Vegetable Harvest Report 04 2009

So I think I'm on track to beat my garden costs. August is just starting and I've already made back about 32% of my money. With that said however, I don't want to jinx myself, so let's just wait and see.

Cherry Tomato: 17 ounces
Average Price: $0.42/ounce
Total: $7.14

Bell Peppers: 13 ounces
Average Price: $0.29/ounce
Total: $3.77

Eggplant: 2 pounds, 7.3 ounces
Average Price: $0.25/ounce
Total: $9.83

Weight Total: 4 pounds, 5.3 ounces
Price Total: $20.74

Running Weight Total: 12 pounds, 15.7 ounces
Running Price Total: $65.33

*Not a lot of vendors are selling these items right now so this average will change over time as I'm able to to collect more prices.

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Juicy Celebrity Gossip

I've been so focused on watching my cherry tomato plant (which is doing fine by the way) that I've completely missed what was going on with the celebrity tomatoes. It's hard to tell from the above photo, but not a lot of new fruit has set.

The celebrity tomatoes look fine from a distance, but when you get a closer look a lot of the flowers look like the photo below.


I did some googling and I suspect it might be gray mold.

This fungus disease is intriguing in that it can cause a variety of plant diseases including damping-off and blights of flowers, fruits, stems, and foliage of many vegetables and ornamentals. It is a major cause of postharvest rot of perishable plant produce, including tomatoes at harvest and in storage. The disease can occur both in the greenhouse and in the field. Besides tomato, gray mold is of concern to other vegetables including snap and lima beans, cabbage, lettuce and endive, muskmelon, pea, pepper, and potato.

High relative humidities are necessary for prolific spore production. In the field, spores landing on tomato plants germinate and produce an infection when free water from rain, dew, fog, or irrigation occurs on the plant surface. Optimum temperatures for infection are between 65° and 75° F (18° and 24° C), and infection can occur within 5 hours. High temperatures, above 82° F (28° C), suppress growth and spore production. Dying flowers are a favorable site for infection, but infections can also result from direct contact with moist infested soil or plant debris.

There's not much I can do about what's there now, but I have some neem I can use to prevent it from spreading. Fingers crossed.

I also bought lime to add to their container, hopefully that will end the blossom end rot.

Spray bottle for neem: $4.10
Garden Lime: $4.30

Running Total: $201.90

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Reading Round Up: Whistle Pigs Edition

More on late blight. Have you been affected? I haven't seen any signs on mine, but I'm definitely keeping my eyes open for it.

If hail has damaged your garden here are some tips to rejuvenate hail damaged plants.

This is fun, golf clubs repurposed as plant stakes.

An unwise use of gardening tools can get you arrested. Say no to garden rumbles.

Imagine gardening in 1816, the year without summer.

Rats!

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Garden Gallery Shots 02 2009

 Orange Belle Hybrid II Pepper

Jalapeno Heaven Hybrid Pepper

Broccoli Flower

July 25 2009 Harvest

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Vegetable Harvest Report 03 2009

Right now eggplants are the most popular items at the greenmarket. I do my price checking in the morning and by the time I pass by again during lunchtime they're usually sold out by every vendor who stocks them. Most of the prices hover around $2 a pound, but some vendors are selling them for $6-$8 a pound and they still sell out.

I'm amazed at how prolific the Hansel eggplant are, they're well suited to container gardening and you get a lot of produce from one plant. If you're an eggplant lover one plant could sustain you for the entire growing season. I may grow them again next year, maybe their sister Gretel too.

The Orange Paruche cherry tomatoes are fantastic, they mature to a beautiful, bright orange and when you bite into them there's faint taste of citrus. Delicious. The plant itself seems to be fine, after dealing with it's magnesium deficiency and phosphorus deficiency, I watched it like a hawk for weeks. Now I'm starting to think I'm just being paranoid about every little thing it does and need to chill out and let it do its thing.

The jalapenos are doing great. They aren't bothered by any disease or pest. In my limited experience I would have to say they're the easiest thing to grow in a garden.

Some bell peppers were ready to pick, but I decided to wait until they change color.

Cherry Tomato: 1 pound 5.3 ounces
Average Price: $0.42/ounce
Total: $8.95

Eggplant: 3 pounds, 5.5 ounces
Average Price*: $0.25/ounce
Total: $13.38

Hot Pepper: 6.8 ounces
Average Price*: $0.31
Total: $2.11

Weight Total: 5 pounds, 1.6 ounces
Price Total: $24.44

Running Weight Total: 8 pounds, 10.4 ounces
Running Price Total: $44.59

*Not a lot of vendors are selling these items right now so this average will change over time as I'm able to to collect more prices.

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Vegetable Garden Spotter: the East River

I see this rooftop garden everyday on the commute to and from work. It's near the Williamsburg Bridge on the Brooklyn side of the river. Apologies for the grainy photo, it's several hundred feet from where I shot it. I see tomatoes, eggplant and corn. Can anybody figure out what's growing to the left of the eggplant? I thought it might be cucumber or squash.

I think those blocks are there to prevent the planters from tipping over in the wind, I saw the corn on its side once. I assume the shiny ribbons are there to deter birds.

Do you think they'll be successful with the corn? I always thought you needed to plant a lot close together to get them to pollinate.

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Reading Round Up: Food Policy Edition

At the Daily Kos an organic gardener shares their pest control experience.

The CS Monitor talks about their least favorite gardening chore. What's yours? I'm not sure what mine is, I haven't been doing this long enough to figure it out, though I must say watering everyday is a pain in the butt.

