All is coming along in the containers except the discarded okra. I keep saying I'll plant again, but I haven't. It's been so wet, that's probably a good thing.

The tomatoes are growing, but at a moderate pace. The lettuce has been lovely. I just cut most of it for dinner; I've about 15 plants in one container, uncovered, and am cutting it as I need it. This has supplied us with salads, both as side salads or entrees, at least 3 or 4 days each week. Tonight it's going to be a citrus marinated chicken breast grilled atop the salad greens and baby chard, with some toasted nuts, fruit, and maybe some Craisins.

My chard is nowhere near the size of Tyrus. I'm guessing it's because it's in a container that was waiting for me to decide on how to fertilize it, so it got sporadic applications of an all purpose until last week. It does seem to have grown quite a bit in the last week.

The Chinese greens are yu choy are my favorite, but they are the oddballs and only two of them. The main kind of that packet is very slim, so you don't get much from a picking. Delicious, just not a big yield per stem. The second kind I plants, what I believe was called a gai lohn, or Chinese broccoli, is taking a long time to grow. The plants are a much lighter green than any gai lohn I've purchased before. The leaves are about the same size. The center plant is just forming, so if it stays cool, I might actually harvest it before it bolts. It will be more bitter since it won't get a light freeze, but still should be delicious. I'm hoping it's ready within the next week to two.

I plants the beans in rockwool last weekend. A few are already sprouting. I was just playing with the rockwool to see how well it would work to start plants that dislike being transplanted. Using the rockwool cubes prevents any transplants shock. It's often using in hydroculture, but I can't imagine why it won't transplant into my soil-less mix quite nicely.

One of these days I'll have pictures...

Here is what I am growing this year (6 tomatoes, green and yellow beans, habanero and prarie fire peppers):


Lots of flowers on the tomatoes and some 2" beans on the bean plants. Habanero is stunted and the Prarie Fire may be dying.

Jamieson - That's a nice looking garden. Looks healthy. Good luck and keep us posted...

Just had to post a picture of my first tomato of the year. I know it's early but the variety is called Stupice and will produce in 58 days. This one lacked a little flavor due to the cold weather we had a few weeks ago but waaaaay better than what I've had since September. He was a little guy and there were more from his "cluster" that weren't ready yet.

Fresh tomato from the roof with a little sea salt - it doesn't get much better...

Im a week or so behind you tyrus. I grew Stupice this year as well. Will post pics soon. Pretty excited about tomato season!

I'll try to get some shots of my garden today. What is everyone planting after their lettuce is up? I picked it all last weekend as I was pretty sure the rocket hot temps this week would not be good for the Romaine and leaf lettuce. Now I'm stuck trying to figure out what to plant in the earthbox the lettuce used to be in.

Also my brocolli is about done so I'm going to have two earthboxes with nothing in them soon.

I was going to plant carots and more spinach / lettuce in the fall. But I wasn't sure what to do with them in the mean time.

trs23 wrote:I'll try to get some shots of my garden today. What is everyone planting after their lettuce is up? I picked it all last weekend as I was pretty sure the rocket hot temps this week would not be good for the Romaine and leaf lettuce. Now I'm stuck trying to figure out what to plant in the earthbox the lettuce used to be in.

Also my brocolli is about done so I'm going to have two earthboxes with nothing in them soon.

I was going to plant carots and more spinach / lettuce in the fall. But I wasn't sure what to do with them in the mean time.

I would try bush beans and/or zucchini and squash. Both can be grown direct from seed and can do well with a summer planting. I'll probably do some herbs (basil mostly) in one box (previously lettuce) and maybe some squash or something in the other (previously broccoli). I'll keep you posted.

I know that head lettuce typically struggles in the heat of July, but I am looking to plant some sort of lettuce (I actually prefer leaf lettuce) in an area where I have just turned over.

The area is not in full sun and am willing to go SIP and leave the plot barren for the rest of the summer, if necessary. Any thoughts?

Got to take some shots of the garden today

San Marzano Tomatoes



"Sweet Cluster"



Bell / Jalapeno / Italian Sweet Peppers - finally taking off after all that cool weather!



Lots and lots of Bells!





More peas than I know what to do with!



I think I need to prune better! That curling leaf one is the "sweet cluster" It seems like the lower leaves are curling but really not affecting the plant too much. The top leaves are fine. For the record that second row of horizontal pieces are 50" above the deck. Crazy how fast these tomatoes are growing!

Excellent garden thus far! I feel honored that you're using my trellis set-up and hope it works well this year for you. My tomato leaves are curling as well (just the bottom ones as well). Your peppers look better than mine - great job. I picked off all the flowers on the bell peppers, hoping that the plant would grow bigger (with bigger fruit). Last year, I didn't pick them off and had a bunch of small/medium peppers that were really tasty.

