Category Archives: Main Roof

Posts about plants on the main roof

Sunflower Companion Plant

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IMG_7804A sunflower companion plant rises high above the rest of the tomatoes.  Saw an almost red tomato on a Celebrity and it didn’t have BER and it is of decent size.  I’m sure it will be ready to pick tomorrow and it will be the earliest that a decent tomato has been harvested on this roof.  I did use quite a bit of lime in each container.  Overall there are a lot of green tomatoes and so far little evidence of mites.  I did not see any live crawling ones yet but might have seen one of their webs.  Still doing hard water showers every day.  That is something that can’t be done with drip irrigation.

Update 7/27:  Picked first tomato tonight from a Big Boy.  The tomato was around 8oz (decent size) and had a little Blossom End Rot (BER) at the bottom.  Cutting into it revealed the BER went into more than half the tomato.  Although it didn’t look bad from the outside it was bad on the inside.  It didn’t taste that well either.  This is the earliest decent tomato picked since I’ve been growing tomatoes on the main roof (2005).  Usually first picked tomatoes are small and total throwaways.  BER does go away as the plant gets its circulation going so BER should be expected on the first few.  It becomes a problem when it hits every tomato in the first wave of harvest which has happened in past years due to stress on the plants and Mark not completely aware of what is going on.  So far no mites seen.  Some curled leaves but no mites.  Not sure what is going on with them but it doesn’t look like a problem right now.

Caged Position 3 and 4

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IMG_7710Here’s a shot of caged position 3 and 4 taken on 7/14.  Caged position 3  contains 1 eggplant, 1 habenero, and 1 sunflower as companion plant to attract bees.  Last year I used Cleome but Gesethemane where I buy seedlings chose not to carry it this year so I was stuck with seeding sunflowers.  Caged position 4 (right) is a Brandywine tomato that looks pretty healthy.  Last year I skipped Brandywines.  After discovering mites and getting a decent crop last year I decided to try them again this year.  Like last year the caged position layout is as follows:

OTOTTOTTOTTOTO

where O is something other than tomatoes and T are tomatoes.  The O positions provide a buffer in case disease hits one of the tomatoes.  The buffer plants will hopefully keep disease from wiping out the entire crop like what has happened in so many past years.  The eight tomato plants are 4 Celebrities, 2 Big Boys, and 2 Brandywines.  Throughout the years I have found Celebrities to be the most resilient of tomatoes.  The O caged positions vary.  Some have two eggplants some have eggplant and habenero.  Most have a sunflower to attract bees.  I think Cleome is better at this because they flower much sooner than sunflowers and they’ll continue to flower throughout the season.  These caged positions are the plants I focus on for study.

IMG_7711To the left are caged position 4, 5, and 6.

You may notice that the cages are starting to lean.  I’ll need to rebuild these next season.  I have a design to prefab these on the ground and then snap them together on the roof so they’re straight and square.  This design was cobbled together back around 2007 using scrap wood.  But it works well.  As can be seen from this shot all plants get a metal hoop cage which also helps support the plant.

Debris Clumps

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IMG_7620Here are a couple debris clumps taken in early morning light.  To the right in heavy shade are the 14 caged positions as they were last year, albeit with somewhat different buffer and companion plants.  We’ll get more into that later.  Due to the rain the debris clumps, clumps of old planter matter and mix have maintained their green.  Some have mint and chives growing.  If I see a tree I’ll pull it before the roots try and penetrate the rubber roofing.  For the most part the rest of the plants that grow in these are harmless.  I typically don’t water them nor do I seed them.  When dry they can be kicked around the roof like a hockey puck.

