Vegetable Harvest Report 05 2009

So the neem appears to be helping the celebrity tomatoes a little bit. New flowers are finallly blossoming instead of withering away. The problem, however, is the weather. These on/off rainy, humid days are giving the gray mold a prime opportunity to spread throughout the 2 plants. I've been clearing away all the infected plant debris, but if the weather doesn't change soon I don't think I'll be getting a lot of new fruit from them before frost kills them off. And who knows when frost will come, this weather has been very strange. I think if we could get just one solid week of dry, non-humid weather they'd have a chance of bouncing back, but unless that happens these plants are bound for the garbage can.

On the brighter side of things its been weeks since I've seen aphids on the tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. Where did they go? To the broccoli! They've completely engulfed one broccoli plant, just like in NYC Garden, and are slowly spreading to the other 3. I'm glad I didn't pull them out, they turned out to be great trap plants.

Bell Pepper: 12.5 ounces
Average Price: $0.29/ounce
Total: $3.63

Cherry Tomato: 11.1 ounces
Average Price: $0.42/ounce
Total: $4.66

Eggplant: 14.9 ounces
Average Price: $0.25/ounce
Total: $3.73

Hot Pepper: 6.4 ounces
Average Price*: $0.31/ounce
Total: $1.98

Tomato: 6 pounds 6.3 ounces
Average Price: $0.22/ounce
Total: $22.51

Weight Total: 9 pounds, 3.2 ounces
Price Total: $36.51

Running Weight Total: 22 pounds, 2.9 ounces
Running Price Total: $101.84 (over the half way mark!)

*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 Neighbors Update

So the neighbors' plants have finally revealed themselves. In the 5 gallon buckets they're growing cherry tomatoes and in the laundry basket and the container beside it I think they're growing peppers. I originally thought they were main season tomatoes, but the foliage didn't seem right. The old sink remains a mystery.

If you enlarge the photo you can see they're using soda bottles to irrigate their plants. They probably bought those watering spikes you screw to the top of the bottles. I wonder if they've been able to keep their plants adequately watered, their roof isn't as high as mine, but I'm sure the environment is similar enough. I doubt it's as windy as my place, but those shiny roofs are hot and BRIGHT. Plants will go through water fast in that kind of environment. My previous roof was like that and I suspect the shininess was the cause of my bell pepper sunscald.

Next time I'll check up on the Waterpod or the East River, I can't decide who I want to visit first.

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Reading Round Up: Sour Cherry Edition

The NY Times series, the Starter Garden, covers some extremely low maintenance plants for your vegetable garden.

If you plan on growing some cold season crops now is the time to start the seedlings. I still haven't decided if I want to do this. I'm not sure I want to be puttering around the roof when it's cold and windy.

School gardens are on the rise.

Here's an interesting article on container gardening. It never occurred to me you could sterilize soil in a microwave. I do this all the time with the sponges we use in the kitchen and bathroom, why not soil too?

Welcome to the dog days of August!

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