Category Archives: Main Roof

Posts about plants on the main roof

More Harvest Porn

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Today’s tomato harvest of 16, six of which came from a Celebrity in caged position 6. They’re all nice and round and no BER but they do have cracking on the stem side from overwatering. I waited 3 days since I last harvested so the average production is around 1/2 tomato per plant per day. Looking at the state of the plants this will continue for awhile. There is a second wave growth and more flowers. I found some mites on curled leaves and did some pruning. Some parts of the tomato plant are yellowing and wearing out from general age but there is lots of new growth. We’ll see how long this lasts. I’ll probably unload most of this haul onto the neighbors.

Update 8/23:  More mites seen more pruning but tomatoes are producing.  Pulled another haul as big as shown in the above picture today — maybe more.  Ended up giving all those tomatoes picked on 8/20 away and now am backed up again.  All the plants have second growth and lots of tomatoes are turning red.  I have the canning jars I just need the motivation to boil the water and follow the process.  I can however, no matter what happens from here on out, declare that the tomato crop has been successful.  I also think 8 plants are enough.  Celebrities are a keeper next year as they have always been, even in the worst of times, consistent and fighters to the end even when faced with death.  I am pondering whether to replace the Big Boys with Brandywines, the tomato with the pink fruit, for next year now that I know what has been killing them the last bunch of years.  I’ll think about this.  Still lots of time for next year and unlike the last bunch of years, I should be harvesting through September.

Harvest Time

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Here’s a pic of today’s harvest.  I picked a lot of eggplants because I have been lax at picking them the last couple of weeks.  Although I don’t have numerical data, it seems like I’m producing the same number of eggplants with 8 plants as in previous years with double that many planted.  This year I went from 3 to 2 eggplants per large container and a couple of singles that have gotten rather large.  Tomatoes are still doing OK which is far better than the situation last year.

Tomato Status

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Caged positions 7 (left, Big Boy) and 8 (right, Celebrity).  Today was cool and rained all day giving the tomato plants cold showers.  Second growth on all plants seem strong.  As can be seen from this picture, the Big Boy in position 7 has had its lower branches either pruned by me or shriveled up by the spider mites.  The Celebrity on the right seems in much better shape albeit somewhat smaller.  Harvested four decent tomatoes yesterday and four today — some coming from Big Boys for the first time.  Tomatoes are somewhat cracked from overwatering but no BER.  BER hasn’t been a problem which is a first for me growing tomatoes on the main roof.  It appears (knock on wood) that there might be a second wave harvest this year which would be a first since (by my imperfect recollection) 2006.  The curled leaves are fewer.  I did, however, see single mites on some leaves but they were moving slowly and perhaps not reproducing fast enough to keep pace with the growth of the plants.  The hard water showers might be working.   Things are definitely looking good with respect to tomato plants and for the first time in many many years, I was able to give away tomatoes.  It’s possible that I may have to get out the canning gear as well (which is a lot of work).

Update 8/15:  Rained somewhat last night so skipped watering.  Checked mid day today and had to do an emergency water on main roof.  Temps got to 87F here.  Tomatoes took it well but the eggplants wilted quite a lot.  So far so good.  Second growth small set green tomatoes on mostly Celebrities but some Big Boys and lots of flowers for a third harvest.  Here is one of the tomatoes taken on 8/15/2011.

NE Corner Main Roof Status

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This corner has a collapsed box that I decided to let be this year because of the large population of volunteer snapdragons from last season.   The box contains 8 habeneros, 2 cucumbers, 1 eggplant, and 1 Cleome that I planted.  In the bottom left corner is part of the pineapple mint container which is on its third or fourth year.  Next season I’ll have to replace this box and since it supports edibles I can’t use treated wood.  This pine box painted with white polyurethane paint was built for the 2007 season so it has lasted only 6 years — which might not be so bad.  The treated wood boxes on the veranda level are on their 11th year and show no signs of wear.  I need to figure out a way to line the inside of these large box containers with some kind of plastic to protect the wood from soil moisture without introducing nasty chemicals that can get into edible plants.

Here’s the box in 2007 on SE wall main roof.

