Friend or Foe? I'm Thinking Foe

The garden is coasting its way through September.

Constant Vigilance!

The daily walk-through has caught yet another hornworm caterpillar, but other than that the garden is coasting its way through summer.

Unwanted Garden Visitor

Daily monitoring has caught a pest in the garden, but otherwise the rooftop crops are doing well. Right now I'm watering every 3rd day, which is much nicer than watering every single day. Compact plants growing in containers with large water reservoirs is definitely the way to go for a relatively low maintenance rooftop vegetable garden. Depending on the temperature I can sometimes get away with watering every 4th day, but I prefer to err on the side of caution and stick to watering every 3rd day.

My only problem happens during the week, when I sometimes forget if I watered on the previous Sunday or the previous Saturday, which means the plants sometimes get watered every 4th day instead of every 3rd. 4th day watering is only a problem when there's been a string of consecutive hot days (high 80's or 90's). I can tell I've made this mistake when I come back from work and find wilted eggplant leaves. The large leaves of the eggplant make it very easy to notice if they're wilting. I've done this only a couple of times though so there's been no lasting side effects to the garden.

Growing Flowers to Attract Beneficial Insects

When I first started vegetable gardening I used all my pots to grow vegetables. I have zero interest in ornamental gardening so I saw no point in growing flowers. Over time I've learned that flowers do have a place in an edible garden.

DIY Fly Trap

This isn't gardening related, but it was so effective, easy and frugal I thought it was worth sharing anyway.

Fall Is Here

Now that fall has officially arrived most of the containers have been packed away for the rest of the year. Black trash bags cover the planters to keep them light and dry, and to prevent weeds from growing and removing nutrients from the soil.

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.

Some cheeky bastards are stealing from my garden!

Damn squirrels, they've finally discovered the rooftop vegetable garden.  They ate one of my last 2 tomatoes that survived the tornado and a bunch of my cherry tomatoes.  They haven't touched the peppers or eggplants yet.  Oh well, at least it's the end of the season.  I have a while to think of some preventative measures for next year.  If anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears.

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Vegetable Plant Update 03 2010

I have read everywhere that determinate tomato plants grow to a certain size, produce a concentrated bunch of fruit that ripen all at the same time and then die.  Both the cherry tomato and  regular tomato are determinate, so when all of the tomato plants produced a bunch of fruit in July that ripened very quickly in the endless heat, I thought the vegetable plants were done and contemplated pulling them out and planting something else in their containers.  Well I'm glad I never made up my mind because the plants eventually grew more flowers and produced a 2nd wave of fruit.   The cherry tomato is actually on it's 3rd wave now.  Admittedly the later fruit is not as flavorful as the first set, but the taste of any garden grown vegetable still far surpasses anything you can buy in a supermarket.

In regard to early blight the cherry tomato plant is doing well.  It went  through some defoliation due to the disease, but it continues to grow more leaves to replace the ones lost.  The 3rd of wave of fruit is much smaller quantity wise than the 2nd wave, but considering I never even expected a 2nd or 3rd set of fruit I'm happy with whatever this plant produces.

The Orange Blossom tomato plants are not doing as well.  The vegetable plant on the right side of the container was hit particularly hard.  I already harvested most of the 2nd set of fruit and I doubt there's enough time left in the growing season for the plants to bounce back, like the cherry tomato, so it's unlikely a 3rd set will ripen before it gets cold.

The cucumber plant is surprisingly still hanging on.  The spider mites have really worn this vegetable down, but it's still producing cucumbers so I'm leaving it be.

The cantaloupe have been devoured and the plants removed from their container.  I stuck some snow pea seeds leftover from last year in their place.  I only got 3 fruits from the 2 plants, and they took forever to mature, but they were so incredibly sweet and awesome that they're definitely worth the space and time.  Next year I'll plant a variety with a shorter growing time.

The eggplants and other peppers are doing great, no complaints from me.

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Vegetable Plant Update 02 2010

 

The Lilac Islander peppers are a gorgeous purple right now.  It's a very pretty vegetable plant well suited to a container garden.  In fact, I think it would fit right in in an ornamental garden.  I've had to trash a few peppers due to sunscald, but other than that all the pepper plants are doing well.

