Thursday, July 14, 2011

What a Difference a Week Makes

Bucolic Bushwick Rooftop Vegetable Container Garden 2011

Daily monitoring of the garden can make it hard to see the steady, incremental changes in vegetable plants, so I was excited to see what kind of progress was noticeable in the garden after not viewing it for a whole week. I was not disappointed!


YAY melons! 6 total, right now they're about the size of softballs. I've read one melon plant can support 3-5 fruits. Since these plants are growing in containers I'm going to be conservative and assume one plant can support 3 fruits max. This means I've reached my fruit limit and should remove any future pollinated flowers to ensure the success of the current crop. It remains to be seen if I will actually do this when the time comes.

Bucolic Bushwick Rooftop Vegetable Container Garden 2011


Some of the Atris peppers are 8 inches long. They should start turning red soon. One of the main reasons I bought this specific seed is because their description states the fruits turn green to red in 7 days. This is very fast, most peppers take 20 days to change color, so I'm curious to see if they live up to the hype.


When I came back the Sungold cherry tomato plant was dripping with ripe fruit. They were harvested soon after I took this photo.


These tomatoes are incredibly sweet and delicious. The plant performs well in a container and grows fine in a rooftop environment so I'm going to add it to the greatest hits list. I'm just not sure if it should take the top spot from the Orange Paruche cherry. One season I'll have to grow both of them and compare.

Bucolic Bushwick Rooftop Vegetable Container Garden 2011


Lemon cucumber. The prickly spines easily rub off.

Bucolic Bushwick Rooftop Vegetable Container Garden 2011


Here you go Ben, Fairy Tale eggplant thorns.


Valencia tomatoes.


One of the Valencia tomato plants is topping the chimney. Letting a plant get too tall on the roof is just asking for Mother Nature to smack it down so I'm going to cut off the growing tip. The plant will just have to focus its energy on lateral growth instead.

July 2-July 13:

Cherry Tomato (Sungold): 1 pound, 2.7 ounces

Cucumber (Lemon): 5.5 ounces

Eggplant (Fairy Tale): 1 pound, 14 ounces

Tomato (Yellow Perfection): 5.1 ounces

This Harvest: 3 pounds, 11.3 ounces

Running Weight Total 2011: 5 pounds, 1.5 ounces

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4 comments:

  1. Wow, everything looks awesome! I have to agree, the Sungolds are delicious! I'm totally adding that to my greatest hits list too! Too bad they aren't heirlooms, I'll have to buy seeds next year or do another swap with you!

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  2. Let's swap. I haven't checked the seed packet, but I'm sure I'll have some to give away later in the year. After I save a few for myself of course!

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  3. Those are definitely thorns on that eggplant! When I go out this afternoon, I will have to check my half dozen fruits for them.

    And that Valencia made me whistle. Jeez, that's a tall sucker.

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  4. Not every fruit will have them, which is probably why I often forget to be careful.

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