As a side note, I've seen people say that having a garden can be expensive. I'm tracking everything I pull out of the garden this year in the hopes to see what the "ROI" is. Last year was an investment year in materials, time, and learning. This year, I didn't buy anything but a couple of bags of mix to freshen up the boxes and the automatic watering system (which works great btw). I figured that the average cost for my transplants is about $3 (seeds, materials to start, etc.) The seeds are obviously much less expensive. I transplanted 8 lettuces/greens this year and pulled them early this morning. That's an investment of about $24 for salads. The yield was 4.66 lbs of greens. Usually I would buy the 5oz bags of organic lettuce mix at the grocery store for about $4 each (Peapod's price). I figure that I had about 15 servings of 5oz bags out of my yield for a store cost of $75. Sure there was some container prep and watering, etc but I could walk upstairs anytime I wanted and cut lettuce for a salad. Nothing went to waste as I would only cut what I need.

I'll keep posting on the yields as well, if anyone's interested...

trs23 - I am horribly jealous of your trellis system. What kind of wood is that? Did you drill pilot holes before screwing? I don't know how else to phrase that last question...

teatpuller --

thanks. I actually owe it all to Tyrus as I stole his idea. A few things I'd improve on would be to put more separation between the plants. I only have 3 cross pieces and it's a challenge to keep the plants separated.

Anyway I used Cedar 7/8 x 1 1/2s (8 ft long)--- i guess that is new school 1x2s from HD. I stained them with some leftover deck stain. Definitely had to drill pilot holes and even then had some splitting. I purchased some 1 1/4 or 1 1/2 long outdoor deck screws to put them all together.

Using cedar was definitely pricy. I think each stick was over $3 -- hopefully it will last a few years! The bottom support I used a 2x8 pressure treated. I made the cross pieces 14" so i could put the box and trellis inside to make it a bit more finished looking.

I purchased the trellis netting from gardners supply as I couldn't find a local place.

A better shot of the system (older photos from June 2nd).





Tyrus -- the AWS is awesome. I couldn't imagine having to water by hand!

I used non-treated 2X2's and 1X2 furring strips. I did not drill pilot holes. It looks horrible but I didn't have the time to do a good job. I think I have about 24 tomato plants. I think they will hold up through the summer.

What I was going to do, but didn't, and will do next year, is order bamboo stakes and make a 6' high teepee sort of thing. I have done this before and it works OK.

teatpuller wrote:I used non-treated 2X2's and 1X2 furring strips. I did not drill pilot holes. It looks horrible but I didn't have the time to do a good job. I think I have about 24 tomato plants. I think they will hold up through the summer.

What I was going to do, but didn't, and will do next year, is order bamboo stakes and make a 6' high teepee sort of thing. I have done this before and it works OK.

I used the same cedar from HD and it's $2.98 per 8'. Even if you used 16 pieces for a trellis system, you're talking around $50 to support 6-8 plants. I use the steel wood screws (#10 size 1 1/2 inch length), which run about $6-$7 for a small box. Always drill pilot holes. It take more time but it limits the splitting.

Compare this to the tomato cages or ladders that they sell for $15 each or 3 for $49 and I think this is a deal. BTW, the netting can be found at HD as well. If you're at the one on North Ave, it's by the house plants, in the very far southwest corner of the store. Hard to find but I think it's only a few bucks for more than you'll ever need.

The teepee works as well. This year I suspended a stake in the middle for each plant to tie to. It cuts down on the clutter quite a bit. For a low cost alternative, you can try a basket (or Florida) weave, which is popular with many commercial growers. You essentially have stakes between every two plants and then you weave twine between the plants as they grow. I tried it last year and my system didn't work (no fault to the method, it was my materials that failed) so I went the square box way. It is crowded in there but I think if I keep tying the main vine to the center stake it will be manageable. BTW, I'm pruning the "suckers" this year as well. Good luck and keep posting...

Ah, sunshine and warmth. What a difference a week makes. Although, as typical for Chicago, going from 55 to 95 in two weeks is a BIT much of a jump for me!

My tomatoes are happy, however, finally really showing some growth. My basil finally looks like basil. My lettuce has not yet bolted, though I did a thorough cut of all leaves yesterday in anticipation of it soon. I also harvested all my gai lohn - it was ready - because I doubt it will take this heat at all. I pulled the plants instead of letting them start a new shoot, and replaced them with chard that I had too closely spaced together. I am sure the chard is grateful.

The okra plants I replanted have all started, which is good. It will be a late harvest, but it was literally so cold until a week and a half ago that there weren't any chances to plant it after the first crop bit the dust. The green beans seeds got too wet; I had them in rockwool in a small container. In those torrential rains last week, they flooded. I dumped the water and they got soaked again the next day. Only two of ten came up (5 green beans, 5 limas). I waited to start them because they are going where the lettuce is and it hasn't bolted yet. Seems like we'll just about be in synch. I hope the seeds take off now.