The cherry tomato plant looks much better.  After one application of organic fungicide I see very little advancement of whatever fungus has infected the plant.  Just to be on the safe side I'll continue with weekly treatment until the plant stops producing fruit.

The cucumber also looks much better.  Dousing the plant with a strong spray of water has been an effective way to manage the spider mites.  The plant is noticeably greener and perkier.  I was concerned the mites would migrate to the cantaloupe.  They haven't yet, but as a preventative measure I've been dousing those plants as well.

Do you see the cantaloupe melon perched on the terracotta planter?  There's another one sitting in the GrowBox container and one more behind it.  Just 3 melons from one large self-watering container is probably not the most efficient use of that container, but I don't care!  How awesome are rooftop cantaloupes?

 

I can't wait for these to be ready. They're developing that distinctive netting on their skin so hopefully soon.

 

The eggplants are loving it on the rooftop.  I wasn't sure how they would perform in the 12" self watering containers, last year they were in the 16" containers, but they seem to like it, I've had no problems with them so far.

In my previous plant update I mentioned that the tomato plants were growing unevenly, now they're almost the same size.  I've had to pull a couple of tomatoes due to blossom end rot because I let the soil dry out once, but other than that they're doing well.  Whatever fungus is on the cherry tomato plant has not yet infected these guys, hopefully it stays that way.

1 Bag of Fertilizer: $13.05

Running Total: $152.41

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Something's Afoot in the Garden, Aphids & Disease

So I was all set to write about how well all the vegetable plants are doing in the rooftop containers and then we had that ridiculous heatwave.  When the temperature rises above 90 I don't step out on the rooftop until after sunset, so it has been about a week since I've seen the garden in daylight.  I was hoping everything would be the same, but unfortunately that wasn't the case.  My cucumber plant now has spider mites.  Spider mites are super tiny pests that suck the life out of plant leaves.

Injury is caused as they feed, bruising the cells with their small, whiplike mouthparts and ingesting the sap. Damaged areas typically appear marked with many small, light flecks, giving the plant a somewhat speckled appearance. Following severe infestations, leaves become discolored, producing an unthrifty gray or bronze look to the plant. Leaves and needles may ultimately become scorched and drop prematurely.

Dry conditions greatly favor all spider mites, an important reason why they are so important in the more arid areas of the country. They feed more under dry conditions, as the lower humidity allows them to evaporate excess water they excrete. At the same time, most of their natural enemies require more humid conditions and are stressed by arid conditions. Furthermore, plants stressed by drought can produce changes in their chemistry that make them more nutritious to spider mites.

They thrive in hot, dry weather so it's no surprise that they're in the garden.  Many of the cucumber leaves have white spots, some have already completely dried out and turned from yellow to brown.

Spider mites are very small so they're hard to spot with the naked eye, but you can tell they're present if the underside of the leaves look "dusty."

I hosed the entire plant down with a strong stream of water and will continue to do so periodically through the rest of the growing season. I also added a little more fertilizer to my DIY self-watering container 2, hopefully the plant can grow faster than the mites can kill it.  I assume there's some kind of spray I can buy to treat the mites faster, but I've decided to not be too aggressive about treating the problem.  I've realized, after eating several cucumbers off the vine, that I don't like them enough to grow them, so ultimately I'm not that concerned about the fate of this plant.  If it makes it great, if not oh well.

Something is also going on with the cherry tomato plant.  Many of the leaves toward the center of the plant are yellow with brown spots.  I'm hoping it's just a nutrient deficiency and not some fungus.  I've added more fertilizer to my DIY self watering container in case it's the former and ordered some organic fungicide in case it's the latter.  If it is a fungus I'm leaning toward early blight.  Unlike the cucumber plant, I absolutely love homegrown cherry tomatoes, so I'm going to do all that I can to make sure this vegetable plant survives the season.

Serenade® Garden Disease Control Concentrate, 30 oz.: $24.85

Running Total: $139.36

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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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