Monthly Archives: July 2012

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.

Logbook Entry: First harvest and more

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First harvest on 7/19.  Four eggplants and a cucumber.  Cuke taken from the one in the cages which is doing well.  Eggplants from caged position 2.

Possible blight on Big Boy tomato in caged position 10.  Eggplant in caged position 9 doesn’t look well.  Instead of pulling entire eggplant, took off all blighted leaves and removed all blighted stalks from tomato.  It looks like a small and isolated outbreak.  Never seen blight on eggplant before.  IMHO, the outbreak seemed to originate from the eggplant which shares its container with a Cleome (unaffected).  That eggplant has some healthy new growth so I let it be for now to see if the problem is over.

Logbook Entry: Blossom End Rot

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Pulled two tomatoes from caged position 10, a Big Boy, with blossom end rot.  That they were red, small, and completely consumed with BER might mean the plant was rejecting them early which could be a good thing.  No other BER sighted so far.  Green tomatoes are getting big and none have any spots on them (knock on wood).  These next three weeks are the most critical and I think where all my major mistakes have taken place in past years.  I am now watering mid-day as well as evening when temps exceed 90F, like today.  Next two days forecast close to 100F.

Caged Positions 11 and 12

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Caged position 11 (left) Celebrity tomato, position 12 is a cucumber from that guy in the Menards parking lot.  He usually has quality seedlings and this cucumber is doing well.

The tomatoes bounced back from yesterday.  The curled leaves are reduced in all tomatoes.  It just rained this afternoon.  I suspect the curled leaves are due to under watering and not over watering after results from an experiment done the last two days.  Will fertilize tomorrow.

More Heat

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Note: There will be a lot of text observations because I need to record this data for future reference.

Temp in Bucktown got to 99 or 100F, it doesn’t matter which.  Everything watered last night so everything should be OK on main roof.  Need to do another complete watering tonight.  Temps forecast circa 100F for until Friday and perhaps beyond.  This climate is significantly different than the last three years at least by my off the top memory.

Todo: Try and download temperature data for the last decade.   Update on tomato health observation later this evening if there’s anything different.

Update Fri 7/6:  Rained 7/5 afternoon so did not have to water anything.  Another 100F today, all tomatoes showed leaf curl at 4:30pm so only watered them to hopefully cool their roots a little.  Maybe should have done that a few hours earlier.  Will water them again tonight.  Skipping fertilizing until heat wave is over on Sunday.

Update Sat 7/7: Heat wave broke today.  Temp currently 73F at 9:30pm.  Only got to mid 80s during day even though wunderground.com predicted 100F today.  They always seem to miss weather changes.  All tomatoes have leaf curl.  This could be bad news.  Containers still seem moist so skipped watering tonight.  Must checkup during day tomorrow.   Perhaps I watered too much — I don’t know anymore.

Update Fri 7/8: Tomato leaves still curled.  Fertilized everything on main roof.  Hopefully things will improve tomorrow.

Observation: Heat

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Rained somewhat the morning of 7/1.  Did not water evening 7/1.  Temp reached upper  90s 7/2 (today).  The tomatoes did not show wilt at 3pm.  I expected some wilt.  This could mean the containers are retaining more water this year.  Mushroom compost does impede drainage and was added this year to most containers.  I have to water everything this evening.

Update: I planted Big Boys not Better Boys as tomatoes.  After watering in the evening a Big Boy tomato in caged position 13 sufferred wilt and seemed to be the only one.  I suppose I should have watered at 3pm.  Overall the Big Boy plants seem larger than Celebrity tomatoes.  Some plants of both types have started to fruit.  I’m not sure what date this occurred in previous years.  Flowers look good on all tomato plants.

Caged Eggplants on Main Roof

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Caged position 2 (left) and 3 (right).  Celebrity tomato in position 2, two eggplants in position 3.  These eggplants are the largest so far of the 8 planted this year.

Update: I usually plant 3 eggplants in these 20 gallon tubs but only put 2 in this year.  From the looks of this container 3 would have been too crowded.