Tomato Update …

Another no pic tomato update but I need to write this down or I’ll forget.

2 days ago picked 9, today picked 5.  CG2 tomato has a lot of second growth with 10 new tomatoes on the way and possibly more.   As mentioned before, CG3 did not produce and is dead.  CG6 is producing some small ones but it is essentially dead.   CG7 came back to life somehow and has second growth and may produce more tomatoes.  I had written CG7 off for dead awhile ago.  I let morning glories grow on them and they may have helped bring the tomatoes back to life.  Not sure why this would be but I could easily trellis the tomato containers next season and formally grow MGs as companion plants to test this further.

Total tomatoes so far, 35 including small ones.  Projected crop upgraded to perhaps 50.   Assuming only 3 producing plants 50 is 2/3 of 75 which is my benchmark for what they produce.  Even though the crop is stunted I am getting tomatoes to give away.

I am considering adding another 9 cuft. box to main roof next year with either two more tomatoes or 2 cucumbers.  Will decide that next spring.

That is all for now.

Tomato update

No pics for this log book entry.  Picked 8 smaller tomatoes last night bringing total up to perhaps 21.  CG2 tomato has second growth and may produce through September now that CG3 tomato is dead producing nothing.  CG6 and CG7 have about 10 tomatoes between them.  Crop is way down this season but not a total failure.  Tomatoes are enough for me but can’t give any away.  No pics.  Lost island debris clump has an interesting plant growing in it.  Will post a pic soon.

Log Entry: Tomatoes

Update on tomatoes, no pics.  Caged position 2 is getting second growth and its partner in caged position 3 is completely dead.  This could be due to having different kinds of plants sharing the same container.  I had problems with habeneros sharing containers with eggplants in previous seasons.  It looks like position 2 tomato might produce what it should for an average season.

Caged position 6 and 7 have tomatoes and will produce a steady stream.  Position 7 is barely alive yet its tomatoes are growing.  I think I pulled 8 tomatoes so far.  I should get 100 tomatoes from 4 plants and I estimate the total crop to be maybe 30 possibly 40.  It’s easier to count crop totals when there are only 4 tomato plants instead of the 8 I grew in past seasons.

Only pulled one tomato with BER from caged position 6, the second healthiest tomato plant.  Each tomato position received 1/4 small bag of garden lime which might have helped mitigate BER.  I have always had BER with the first bunch of tomatoes.

Cleome Main Roof

IMG_0544Cleome blooms on the main roof.  Cleome seedlings were quite small this spring.  Placed two Cleome per 3 cuft container in caged position 8 and one in SE corner corner 3 cuft container.  These containers  probably could support companion wildflowers if seeded.  Maybe next year.

All hot pepper plants growing nicely.  I forgot to label them too which might become a challenge.

Update: Just thought of this observation.  The Cleome plants look kind of weak and haven’t grown as big as in previous years.  This applies to Cleome in front parkway as well.  I am worried my potting mix lacks nutrition and I have been lax fertilizing this season.  I need to make a fertilizing schedule and stick to it next season.  Maybe get one of these reminder apps to buzz me when it is time to fertilize.

Caged Positions 6 and 7

IMG_0540I need to get a better shot of this container.  Position 6 is in the foreground with 7 behind it.  Both are shriveling badly but 6 is producing more and 7 is almost gone although I did pull a perfect tomato from it today.  I chose to let the plants die on their own instead of pruning them because I don’t know what’s going on and don’t want to make things worse.

I suspect the best tomatoes, 2 and 6 are Celebrity and Big Boy which are generic tomato brands and have been grown on this roof before and known for their hardiness.  Positions 3 and 7 were some heirloom variety which may not be capable of surviving in a harsh environment.  This summer has been very cool and mild so they haven’t seen anything harsh like what previous crops have gone through.

Next season I’ll stick to two Celebrities and 2 another generic keeping the same kind in the same container and see what happens.  Need to get main roof overview.  It is quite reduced and more organized compared to last season.  I will keep the same configuration next season.

Caged Positions 2 and 3

IMG_0525Caged positions 2 and 3, two tomatoes.  I made an error during planting and forgot to keep the tags by their plants and document the order here; in this logbook.

