We did a thorough search of the plants last night, looking for anything that might ready. A.S. found these eight perfectly ripe tomotoes all grouped together towards the bottom of the Stupice. I had no idea that they were there.
The cucumbers are about 6″ long. The tomatoes are about 2″ in diameter.
But when outside to water this morning I thought maybe I’d lift some of the wayward cucumber vines into the trellis. I discovered this big guy. (Photographed with some of last night’s produce for reference.)
Holy cow. I don’t *think* we missed it last night, although I guess it’s possible. The other explanation would be that it went from the smaller size to THAT between 5:00 pm last night and 9:00 am this morning.
The zucchini are bouncing back nicely. The cucumbers, peppers, and patty-pans are finally getting into gear. The tomatoes are going nuts. Yesterday provided this:
Left to right: Stupice tomato, Glacier tomato, two Sun Golds, and a Cocozelle zucchini.
Which made for the first taste comparison among the tomatoes. A “caprese” with goat cheese and balsamic:
Tomatoes from left to right: Store bought, Stupice, Glacier.
The store bought tomatoes lost. They lacked the acid and character of the home grown.
There are issues with the zucchini, and I think there is more than just one thing wrong with them. The symptoms:
1. The patty-pan leaves are more yellow overall than it had been. (It was never as dark as the cucumbers or the cocozelle.)
2. The cocozelle has fruits that are rotting from the blossom end. I cut off four bad fruit yesterday.
3. Sometime in the last week white mold appeared on the cocozelle.
Which is kind of strange, because the cocozelle has produced seven pounds of fruit in the last few days. I thought it was ramping up for the summer.
Before.
My totally stab-in-the-dark diagnosis is that the fruits are experiencing blossom end rot caused by a calcium deficiency. (Which I’m pretty sure is correct after looking around the interwebs.) I’m also of the suspicion that the plants need fertilizer. I dosed the feed tube with a 14-14-14 granular fertilizer and calcium nitrate last night. In retrospect, that’s a double dose of nitrogen, which will be either good, bad, or indifferent, but, why not? I also pruned the heck out of the two plants, removing all of the really yellow leaves, as well as the most beat-up older leaves and the leaves with a lot of mold. The intent is to let more air and sunlight in, and to try to make it so that all leaves are getting more optimal use. Finally, I sprayed the plants with an organic mold inhibitor. The aftermath:
Zucchini from the back:
I didn’t mess around with the pruning. I’d like to think the plants will be healthier. We’ll see.
…And Lo, it became unseasonably hot in the urban garden. And the lettuces spoketh: “Man, that’s about enough of this $#%#$!”
If it’s a cool-weather vegetable, it’s done until summer has passed. That includes the parsley, cilantro, dill, and lettuces.
The flip side is that the summer vegetables are all doing great. The cocozelle zucchini plant has multiple squash going. The tomato plants are almost six feet tall. Everything is either blooming or ripening, or both.
The pics, starting with the first two zucchini. The one on the left is ~6″, the one on the right is 8+”.
Rolling Stone for size reference. Tail of the feline who had to get involved in the foreground.
The Bibb finally bolted. Four plants produced almost exactly two pounds of leaves — right around 20 servings. The Bibb wasn’t transplanted until late April, which was way too late, so I’m ok with that yield.
The tomatillos are now almost six feet tall. The shorter of the two has a fruit about the size of a ping pong ball, pictured below.
The peppers haven’t been digging the rain, I don’t think. At least two of the fruits have extensive black on them, which I’m guessing is some sort of rot. One of the plants is struggling with wilted and blackened leaves. Not good. It may be that the least resistant of the ten varieties are struggling — hopefully everything else can shrug it off.
The tomato and tomatillo plants are growing in every direction, so they got some twine to try to organize the chaos. The cabbage worms look to be at least briefly defeated, but the aphids have now found the purple basil. The lettuce and dill are gradually fading, though it was still a good harvest this week. The cilantro and parsley went ballistic and received big haircuts. The first peppers have made their appearance.
Everything has been staked. The layout got spread out somewhat. Aphids (on the lettuces) and cabbage worms (brussels sprouts) made their first appearances and were rewarded with a dose of this organic solution. [pic of cabbage worm from itsnotworkitsgardening.com]
Evil!
Marigolds are supposed to be a very beneficial companion plant, so twelve got spread around in the earthboxes. Scallions deter aphids, so some of those got pulled from the main bunch and distributed in with the lettuces. [wikipedia list of companion plants here. Companion plant theory is here.] In the early ’90’s I had read about companion planting in an old Mother Earth News Almanac (1973 edition, 1977 printing), I’ve been meaning to try it whenever I got around to planting vegetables. It only took me 20 years to put it into practice.
First picture, a view of the earthboxes on May 3:
June 9 view. The zucchini got a “throne” to lift it higher off of the ground. The little spots of color are marigolds. Note the new pvc supports for the tomato cages:
Progress!
June 9 view from the back garage door looking toward the back yard:
Our neighbor Kurt has started EarthBoxes! (It’s like a disease, only healthier.) His first post on the subject is here. We share an interest in low-labor container gardening it seems.
Well really, I just try to avoid weeding whenever I can.
The tomato plants got a bird net over their cages this week — four of the six plants are now producing fruit. (The Glacier, Stupice, Siletz, and Sungold. The Roma and Brandywine are holding out, which is to be expected.) The zucchini and brussels sprouts got staked with Ultomato cages. I like the idea of the Ultomato cages, and I’ll be looking to buy more parts either in bulk or on clearance at the end of the season. I know that the “arms” are available as a 36-pack, though I’d buy more at the right price. Getting a good deal may require a little digging.
Among the recent dishes to be partly or fully composed of Earthbox ingredients includes a bunch of green salads, guacamole, pico de gallo, dill “crusted” salmon, caprese salad, and grilled bok choi and scallions. The grilled bok choi and scallions were served with chicken kebabs marinated in greek yogurt, lemon, and Tom Douglas’ Bengal Marsala rub. Very tasty! Also this:
FlatbreadGarden 