Harvest Monday July 22, 2013

Wow, I can't believe it has been over a month since posting! The balcony garden is doing well, as well as the community garden raised bed garden. I ended up purchasing the fancy texas tomato cage for the raised bed garden - I feel this has probably made a huge difference in the size of the plant. The supersweet 100 plant is like 6 ... maybe even 7 feet tall. And the tomatoes are so much bigger than what I got last year.

The tomatoes I'm growing on the balcony are mostly determinate or dwarf variety that Carol shared with me. I has been pretty amazing. I've been harvest a lot of tomatoes from both locations. It has been just fantastic! Here are some pictures

Minigold tomato..or is it?

This minigold tomato is very curious. After reading about these tomatoes on Carol's blog, I was expecting them to be bright yellow - but it turns out it is bright orange - almost like a sungold. These taste wonderful - but maybe it is some new hybrid variety. I've saved some seeds so it will be interesting to see what kind of fruit it will produce next year!

From Balcony: More minigold tomato and a couple of bush beans before the plant died...

From Balcony: More minigold (so productive!) and dwarf champion and golden dwarf champion tomatoes

From Balcony: Edamame, semi-final minigold harvest, dwarf champion, golden dwarf, cherokee purple

From community garden: Baxter bush cherry, supersweet 100 and cherokee purple

I am sitting here writing while nibbling on the edamame. This is my first time growing it and it tastes SOOOOO good. I love edamame, but these freshly harvested edamame are the sweetest and most delicious ones I've ever had. I'm going to try to grow some more - maybe I can squeeze one more crop before winter? I have to calculate how many days it has taken to get to this point to see if I still have enough time.

I'm linking to Daphne's Harvest Monday! Now that the harvests are coming in very steadily, I'm going to try to document a little bit better.

Seedling care: too much or too little - water and fertilizer?

I hate to dwell on the negative, but there are some signs of trouble with some of the seedlings. A leaf on two of the cherokee purple seedlings have shriveled up and fallen off.  I can't tell what it is...if I'm over-watering or under-watering. It doesn't help that the signs of both are the same - wilting. I've been pretty careful about watering so I'm hoping watering is not the problem. I'm wondering if it might be the soil. I'm using miracle gro organic potting soil and I've been watering with "compost tea". I put compost tea in quotes because I'm not sure it is real compost tea - I just threw in a handful of compost, and a tablespoon of epsom salt and azomite in 5 gallon bucket of water and let it sit for a couple of days. The soil look like it gets good drainage - so I don't think it is root rot.  

Wilty leaf on cherokee purple

This is a mild version - another leaf continued to shrivel up and then fell off

One of the broccoli seedlings have completely shriveled up and died. A second one seems to be following suit. I hope the third one survives but if it doesn't, I am glad I planned ahead and started many back ups. 

As of today, the seedling on the left has died and the one of the top right is on its way

This one here is the minigold cherry seedlings - I think this one is under-watering. Looks like the leaves are getting dry from the stem and spreading outward. 

This looks like under-watering? The soil was completely dry - the picture is after I watered it.

The final issue is that some of the seedlings look like they are turning yellow. The potting soil says that it has enough nutrients for 4 months, so I think I am over-thinking the yellowing of the leaves. I'm going to try not to be so obsessive. 

Slight discoloration but I'm not too worried yet

The fighting cherokee purple plant

The cherokee purple tomato plant was looking really sad a month ago.

Cherokee purple 7/3/2012

I wasn't sure if it would survive but I gave it a lot of space, some fresh compost and fertilizer, and planted it deep. And now it has put on some "weight" and even has 2 tiny fruits on it. There are a whole bunch of flowers on the plant but they not fruiting.  Maybe because it is too hot - or it doesn't have enough energy to support more than 2 fruits. Not sure but gardening is all about patience. I'll just have to let it do its thing and see how it does. But I'm happy to see that at least one of my grown-from-seed tomato plant is doing OK.

Cherokee purple 7/25/2012 looking bushier

Two little cherokee purple tomatoes

Unfortunately the branch with these two little tomatoes broke, not completely but most of it tore off the main stem. I propped it back up but I might lose them. BOO! Hopefully the other flowers will produce some fruit.

Death in the garden...

The heat and humidity is absolutely terrible! I hope those of you experiencing the heat wave are doing OK. Unfortunately, one of the weak tomato seedling could not withstand the heat. Although it probably would not have survived even if we didn't have the heat wave. Before I went to Japan, my plants were transported to my boyfriend's balcony.

Traveling charm city balcony garden

Plants @ temporary home

The young tomatoes looks leggy

He did a great job taking care of all the plants, but his balcony is shaded throughout the day and only gets a little bit of sun in the morning. My balcony, on the other hand, gets full sun all day. The past couple of days the temperature reached over 120F. The plants are probably in shock with this huge change in environment. I did try to acclimate them, but the weakest seedling (supersweet tomato) did not survive:(

Sad looking supersweet 100

The cherokee purple and pink champion is holding on. I planted a good portion of the tomatoes stem hoping it will produce roots to help it along. Both plants are not very bushy so it I may not get any tomatoes but I'm just going to let it grow and keep my fingers crossed.

Cherokee purple hanging on

Pink Champion tomato

To replace my poor supersweet tomato plant, I started some cucumbers (2 varieties, one is Japanese and the other is a Bush Champion). This will be a little experiment since I think it is a little late to start cucumbers.

