Too Good to Last

More First Fruits

The garden is steadily growing. The recent cool, wet  weather has kept me extra vigilant for signs of disease, but so far nothing has appeared. Let's hope it stays that way!

Fruitful Changes

I don't want to get too excited in case I'm wrong, but I think some female flowers on the melon plants have finally been pollinated.

Vegetable Plant Update 6 2009

With the cooler and shortening days I'm letting the vegetable plants get more afternoon light. So, as you can see in the photo, I've rolled back the reed fence. One end of the fence is fastened to the building's old, unused chimney. The other end is attached to a wooden pole I've slid into a heavy, patio umbrella base. When the fence was longer I used more supports to keep the fence upright between the chimney and the umbrella base, but those have been removed since they are no longer needed. I still have the umbrella meant for this base, but with the windy conditions on this rooftop I don't dare try to it use here.

Everything is still plugging along, just producing at a slower rate. I pulled out the broccoli from the DIY self-watering container several days ago. I'm not sure what happened while I was gone, but when I returned all the aphids were gone. Their molted skin was all that they left behind. I certainly don't miss them, but I wonder where they went.

Below are my sad looking tomato plants. I really expected them to die while I was away, but I was pleasantly surprised to find them with plum sized fruits when I returned. Let's see if they make it to maturity.

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Garden Gallery Shots 03 2009

 Jalapeno Heaven Hybrid Pepper

California Wonder Pepper

Golden Star Pepper

Here's the aphid encrusted broccoli plant I mentioned in the last harvest report. Gross yet fascinating isn't it? I kept this photo at a high resolution for those who want a detailed view.

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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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Vegetable Plant Update 4 2009

Broccoli: These were planted a 4 weeks ago in my DIY self watering container. They're monstrous now. I hope these guys produce heads before the weather gets hotter.

Eggplants: These were transplanted about 6 weeks ago. They've adapted really well to the rooftop garden climate and they're already producing flowers.

Peas: They were harvested a couple days ago. I'll talk about them in a future post.

Peppers: It's been about 5 weeks since they were transplanted. They're taller and a lot bushier. All of them are flowering and a few have even started fruiting. The leaf shredding continues, but the reed fence does help to reduce the damage. Pepper plant leaves are thin and floppy so they're especially vulnerable to the wind.

Tomatoes: These were transplanted at the same time as the eggplants. I'm amazed at how fast they're growing. There's tons of flowers and several fruits. The celebrity tomatoes are just steamrolling through the growing process. I can see why they're so popular, they're like Ron Popeil's rotisserie, set it and forget it! As for the orange paruche cherry suffering from magnesium deficiency, the epsom salt solution seems to be working, the yellowing is almost completely gone.

I saw signs of aphids on some of the vegetable plants, but not a lot of bugs. I suspect the strong wind is preventing them from gaining a foothold anywhere in this rooftop garden. At least it's good for something besides shredding leaves.

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Aphids & Neighbors

My eggplants had a mild aphid problem so I removed them with a strong blast of water and smooshed the survivors with my fingers.

On a lighter note, I recently noticed some neighbors have started their own rooftop container garden.


My camera can't zoom in close enough, but I'm pretty sure they're growing tomatoes. They came out soon after I took this pic and I considered yelling out to them to stake their plants, but I decided against it. Lessons are best learned through direct experience, plus I didn't want to come off as crazy.

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