I think caged position 2, to the left, is a big boy.  So fat it is the best looking tomato of the four and has new growth.  The bottoms of these plants are shriveling and dying and it’s not mites like in past years.  Position 3 is a goner and will produce nothing.  I should probably pull it.

These seedlings were individuals and about 4x more expensive than the 4-packs.  I suspect these seedlings are not very hardy and may have trouble in the harsh environment of a rooftop.

Habenero Harvest

IMG_9547Habeneros are good this year.  Even though the label on seedlings sold by Gethsemane said yellow habeneros, they always ripen to red for some reason.  There was a time when they did sell habeneros that only turned yellow.  This has been going on for quite a few years now.

Usually I complain about Gethsemane but their hab seedlings have been very vigorous this season.    All habs still growing and a lot of green growth.

TL;DR The above pic is a 2 gallon bucket dump of habeneros harvested today.  More to come.

Update:  I’m not complaining about red habeneros.  The red habs are hotter and more desirable than  yellow habs in my opinion.  Gethsemane used to differentiate between the two with their tags and now they only tag them as yellow.  I’m happy they’re really red because that’s what I want.  Will be back next year.

I may have been overcrowding habeneros in the past.  Plants seem bigger with more habeneros because I allocated more cuft root space to each plant.  I used to allocate 1 cuft/plant and now I’m up to 1.5 cuft/plant and the production is the same but with less plants.  Therefore, the numbers of actual plants doesn’t matter as much as the total container size growing that type of plant.  Next season I’ll experiment giving a habenero 2 cuft root space and see what happens.

First Tomato Harvest

IMG_9450First tomato harvest happened yesterday.  Here’s a shot of first bucket of non-BER tomatoes pulled from the main roof.  I estimate this haul to be around 20lbs and I pulled another 20lbs today; all good looking round tomatoes.  Overall the crop looks to be a success but there doesn’t seem to be a second growth as all the plants seemed to have stopped growing.

The tomato in caged position 2 which shares a 9 cuft container with two skinny eggplants has almost completely died.  Its stalks are still green and has lots of green tomatoes so I’m hoping they ripen.  This plant tipped over in high winds because I was lax at installing  wooden supports to secure  metal hoops to something.  Once these tomatoes get to a certain size the metal hoops can keep the plant together in one piece but they can’t keep the plant from tipping over.  Although this tomato didn’t die immediately it is pretty much dead now.  I suspect a main trunk got ruptured and it took awhile for the full effect of the damage to be seen.  Since the stalks are green I’m hoping nutrients are still feeding the surviving tomato.   Since this tomato shared one of the newer large containers it had gotten very large so it’s a shame to have lost this one.

An update on main roof tomato pics forthcoming.

Note: Preliminary plan for next season: NE corner will have 1 9cuft container and two 3cuft containers for a total of 4 caged positions.  The current row of 15 caged positions will be reduced to 10, 3 9cuft containers (2 new need to be built) and 4 3cuft containers as buffer plants.  The tomatoes will populate all four 9cuft containers, two in each.  I have come to the conclusion placing plants of different kinds in the same container is not always such a good idea.  The tomatoes that grow amongst their own kind have done the best so far this year.   I will do a material calculation later.

Also, 24 cuft of potting mix on veranda will be dumped into front parkway this fall to support fall wildflower seeding.  North wall planter will be eliminated as well as two 2x4x2 west wall sections.  The north pergola will be eliminated this fall to be replaced with a table — no plants.  I’ll try and get blueberries, grapes, or raspberry perennial bushes to grow in the remaining planters.  This should be easier to maintain.

Tomato Patch

IMG_9077
All 15 of tomato caged positions as of 7/17/2014. All tomatoes look good.  Tomatoes in the same type of container are bigger on western end of the row.  Cleome is once again used as a buffer plant placed between sets of tomatoes to attract bees.  The western end of the row gets the first shade of the day so I wonder if that has something to do with increased growth.

SE Corner Main Roof

IMG_8840SE corner main roof has 12 habneros, 2 basils, and a fat eggplant.  Last two seasons sunflowers grew here but nothing else grows well with sunflowers.  St. Hedwig Catholic church is being restored in the distance.  This restoration project has been going on for years now.