Dino kale (left), Japanese cucumber and Champion Bush cucumber

Death in the garden...something ate my tomato seedlings!!!

I planted out my community garden plot yesterday - it is not complete but I all the tomatoes are planted out. I have 2 cherokee purple, 2 brandywine and 1 mortgage lifter. I also plan to put in two supersweet 100s that I have growing in my windowsill. When I left yesterday, the garden was looking good and I was feeling pretty good.

This was just yesterday, y-e-s-t-e-r-d-a-y. My parents are visiting so I decided to show my mom the little plot. And this is what I found...exhibit A.

And exhibit B.

Something ATE my cherokee purple seedlings! Out of all the tomato starts, the 2 cherokee purple plants were small (in the first picture, it is the two plants on the far right in the middle row). I was SO mad when I saw the seedlings all chewed up, I AM so mad. My mom asked why I don't have a net over the plants (apparently this is what she does). She told me I need to go in the morning to check for critters. Exhibit A, makes me think it was birds because the leaves looks as though they were torn off. Exhibit B looks more like tomato horn worm? But I didn't see any poop and the plant is too small for worms to hide in them (and I looked) - where would they go after eating the baby plants? In the soil perhaps. I guess it could also be slugs...or squirrels or mice or RATS. argh! The other tomato starts looked untouched - but I'm going to be checking them everyday!! If I lose all the tomato plants, let it be a hard and painful gardening lesson. grrr.... I have 2 cherokee purple plants that I have started, so once they are ready I think I will transplant them to the garden. I could also look for larger plants at the garden store. Grrrr...
    I read that planting cilantro and dill may also deter worms (if that is what it is). I also have Bt...but I think it is a little early for that. My mom was amused that I was so upset and obsessively googling for answers. I had absolutely no interest in gardening just 2 years ago, so she is getting used to her gardening obsessed daughter.

Update: I went to the garden in the morning and inspected the plants but there were no worms. However, there were many birds (starlings and sparrow) pecking at the soil and squirrels perched on the wooden frame of the raised bed. I thought I saw a couple birds pecking at small seedlings in the other beds. So I think the damage was caused by the birds! I guess on the plus side, they eat some of the insects that may damage the plants...so I'm not too angry now...as long as they stay away from MY VEGETABLES!

Tomato, pepper, summer squash starts

The tomato, summer squash and pepper starts were screaming to be transplanted and fertilized. The ichiban eggplant seeds still did not germinate but I read somewhere that seeds saved from ichiban eggplants don't do well. So maybe it wasn't me. Whatever the reason, I bought a starter plant so I will have eggplants this year.

Supersweet 100, Cherokee purple, Pink Champion, summer squash, Chinese giant pepper starts

The rosemary flowered beautiful, but now the flowers have gone and the plant isn't doing so good. It is turning slightly yellow and it just looks brittle overall. I need to do some research to see if I should cut back some of the branches - perhaps to promote new growth.

Not so happy rosemary

On a completely different note, I have been obsessed with reading and watching videos about urban farming/urban homesteading. I'm really itching to have a backyard. For now I will continue to live vicariously through other people's blogs and videos. I found some great series of videos called "Grow" from Whole Foods youtube channel. I don't know about keeping livestock, but I love the idea of having a lush backyard with whole bunch of vegetables and fruits. I almost went out to get a blueberry plant, but I know, I just don't have space. Boo hoo!

New seedlings

I have new seedlings! Exciting. I started tomatoes, peppers, and summer squash 2 weeks ago. I also tried using the ichiban eggplant seeds that I harvested but I must have done something wrong while collecting the seeds because it is not germinating. I'll just keep waiting to see it just needs more time but I might just have to go buy starter plants. Oh well, I'll try seed saving again this year - this time I'll do a little more research so I have viable seeds. The tomatoes I started are supersweet 100, cherokee purple and pink champions (from Annie). The pepper seeds (Giant Chinese pepper) germinated a week after the tomatoes.

The empty ones are the ichiban seeds that did not germinate

I also started some cilantro (again from Annie - thanks so much!). I read somewhere that cilantro seeds (aka corriander) contain 2 seeds per pod so it should be cracked before sowing. I'm not sure if splitting the seeds helped but it only took about a week to germinate. Right now they are on the windowsill but I'm thinking once they are reasonably grown I'll transfer them to the pots in front on the house.

cilantro seedlings

Some more cilantro

Sowing the first set of seeds.

Thai basil to the left, and sweet basil on the right

I paid a visit to Valley View Farms in search of Thai basil seeds.  I've also started sweet basil - the pesto I made last year has been such a great thing to have. I hope to make a whole bunch more this year. It occurs to me that I could probably have basil growing all year round in the kitchen. Yes, I think I will do this.

I was so excited when I also found a package of Cherokee purple tomato seeds. Last summer I bought a variety of heirloom tomatoes from the local farmer's market and these were hands down the best tasting tomatoes. I'm not sure if they grow well in containers - but I'll just have to try. Since my wish list for this year's garden keeps growing, I have looked into getting some space in a community garden. Apparently there is a waiting list for gardens in my neighborhood so unfortunately, this may not be an option.

I also picked up some lovely smelling mint. This winter I fell in love with mint tea, so I'm hoping I can make some of my own. I'm also planning to make some mojito this summer!

So far, I've started pak choi, romaine lettuce and swiss chard. I also plan to sow beets, sweet pea (need to get more seeds) and the radish that Granny sent me sometime this week.  It is great to be working with soil again - I had forgotten how fun gardening is!