Tag Archives: cleome

Cleome Main Roof

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IMG_0544Cleome blooms on the main roof.  Cleome seedlings were quite small this spring.  Placed two Cleome per 3 cuft container in caged position 8 and one in SE corner corner 3 cuft container.  These containers  probably could support companion wildflowers if seeded.  Maybe next year.

All hot pepper plants growing nicely.  I forgot to label them too which might become a challenge.

Update: Just thought of this observation.  The Cleome plants look kind of weak and haven’t grown as big as in previous years.  This applies to Cleome in front parkway as well.  I am worried my potting mix lacks nutrition and I have been lax fertilizing this season.  I need to make a fertilizing schedule and stick to it next season.  Maybe get one of these reminder apps to buzz me when it is time to fertilize.

Tomato Patch

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All 15 of tomato caged positions as of 7/17/2014. All tomatoes look good.  Tomatoes in the same type of container are bigger on western end of the row.  Cleome is once again used as a buffer plant placed between sets of tomatoes to attract bees.  The western end of the row gets the first shade of the day so I wonder if that has something to do with increased growth.

New Front Parkway

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IMG_8945A new corner was installed last season and they turned the front into a front parkway.  A container grew raspberries and catnip here in previous years and now the entire 20+ feet is an in ground garden.  I was able to save the mature raspberries from last season and they are doing well.  Catnip survived and I planted Cleome, and a lot of flowering seeds.  There are some volunteer tomatoes and some plants I can’t identify.

The alley planters were disassembled and all that potting soil was used to somewhat raise the center of this bed.  In the distance I built a raised bed structure to contain the potting soil.  That box is completely wildflower.

I’m letting all tree seedlings grow.  By the time the weather cleared to plant trees it was too late so I have to wait until August.  If some seedlings look good I may defer to them to grow into full size trees in the next 20 years or so.

Tomato Status

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IMG_8784 IMG_8785Here’s a brief update of tomatoes as of 6/27/2014.  All 8 tomatoes in caged positions healthy and we’ve had a lot of rain.  Fertilized once last week.  That might be kind of late.  Need to fertilize today.

The two wooden boxes are new planters that can hold two big plants.  They are 2x3x1.5=9 cubic feet.  The plastic tub planters are only 3 cu ft.  The two pictures show caged positions 1-7 of which there are 15 this season.  The wooden cage slots have not been installed and they may not be necessary.

Tomatoes buffered by Cleome in caged position 4 and skinny eggplant in caged position 1.  Caged position 7 has two habeneros and caged position 5 and 6 (bottom pic) has tomatoes.  The caged positions closest to the west which get the first shade are growing the best independent of container size.

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.

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.

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.

Caged Position 14

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Caged position 14, the last caged position, contains 1 eggplant, 1 Cleome, and a bunch of volunteer snapdragons from last year.  This is an end container in the tomato line.  These three plants seem to be getting along OK so far however the Cleome looks a little stunted.  Some of the Cleome seedlings from Gesethemane were duds and I got no volunteer Cleome from the plants grown last season.  Eggplant grow like a weed on the rooftop and are heavy producers.

Update Note: Since this container contained volunteers from last year its soil was not turned thus mushroom compost was not added.  This could be an influence on plant size.

Caged Cleome

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Caged position 1 contains two Cleome.  These were put at the two ends of the tomato line to help protect against whatever plagued end tomatoes in the past and to attract bees.  The Cleome blooms are big and colorful and receive lots  of bee business.  These Cleome are about to have their first bloom.  They bloom all summer long.