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.