First tomato harvest happened yesterday.  Here’s a shot of first bucket of non-BER tomatoes pulled from the main roof.  I estimate this haul to be around 20lbs and I pulled another 20lbs today; all good looking round tomatoes.  Overall the crop looks to be a success but there doesn’t seem to be a second growth as all the plants seemed to have stopped growing.

The tomato in caged position 2 which shares a 9 cuft container with two skinny eggplants has almost completely died.  Its stalks are still green and has lots of green tomatoes so I’m hoping they ripen.  This plant tipped over in high winds because I was lax at installing  wooden supports to secure  metal hoops to something.  Once these tomatoes get to a certain size the metal hoops can keep the plant together in one piece but they can’t keep the plant from tipping over.  Although this tomato didn’t die immediately it is pretty much dead now.  I suspect a main trunk got ruptured and it took awhile for the full effect of the damage to be seen.  Since the stalks are green I’m hoping nutrients are still feeding the surviving tomato.   Since this tomato shared one of the newer large containers it had gotten very large so it’s a shame to have lost this one.

An update on main roof tomato pics forthcoming.

Note: Preliminary plan for next season: NE corner will have 1 9cuft container and two 3cuft containers for a total of 4 caged positions.  The current row of 15 caged positions will be reduced to 10, 3 9cuft containers (2 new need to be built) and 4 3cuft containers as buffer plants.  The tomatoes will populate all four 9cuft containers, two in each.  I have come to the conclusion placing plants of different kinds in the same container is not always such a good idea.  The tomatoes that grow amongst their own kind have done the best so far this year.   I will do a material calculation later.

Also, 24 cuft of potting mix on veranda will be dumped into front parkway this fall to support fall wildflower seeding.  North wall planter will be eliminated as well as two 2x4x2 west wall sections.  The north pergola will be eliminated this fall to be replaced with a table — no plants.  I’ll try and get blueberries, grapes, or raspberry perennial bushes to grow in the remaining planters.  This should be easier to maintain.