Logbook Entry: Mites update

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Today (8/6)  found more mites in all tomato plants when picking curled leaves.  The organic spray is not working so the only thing left for this year is to keep blasting hard water showers at the plants each evening and perhaps during the day.  Perhaps had I known about mites at the beginning of the season I could have used the spray when the plants were smaller with less leaves to worry about.  Now it’s too late.  Compared to last season however the tomatoes still have a fighting chance.  The Big Boys are struggling however.  Also harvested 4 decent sized tomatoes, all Celebrities.

Update 8/9: Temps dropped.  Now 66F here at 5pm.  Only hard showered tomatoes last night (8/8) and skipped watering everything else on main roof.  Harvested four tomatoes yesterday.  Some cracking but no big deal.  No BER.  Harvested only from Celebrities but the Big Boys look like they’ll start giving up red ones.  Flicked giant catepillar off the roof who was eating the top branches off of a Big Boy.  Mites are few so the hard showers seem to be working.  Will get a pic up soon but the Celebrities look like they have recovered from the mites while the Big Boys keep losing branches to my pruning.  Overall it’s 8/9 and although a couple Big Boys might not make it, the buffer system seems to have worked by keeping them isolated.  Morning glories on NW corner veranda level seem weaker compared to last year.  Must investigate possible causes.

Update again 8/9:  Now I went and checked the plants looking on the backside of the leaves where most of the mites hang out after reading these articles.  Pruned heavily.  Mostly Big Boys but some Celebrities.  My overall observation is that the Celebrities seem to have tolerated the mites better although I’m pruning curled leaves mercilessly now.  It’s raining.  I’m debating whether or not to spray the oil.  May as well use up the rest of the bottle.

Post organic anti mite application status

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A sample curled leave taken from Celebrity tomato in caged position two.  No hard showers given since application of organic anti-mite oils.  I noticed that curled leaves in all tomatoes now have distinct brown spots which seems to indicate that this solution might have had some effect.  No mites seen today.  Saw one teeny little black beetle and hopefully that wasn’t something.  Did a hard prune today but it was much lighter than the past two prunes.  Also fertilized tonight.  We have another 100F day tomorrow and then the cold front hits.  Harvested two little tomatoes not even worth mentioning.  Some tomatoes are cracked which means I might be watering too much.  I’m not concerned about that.

Overall, with all I know now that I didn’t know last year at this time, so far so good.  The Big Boy tomatoes have good second growth and lots of second growth flowers on all eight.  We’ll see where everything is at tomorrow.  One day at a time…

Update 8/5: Skipped watering on 8/4 evening because it rained somewhat.  Heavy cucumber harvest today.  Cucumber in the cages lost two main branches which at first glance looked like they were broken but upon further inspection did not see anything broken.  Not sure as to the cause but after cutting noticed white fur around base of branches which could mean something else nasty eating my plants.  Pruned and sprayed again.  Saw mites in curled leaved sections hidden away in groups.  They weren’t moving fast but they were there.  Big Boys are having most difficulty while Celebrities might be OK (knock on wood).  Even though the Big Boys grew much higher than the Celebrities, the branches being cut out of them leave their base barren.  They are getting second growth and flowers butthe mites seem relentless.  Perhaps if I had started treatment earlier this wouldn’t have been as big a problem because the plants are so big now it’s difficult getting around to all the infected branches.  The couple of decent sized tomatoes are nice and round and no BER but some over watered cracking.  They cut up well and taste good.  A lot of big ones from the Big Boys should be coming in a couple of days.

Tomato Patch Status

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Here’s a pic of all 14 caged positions taken at an angle.  The big pink flowers are Cleome which draw the bees which theoretically should help the tomato plants.  In the foreground to the left is the debris clump Lost Island from last season.  Debris clumps are piles of old plant carcasses and roots that have been tossed onto the roof and left to support anything that can grow in that environment.  The debris clumps have sufferred this year from drought conditions but plant life still recovers in them.  More on them later.

Update on tomatoes: Lots of strong second growth but mites are getting higher and higher.  May need to do another hard prune in a few days.  Giving them two hard showers tonight.  Heading to Home Depot for that Neem organic stuff tomorrow.  Although this is frustrating, I think my actions might have some effect.  Compared to last year’s photos, the tomatoes look much better this year at this date.

