 3 new variations of my original BUG JUICE® Organic Pest Repellent / fertilizer, and tips for gardening in states with drought. Before I became disabled, we grew tomato plants that were 15 to 20 feet tall every year. The biggest tomato plant we ever grew was 20 feet 8 ½ inches tall and produced 372 pounds of tomatoes from that single plant. My days of growing 20 footers are over, but we still grow 10 to 12 ½ footers that usually produce 150 to 200 pounds of tomatoes per plant.

How did you get involved in this hobby?

I was raised on my Aunt and Uncles small farm in Southampton. When I was young, we had a lot of farm animals (chickens, sheep, goats, ducks, and even a bull). We would also put out a large vegetable garden every year. My Uncle was the king of re-purposing things for other uses. The one I remember the most was the large WWII airplane machine gun clear dome bubble he re-purposed as a miniature greenhouse to start his plants. Every year he would cut two new pieces of cloth and tape them over the machine gun slots. During the day he would raise the cloth up to let the heat out, and at night he would put the cloth back down to keep the plants from getting killed by frost. Seeing him do things like that over and over again, taught me how to use whatever I have on hand to get the job done so I could accomplish any task I was working on. When my wife and I bought our first house, there was no room for a large tilled garden, so I started doing raised bed gardening. After I built my first raised beds and started gardening, I found that it was quite easy to take care of, and I was able to grow more vegetables than someone with a larger tilled garden.  That’s when my hobby became trying to improve on the typical raised bed garden. I developed new ways to make a raised bed, new and healthier fertilizers, organic pest repellents, and devices to deliver all that directly to the plants roots and also be able to grow more food using less water. Using the WaterStick® and the MultiPlant WaterStick® I use 75% LESS water to grow MORE food.

What do you enjoy most about this activity?

I enjoy teaching people how to grow plants like I do. My WaterStick® Grow System works on all vegetables and flowers. I have people email me from my website http://waterstickgrowsystem.com, call me at home, and even stop over at my house asking me various gardening questions. To me, it’s fun teaching people how to grow their own food. I try to make it as easy and fun as I can. If doing a task is enjoyable or self-satisfying, people are more likely to keep doing that task, and in today’s world it has become even more important for people to learn how to at least grow some of their own food. Doing that, they will eat better and healthier, cut down on their grocery bill, and do it while conserving water at the same time.