Thursday, August 18, 2011

The Thrill is Gone

Rooftop Vegetable Garden 2011

Now that I've eaten the Tasty Bites melon there is nothing new in the garden to look forward to. I'm already thinking about what to plant next year, ha! It's okay though, the other plants are still going strong.


I've removed one melon plant and left part of the other one to support the last remaining fruit. The last melon is still small, but now that the plant doesn't have to support other fruit it's gotten a little bit bigger. It was stuck at racquetball size for ages, now it's the size of a baseball.

Now that there is one empty container to use I'm going to try to grow some soybeans for edamame. Hopefully some will mature before it gets too cold.

Rooftop Vegetable Garden 2011


The Sun Gold cherry tomato plant is still churning out fruit. The cherries are noticeably smaller than fruit from earlier in the season though. I'm going to move it so it gets more sun, maybe that will make a difference, right now it's in a location that blocks late afternoon light.

The plant is also showing some signs of disease. Yellow leaves are creeping up the plant. Due the recent wet weather I've resumed use of the Serenade organic fungicide, so I'll just add this plant to the spray list.


A lot of Yellow Perfection tomatoes were lost to cracking from Sunday's rain, but again this variety is very prolific so there are plenty of healthy fruit still on the vine.

Rooftop Vegetable Garden 2011

How's your garden doing? Is anyone growing container friendly tomatoes that you would recommend to others?

Aug 11-Aug 17:

Cherry Tomato (Sungold): 7.7 ounces

Cucumber (Lemon): 10.8 ounces

Eggplant (Fairy Tale): 1.2 ounces

Pepper (Atris): 1 pounds, 7.2 ounces

Pepper (King Crimson): 10.6 ounces

Tomato (Valencia): 3.3 ounces

Tomato (Yellow Perfection): 9.0 ounces

This Harvest:  4 pounds, 1.8 ounces

Running Weight Total 2011: 40 pounds, 7.4 ounces


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6 comments:

  1. I have been reading your blog since I planted my garden in April. I have a square foot garden and a bunch of containers. I grow my Sweet Millions cherry tomatoes in whiskey barrels. You can check out this post to see what they look like http://kitchencatharsis.blogspot.com/2011/07/attack-of-roasted-cherry-tomato-plants.html
    I've posted pictures on earlier posts - June 9th - you can see the early pictures. I started picking tomatoes July 4th weekend. By the second week of July I was picking 5 pounds a week...soon we were picking 4 pounds every two days! They have slowed down a bit this past week and I am still getting about 2 pounds every other day. They are sweet and wonderful little tomatoes. Give them a try next year.

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  2. I second Dianne's recommendation about the Sweet Millions. Mine have done very well, and the local birds love them (RWAR!).

    I've had back luck with 2/4 of my potted tomato plants this years. My Cherokee Purple took off well, but it's been abused by wildlife and the weather. Finally might get a couple of ripe fruits. Going to try this one again next year.

    Second failure was the Yellow Pear. It tasted great, and they're tiny, a little bigger than most cherry toms. It's currently dead; came down with some fungus. It's been really wet recently, here in Baltimore, so it's taken some abuse, as well.

    The best two plants I've had have been Bush Early Girls. I've gotten dozens and dozens of fruits off of them, and they taste amazing. If it wasn't dark out, I'd get up and take a picture.

    If you want, I'll send you seeds.

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  3. Also, it's been, mostly, in the 90s and lower 100s here, in Baltimore. So, the BEGs would probably do well, on the roof.

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  4. The Sun Golds you gave me have been great! I'm wondering, though, if I should have actually pruned the plant - it is currently 10 feet tall- no joke - and still producing cherries all the way up, still making more flowers too. Picking will now require a ladder! If I had pruned it, would it have been fuller and branched outward rather than upward? I'm not complaining - it's a powerhouse - just curious. It is showing yellowing leave starting from the bottom and moving up, but otherwise plant and fruits are healthy.

    I have gotten only TWO tomatoes from my Bush Goliath early patio tomato! It's full and green and has tons of flowers, but not much fruiting yet. I'm hoping it will get going this month!

    Mortgage Lifter - 8 feet tall and we've had a couple of tomatoes. Plenty of flowers, so this is another one I'm hoping will go into high gear in the coming weeks.

    San Marzano Roma tomatoes - this plant has been a great producer. We've had a steady supply of these (with no more blossom end rot, thankfully!) for weeks now. Delicious, firm, and beautiful color.

    Principe Borghese - we got a bunch of these about a month ago and then the plant slowed down...it is still flowering and in the last week had produced a lot more small fruits, so we're waiting for those to ripen.

    Brandywine - so far we have had ONE tomato from this plant so far! It looks green and healthy, it's growing, it's finally producing flowers, so this is yet another that I hope will kick in over the next few weeks!

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  5. Thanks Dianne & Ben for your recommendation, I'll definitely try Sweet Million & Bush Early Girl next year. Ben I'll send you an email.

    Aimee, 10 feet is awesome. I wouldn't have pruned the Sun Gold if I didn't have too. I have to take in consideration the windy/stressful environoment of the roof. If I was gardening at ground level I wouldn't worry about it too much.

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  6. Looks like it's time to move on to the next thrill then. Soybeans. Good luck with them. I think there's enough time for you to get them in and up and on your plate. I'd love to know how they do up on your roof. My sister-in-law grows in pots on the roof too over in Fort Greene and I'm not sure that she's tried soy beans yet.

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Thanks for sharing your thoughts!