Update 8/1:  Didn’t get Neem but got some bottle containing a bunch of oils claiming to be organic.  Gave tomatoes another hard shower and applied about 1/2 a bottle of that spray on all 8.  Pulled a few samples and saw some mites but not many.  Still lots of curled leaves and it seems relentless.  Even though the plants are growing well it seems as if the mites might eventually win.  Hopefully this spray has some effect.  Will water everything later tonight.  In a few days we’ll hit the date when everything really went south last year.  The green tomatoes look good however.  Nice and round and no BER (knock on wood).  May have to do another hard prune soon.  Probably should fertilize too.  Will fertilize tonight.

Caged positions 7 and 8

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Caged position 7 (left) two eggplants and caged position 8 (right) Big Boy tomato.  For some reason, these two positions sitting right next to each other in the middle of the row represent the largest of their kind.  The two eggplants are the largest I have ever seen growing on this rooftop.  The Big Boy is the largest tomato so far but I had never grown this type before.  This Big Boy is the biggest of all four that have been planted in this row.  It is clear that three eggplants per 20 gallon container is too much.

Overall tomato status update:  Hard showers are a daily occurance for tomatoes, cukes, and eggplants.  After the second hard pruning I have not seen any mites even though some leaves are curled.  Pulled another stunted BER tomato from a Big Boy but it looked like a reject.  No BER on Celebrity so far (knock on wood).  Lots of green.  First real harvest should be sometime this week or next.  The tomatoes did a hard fail right after the first week of August last year (see archives).  So far so good this year.  Zeem application may not be necessary but having a bottle in storage might prove useful for later and certainly next year.

Spider Mites!

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Caged positions 9 and 10 taken on 7/19.  As mentioned in the previously dated post, caged position 10 sufferred from the same blight like condition as what happened the last bunch of years.

Today I cut out curled leave sections of all tomatoes and found spider mites on every tomato.  It has been spider mites that have been killing my tomato plants.  I pruned all the real bad branches off of all tomato plants today and gave them a hard shower as recommended by some sites including this one.  Now that I know what this is I might be able to thwart it.  Will look into that Neem oil at Home Depot.  There are home remedies but I’m not at the stage where I can experiment with that.

Update: The bad eggplant is behind the Cleome in caged position 9.  This eggplant seems to have recovered from its spider mite infestation.

Update 7/22: The tomatoes look better.  Some curled leaves.  Checked for mites and found some and perhaps some eggs but not as many as yesterday.  Gave them and eggplants another hard shower.  All the eggplants seem infested as well.  In hindsight I feel kind of stupid for not realizing this over the past 6 or 7 years of crop failure.  Mixing eggplants into the tomatoes and seeing them suffer first was a major clue.  Plus, this little blog thingy which no one reads has perhaps helped me gather my thoughts so that this year, I actually did some investigation and observation — because I wanted to enter it in this log book.   Still haven’t gotten to harvest yet but I feel optimistic.

Note: I had a decent crop in 2006 when I grew a six tomatoes on north wall.  I don’t recall any sudden failure.  I need to figure out the source of the spider mites.  NE and SE corners do not show mites.  Cucumbers are affected as well which could explain the Cucumber failure last season.

Update 7./26: Skipped watering main roof.  Rained last night early morning and everything still seems soggy up there.  Gave tomatoes hard shower however.  Big Boy in caged position 7 is the biggest.  Caged position 10, the tomato that showed first signs of distress and the one that produced 3 small BER red tomatoes, produced a small red tomato with very little BER.  This is good compared to previous years.  Though not scientific, my casual observation indicates that the number of green tomatoes is lower than previous years but none show distress and no BER (knock on wood).  There is second growth so we’ll see what kind of harvest this crop brings.  Any harvest will be an improvement from the last bunch of years.

Update 7/27: Heavily pruned tonight.  Lots of mites but less than and slower than when first spotted.  Caged positions got a hard shower.  Might have to get the Zeem and a spray bottle from Home Depot.  I’ll try and get some pics up soon.