Black Eyed Susans

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IMG_7607Black eyed susans grow wild.  Usually these grow with chives but they haven’t come up en mass yet.  Maybe more later in the season.   Tomatoes are doing well.   Sunflowers seem like a good companion plant.  Need to get pics of those containers up.  So far no mites seen on tomatoes but will go up tonight and do a more thorough inspection.  Rain has stopped coming daily and I’ve had to water now three days in a row.  Vines look healthy and good this year.  My poor man’s drip irrigation using a soaker hose seems to work for alley planters.  Need to water front raspberries for the first time this season and need to do it today!  One volunteer hops plant from many years ago has reached the highest so far.  Won’t get much hops from this plant but maybe next year it will grow bigger if it can survive the winter.  We’ll see.

SE Corner Main Roof

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IMG_7309Finally a photo taken on the day it gets posted.  This is the SE corner main roof.  These two containers support sunflowers like last year.  This year however they’ll support 8 habeneros since the NE corner box is being dismantled throughout this season.  We’ll see how well this works.  Due to the cold Spring and still cool, rainy weather, the habeneros are struggling and are smaller than the seedlings when planted.  This has happened in some past years and the habs eventually grew to full size.  I suspect the yield won’t be as good as last year however.  I’m experimenting with sunflowers as companion plants this year in multiple containers on the main roof.

Pineapple Mint

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IMG_7116Lots of pineapple mint came up this Spring all over the main rooftop.  The NE corner box which is being dismantled has a lot that need to be transplanted.  This container is supposed to just store potting mix for use next season.  I decided to plop some pineapple mint in it for the heck of it.  Over the next few weeks I’ll try and give away all the mint.  Mint is a nice invasive plant and one of the few plants that can survive winters in Zone 5 Chicago in conatiners.

This shot shows the surrounding neighborhood in sunset light.

Debris clumps

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IMG_7125Pineapple mint has taken over and has set up beach heads in several debris clumps.  Debris clumps are gatherings of old discarded potting mix and plant carcasses left on the roof surface to support whatever it is that can grow in that environment.  These have been discussed here in previous years.  Last year these clumps didn’t fare too well due to drought conditions.  I typically do not water them nor do  I seed them.  Whatever grows in them happens by sheer accident.  More of these will be shown as the season progresses.  The building in the background is a new feature this year.

Tomato Harvest Resumes

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Tomato harvest resumed yesterday (after more than a week) and while up there I picked a bunch of habeneros, eggplants and cucumbers.  The tomato plants are waning.  They still have mites.  Hopefully next year I can thwart the mites before they establish a colony because once established they seem impossible to eliminate.  I estimate the second harvest to last a week or so with about 8 or 9 tomatoes per plant (65-75 total tomatoes).  There is no more growth in the plants so after this they’re done for the year.  I’m not complaining about the tomatoes this year.  The morning glory vines however …. more on that later.

Update 9/11:  Harvested 15 more decent sized tomatoes today.  There might be an average of 10 greens/plant left so projected harvest might be more than 80 until the end of season.  Habeneros also are coming in as well as 9 large cucumbers.

Caged Position 4 Big Boy

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This is about the worst tomato so far with caged position 11, another Big Boy, being a close second.  This pic taken on 8/28.  Although it looks barren there still is healthy growth and second wave tomatoes.  The last harvest (8/29) was 7 good over two days and it looks like things are slowing down.   This might be the dividing line between first and second harvest.  Second harvest looks very probable but mites still present.

Update 9/2: Tiny two tomato harvest today which is first since 8/29 so the lull continues.

Tomato Second Growth

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Second growth on a Big Boy.  These tomatoes are over my head.  Had a decent harvest today but mostly scrub tomatoes, a couple good enough for slicing but most will be used for canning since they grew funny.  Some nice round green ones will be ready in a couple of days.  The 95F heat today is making the tomatoes ripen on the vine funny so I have started pulling them earlier to let them ripen inside.  The mites are still all over all plants.  The tomatoes are growing up as fast as the mites are eating from the bottom.   Hopefully next year I’ll be able to thwart the mites before they can establish a population.  Even at the height of these tomatoes you can see some dead foilage, victim of mites.