Massive harvest yesterday. Over 50 tomatoes (I lost count). This might be two dehydrators of habeneros. I only grew 8 productive habenero plants and they all produced unbelievably. I realize I should be counting but I don’t have any past data either for comparison. Visually and using my memory, I suspect that the per plant harvested habs were around 1/2 better — possibly more. This could be from adding mushroom compost or an increased amount of potting volume per plant compared to growing them in 5 gallon buckets. It’s possible I’m giving them 50% more room for their roots to grow. I’ll have to work some numbers later but this is definitely a clue to influence the design of the NE corner replacement box next season.
Monthly Archives: September 2012
Heavenly Blue Morning Glories
Heavenly blue morning glory in late afternoon light. I had to seed these in order to get them to grow. The morning glories look awful this year which is why there aren’t many pics of them up. Although they were all planted in mushroom compost based potting mix, I don’t think that was the problem. My theory is too many hot days above 90F (this year more than broke the all time record) which resulted in lack of watering. Keeping up with the watering regime was brutal this year and I think that caused the MGs to thin out very early. They even looked bad at the end of August which is when they should be in their prime. The only way to fix this is to install drip irrigation. This has to be installed next spring because watering this garden is too much by the end of summer. I already gave up this year and am waiting for the first frost to kill everything and be done with it.
Update on tomatoes: I’m sick of watering and let the main roof go. I think there are red tomatoes up there because squirrels have been throwing them off the roof onto the sidewalk below. Not so interested in harvesting anymore. Maybe I’ll get a bucket full of red habs and see if I can fill the dehydrator one last time this year.
Tomato Harvest Resumes
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.