by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here.

August 25, 2013 here for comparison.

Yesterday was a big “haircut day” for the tomatoes. As it turns out, at least one “haircut day” from last year was on August 25th. This year’s decision to give them a haircut was made without looking at last year’s notes. It’s interesting to me how closely the timing worked out.

It seems to me that the great majority of the mold on the tomato plants occurs on the “side shoots” — the leaf-only branches that are at a 90 degree angle to the main stem. The “sucker” branches (that come out of the side shoot/main stem intersection, and grow additional fruit), and the main stems are almost entirely mold free. This is true regardless of the location “side shoot”. The mold is both on exterior, well ventilated side shoots and on leaves that are buried in the interior of the leaf canopy. It’s like the plant figures that if it’s not a fruit producing node then it’s now time to shut down those natural defenses and spend that energy somewhere else.

Lots of pictures this week, mostly of denuded tomato plants.. starting with Wednesdays harvest:

Saturday. That’s a big tomatillo in the bottom right corner:

Continue reading “Container Garden Update — August 24, 2014” →

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here.

Silly August 18, 2013 post here. (Includes two cat pics and must have been written on very little sleep.)

The plants continue to look more and more haggard as the fruit production ramps up. There’s now mold on the zucchini leaves, some of the tomato plants, and the Brussels Sprouts (of all things). SeattleAuthor shared the hypothesis that the mold may be partly due to the humidity we’ve been seeing. That’s possible — there’s a small holly tree start across the yard that is covered in mold too.

But the production is going gangbusters:

Monday the 11th:

Thursday the 14th:

Continue reading “Container Garden Update — August 19, 2014” →

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here. July 28, 2013 post here for comparison.

We got tired of looking into the stacks of vegetables for the plant markers. (And tired of remembering which pepper was which.) We came up with this solution:

Continue reading “Container Garden Update — July 27, 2014” →

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here. July 7, 2013 update here. (The 2013 post is highlighted by the “zucchini breakage disaster”. And the fact that the post permalink says it’s the year “2103”. Oops. I started to make the same typo this time and caught myself.)

The zucchini have cleared the top of the trellis! I’m now trying to train them over the top and down the other side. We’ll see how that goes.

Continue reading “Container Garden Mini Update — July 7, 2014” →

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here. June 23 of last year here.

The windy, rainy weather isn’t slowing down the zucchini. It’s nearly to the top of the 8′ trellis:

A zucchini blossom, photographed yesterday:

Continue reading “Container Garden Update — June 28, 2014” →

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous 2014 post here. June 23, 2013 post here for comparison.

Cucumbers in the foreground. Tomatillos in the middle. Zucchini in the big trellis:

A closeup of the zucchini. It’s a little less than 6 feet tall:

Continue reading “Container Garden Update — June 21, 2014” →

by A.J. Coltrane

In 2013 we used Ultomato stakes in many of the EarthBoxes. One of the early hodge-podge attempts is shown on June 3 of last year, here. We had a couple of boxes where the stakes wound up branching out in many directions, and to some degree it was a struggle to get everything to fit together. More than a few of the “arms” got warped in the process. Even with a “regular”, symmetrical, setup it can be hard to get the poles just the right distance apart for the arms.

What we learned is that the right thing to do is to assemble the Ultomato cage, *then* put it into the EarthBox. Using a “break” in the concrete ensures that all the stakes line up:

It seems to be easiest to put on the arms open-side up, pushing the stakes onto the arms, rather than the other way around. Like this:

And (Note the bent arms. Those went on last.):

We’d then flip the entire thing over and “close the loop” with the last of the arms. This leaves the open sides of the arms facing out so that if the plants push outwards the arms won’t pop off of the stakes.

The best path to success is to push the center two poles in slightly, then work the corners in a little bit at a time. Once all of the poles are in place it’s easy to push the whole thing firmly down into the box. In the next picture you can see the arms facing “out”.

And sure enough, we learned something this year too. The arms need be attached closer to the top and bottom of the stakes. Once the assembly is in place it’s really hard to put on arms closer to the surface of the box.

Fortunately, we’ve got garden twine.

 

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous Update here.

For reference, the May 16 picture:

And today, Brussels Sprouts in the foreground:

The basil and tomatoes, the tall plants on the back right are the tomatillos:

The Tromboncino zucchini are starting to latch onto the trellis:

From the deck:

The pea plants are done, pictured is today’s harvest. In total we got around 3 pounds of peas, much of which was eaten right off of the vines. I’m thinking a pea pesto may be on the way:

Bonus pic of the blooming oaxalis:

And the boy cat laying in the sun, inviting ear scratches:

 

by A.J. Coltrane

In an effort to keep cabbage moths off of the Brussels Sprouts:

Tulle, Ultomato Cages, an EarthBox, shortened hoop house pvc, and clothespins. It’s a Frankenstein mash-up.

Even with all of that, something is still getting at the ends of the leaves that are touching the tulle — or the tulle is abrading the leaves when the wind blows. Dunno yet, but it bears watching.