Observation

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The vines might have suffered from lack of nourishment this year.  None of the boxes supporting morning glories were replenished with any kind of slow release ferts.  Next year, if there’s a next year, we’ll put at least 10% mushroom compost into the mix.  The alley planters cubic feet are:

Box 1 = 1.5*1.5*4 = 9 cuft

Box 2 = 1.5*1.5*3 = ~7 cuft

Box 3 = Box 1 = 9 cuft

Box 4 = 1.5*1.5*6 = ~14 cuft

Total = ~40 cuft

Total Mushroom Compost = 4 cuft @ 10% , 8 cuft @20%

= 2 – 3 2 cuft bags for alley planters.

NW corner veranda

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Status update of northwest corner veranda.  Morning glories have topped the pergolas and this is about as dense as they get.  The morning glories are waning.  I haven’t seen a Heavenly Blue or Moonflower so it looks like the purple and pinks took over and won.  The morning glories seem much thinner than previous years.

Note to future Mark:  veranda level container mix needs to be turned and planted with more variety next Spring and then weeded properly.  It might be a good idea to introduce mushroom compost as well to aid in water retention and provide better nutrition.  I think veranda level boxes drained and dried out too quickly this year.  This seems counter intuitive since I didn’t turn or touch the container mix in the veranda main boxes.  Perhaps there also might have been lack of proper nutrients provided in both alley and veranda level main planters.  No added slow release ferts were added in Spring and MG soluble fertilization was added infrequently.   Need to come up with a proper proportion of compost/cubic foot.  A 10% ratio would mean 3 cubic feet of compost to cover two veranda level main boxes.

The purples, which I consider the weed of the MG family, is all I got this year.  They look nice in certain light but can’t compare to Heavenly Blues which are absent.

Cosmos in debris clump

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Cosmos grow amongst two year old debris clump occupying the western edge of main roof.  These clumps are going through drought periods.  I haven’t been diligent watering since the tomatoes died.  The wildflowers are still popping up however and blooming.  I cheated and seeded these.  The grass and most all other plants in these clumps comes from whatever seeds make it and survive.

Update

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No posts in awhile.  No pictures.  The garden is waning mid August again and I don’t know why.  All tomatoes and cucumbers are dead.  The morning glories were thin this year from the alley.  Clearly neglect has taken its toll there.  Right now, like the Cubs, I’m planning for next year.  Maybe the year the Cubs win the World Series will be the year I can get a tomato plant to survive until October.

Blight Observation

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This is container #12, a Celebrity tomato planted in a smaller container as an experiment.  It was more or less healthy throughout the summer albeit a little smaller (most likely due to container size).  It caught blight from container #11 which supported another variety that struggled all summer and should have been pulled and replaced after the first week.  Celebrity tomatoes have been hardy as demonstrated with this plant.  Even though the bottom half is devastated by blight, it has second growth and may produce a second crop of tomatoes.  Celebrity tomatoes are a nice size too.  It is important to figure out what types of tomatoes can grow in a rooftop environment.  So far, Celebrity tomatoes top my list.  More on Early Girls and Brandywine, the other two main types planted later.

Alley vines

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Here’s a quick pic of the morning glory vines in the alley that connect with the veranda level morning glories.  In past years I seeded the alley planters with vines other than morning glories — like moonflowers.  This year I just let them grow on their own so we’ll see if any moonflowers made it.

Note to future Mark: Alley container#4 needs to be rebuilt before 2012 growing season.  Potting mix on all alley containers last changed spring 2009 (I think).

Home Depot

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Tomatoes aren’t the only problem.  Home Depot sold me pickle cucumbers as real cucumbers.  Both Home Depot plants are dead in SE corner.  Normally I don’t bother with Home Depot for seedlings but decided to take a risk this year.  Note to future Mark, don’t buy any seedlings from Home Depot.  That had been my policy but I made an exception this Spring.

Blight Update

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The tomato blight is the reason I haven’t updated photo album logs in 2008, 2009, 2010 which is stupid because these photo logs are a great resource to see what worked and what didn’t and to improve upon the future.

Tomatoes are coming in.  It’s better than last year.  Nothing could be worse than 2010 for tomatoes.

Here‘s a panoramic taken a few days ago.

Maybe I’ll get into the mood to take pictures again.  This logbook is for me, so that I can review what I’ve done in the past so I don’t repeat mistakes.

Blight Continues

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Containers 2-6

I took these pictures after clearing blighted branches as best as possible.  The blight hit each of the 12 tomato plants.  This is a note to future Mark when he reads this next July, the moment you see what looks like blight pull the entire plant and get it off the roof.

Container 2 is the left most container.  It’s a Celebrity brand tomato and it suffered 1/2 loss.  Container 3 is some heirloom from Gesethemane and it was one of the first to develop symptoms.  It is completely gone.  I should have pulled this plant without mercy a week ago.  Note to future Mark, no heirloom tomatoes.  Container 4 is a Brandywine and doing OK — about 1/4 loss. Containers 5 and 6 are Early Girls.  Tomatoes are small about 1/3 loss to blight so far.  Leaves yellowing and little second growth.  Note to future Mark, don’t plant Early Girls next year.

Containers 8-12

This picture shows containers 8 through 12.  Container 8 is left most container.  It supports an Early Girl that lost 1/2 its branches to blight.  Container 9, a Brandywine, was a complete loss.  Container 10 is a Celbrity, 1/3 loss but good second growth.  Container 11, first container off the rails, is a Celbrity and almost (will be) a complete loss.  This was a weak plant from the beginning.  Note to future Mark, do not let weak plants grow.  Pull them and replace them.

Theory: The risk of blight increases with weaker plants of any variety and the introduction of unknown heirloom varieties.

Container 12 is in a smaller container and I think it’s a Celebrity or Early Girl.  Its prognosis is grim.  Container 7 (not seen) is doing OK.  Container 1 (not seen) is like Container 12 but in better condition.  Both containers 1 and 12 used smaller pots as experiments.