The Washington Post has an interesting article on the White House vegetable garden and how it fits into food policy.

Extend the growing season with heated raised beds!

Newsday interviews Ina Garten the Barefoot Contessa. The video and slideshow show off her beautiful vegetable and flower garden in East Hampton.

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Vegetable Harvest Report 02 2009

Okay, so here is the much anticipated 2nd update in the 2009 harvest. I wanted to post this much sooner, but I had to wait until the vendors at the greenmarket started to sell the produce I was already eating from my garden. The cherry tomatoes in the pic were immediately gobbled after I took this shot. If I didn't have to photograph them I doubt they would have made it off the roof.

Broccoli: 3 ounces
Average Price: $0.18/ounce
Total: $0.53

Cherry Tomato: 12.2 ounces
Average Price: $0.46/ounce
Total: $5.61

Eggplant: 1 pound 11.7 ounces
Average Price*: $0.34/ounce
Total: $9.42

Hot Pepper: 8.3 ounces
Average Price*: $0.31
Total: $2.57

Weight Total: 3 pounds, 3.2 ounces
Price Total: $18.13

Running Weight Total: 3 pounds, 8.8 ounces
Running Price Total: $20.15

*Not a lot of vendors are selling these items right now so this average will change over time as I'm able to to collect more prices.

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More on Aphids & White Lint Like Bugs

I was doing my daily pest/disease check and noticed these white, lint-like bugs near a colony of aphids. I thought I had another pest to worry about so I trolled the GardenWeb forums for some answers. It turns out they were not new bugs, just the cast skin aphids leave behind when they moult.

When scouting a field, you will often find the white, cast skins left behind when aphids moult. They are often confused with diseased or parasitized aphids. If you are finding them on the top surface of leaves, take a look at the leaves just above - is there a new colony forming above? If you are looking at a colony of aphids on the underside of a leaf (where colonies form) and all that is left is behind are cast skins, then the aphids have probably developed into winged forms and migrated to another plant.

I was relieved to find out that I did not have a new pest to worry about. Obviously I still have aphids, but they remain at manageable levels.

Let this be a lesson to all you novice gardeners out there. If you see this on your plants the good news is you do not have a new pest to worry about, the bad news is you still have aphids and they're probably spreading to the rest of your garden.

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Reading Round Up: The Half-Blood Prince Edition

Check your plants! Late Blight spreads throughout the eastern US.

The Sun Chronicle offers tips on how to manage slugs in the garden.

The Examiner.com gives a quick list of beneficial insects for your garden.

Sad story ahead: Elderly woman beats a fawn to death for eating her garden!

Good Morning America does a segment on growing your own food.

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Garden Gallery Shots 01 2009

Celebrity Tomato

Hansel Eggplant

Golden Star Bell Pepper

Orange Paruche Cherry Tomato

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Tomato Blossom End Rot

Some of the celebrity tomatoes had blossom end rot so I plucked them off.

Symptoms may occur at any stage in the development of the fruit, but, most commonly, are first seen when the fruit is one-third to one-half full size. As the name of the disease implies, symptoms appear only at the blossom end of the fruit. Initially a small, water-soaked spot appears, which enlarges and darkens rapidly as the fruits develop.

Large lesions soon dry out and become flattened, black, and leathery in appearance and texture. 

Since it is of a physiological nature, fungicides and insecticides are useless as control measures. The occurrence of the disease is dependent upon a number of environmental conditions, especially those that affect the supply of water and calcium in the developing fruits.

The disease is especially prevalent when rapidly growing, succulent plants are exposed suddenly to a period of drought. When the roots fail to obtain sufficient water and calcium to be transported up to the rapidly developing fruits, the latter become rotted on their basal ends.

For the past couple of weeks I've been able to get away with filling their 4 gallon tank every other day, obviously that is no longer the case. These are some thirsty plants! Now, when I get home at the end of the day, there's barely an inch of water left in their reservoir. I miss the rainy days of June when I had to water only once or twice a week.

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Vegetable Plant Update 5 2009

Looking good right? I'm surprised at every vegetable plants growth pace. I thought I wouldn't have anything else to harvest from the rooftop garden until the 3rd or 4th week of July, but looks like I'll be harvesting cherry tomatoes and hot peppers in a few days. The broccoli plants are immense, I had no idea that they get so large. Only 2 have produced a head, who knows what's going on with the others. Maybe it's too late in the season? I don't have any other plans for that DIY self-watering container so I'll just let them stay there until I feel like pulling them out. Something is once again going on with the cherry tomato plant. More on that in another post.

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Reading Round Up: Fireworks Edition

Newsday gives us a list of July gardening chores.

Examiner.com offers tips to make a pet friendly garden.

Here's a video on ABC on urban farming. I wish they talked more about that vertical garden.

A Huffington Post blogger reacts strongly to another Huffington Post blogger about his post on the White House garden and contaminated soil. The reader comments are also worth a look.

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Vegetable Garden Spotter: the Waterpod

A couple of weeks ago I went to the South Street Seaport and visited the experimental project the Waterpod I mentioned in a previous Reading Round Up. The public wasn't allowed on board, but I didn't feel too bad about that since just watching the barge bob up and down in the water was enough to get me queasy. It's pretty cool, I'm definitely going to visit it again. I kept all the pics at a high resolution so click on each one if you want to get a closer look.

In the above pic I see chard, lettuce, corn maybe.

Some scrawny tomato plants, lettuce, other stuff.

Those big, white vats are part of their water filtration system, but what's growing in the 5 gallon buckets?

My plant id skills do not extend far. What do you see in these pics?

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