The mint in my one container is SUCH a pest! I throw away more mint than I'd like, but I don't drink mojitos, lol, and I can only make so much mint iced tea. If I wasn't aggressive in cutting it out, it would become the entire herb planter.

I am truly in awe over the gardens in the earthboxes- wow!

We are using rasied beds this year for the first time and my plants are so far behind yours. I should have beans next week which is really exciting and we have lots of peas which is lots of fun for my toddler. But the tomatoes and peppers, wow, I can't believe how big they are in the previous posts.

So the garden is coming along well.

We pruned the tomatoes heavily last week and moved everything around to put some trellis netting up. I just stapled it to the fence and binder clipped it to the containers.

Beans are a bit of a tangled mess, as there are tons of beans pulling plants down. After the big storm last week a few of them have bent 90 degrees at the stem base. After netting though they seem to be okay. Ate my first one yesterday, looking to pick a bunch in a few days (yellow beans are going faster than green, many just have a touch of green left on them).

Habanero is starting to fill out, though still quite small. Prarie Fire got pulled for a zucchini starter Wheattoast gave me, though it is stuggling at the moment and needed more top watering to pull it back from the dead a day after transplant.

Amazing difference from my picture 9 days ago (I think that fence is 7' tall)

Jamieson22 wrote:So the garden is coming along well.

After the big storm last week a few of them have bent 90 degrees at the stem base.

My tomatoes were like that! Glad you had a happy outcome with your beans.

I had to stake my tomatoes to straighten them and all was fine except for one whose stem had broken. I cut it off at the base and stuck it in water. The roots are growing. I hope to get it planted again in a few days. It will be a bit behind the others, but that is not a bad thing, lol. I ended up picking varieties that are all relatively close to each other - 70-80 days - so putting this one at 90 will ensure I don't have ALL my plants putting out at the same time initially.

First tomatoes of the season - Sweet 100's

I"m really hoping I didn't kill most of my plants this past weekend.

I had some critters eating my parsley and some of the tomato & pepper leaves so I mixed up some dish soap and vegetable oil and sprayed the leaves.

A day or so later, the leaves on my broccoli had discolored, many leaves on my peppers dropped off and tomato buds that seemed to have been viable were withered and dead, leaving only 1 small, small growing fruit on 6 plants. My purple cherokee has a handful of healthy flowers but otherwise, zip, zilch, nada. One potted brandywine is pretty much totally dead.

One probable bad thing was that I didn't use pure soap but the anti-bacterial stuff from under my sink.

Is there anything I can do to salvage the situation ?

Tem, sorry I didn't see this more quickly. Did you spray the plants with water to get as much of the dish detergent off as you can? It may be too late, but what the heck.

You are thinking you used the anti bacterial, but even if you'd used whatever it is you use to wash dishes, it's most likely a dish detergent. They are very, very different than soap. Most of us hear "dish soap" and think that anything they sell that we wash dishes with is OK. But, detergents remove protective layers from the leaves, making them ripe for sunscald, among other things. As I understand it, very few items are actually soaps. I believe that Murphy's is, but don't count on it. I'd do a search on some garden forums first to find out what people say. I've just read of a few other people doing what you have done so was a bit aware of it, but not aware enough to know what to use instead.

I've heard that you can temporarily move the plants to a shady place to protect them, but it may be a bit late since the damage already happened. It might be worth trying anyway. You might be able to salvage them if they have enough leaves to hang on until new growth comes in.

Bill/SFNM wrote:First tomatoes of the season - Sweet 100's

So, I'm growing sweet 100's as well. I'm very excited as I have a black thumb (I can never keep plants alive) yet my sweet 100 plant's are thriving with little green fruit. I noticed your plants had fruit a month ago. Will it really take a whole month for them to ripen? I'm impatient (and excited about my gardening 'success') and hoping it won't take that long.

thaiobsessed wrote:I noticed your plants had fruit a month ago. Will it really take a whole month for them to ripen? I'm impatient (and excited about my gardening 'success') and hoping it won't take that long.

Patience, grasshopper!

They did take that long, but I am in a totally different growing region with very cool nights and very hot days. Well, actually, until recently, the days haven't been all that hot. I expect the new fruit (and there are tons!) will ripen quicker.

More cherry tomatoes today!!! I can't believe I spent the first part of my life despising tomatoes!

It's been a while since I've updated so here are a few pictures of the rooftop garden. Everything is going well so far and my only disappointment has been the broccoli. The Romanesco just never took and although the Green Goliath was good, it didn't produce any shoots. It has to come out to be replaced by something. Not sure yet - beans, another zucchini crop (when the current gets powdery mildew), who knows?

The tomatoes are taking off and I have tons of little green ones on the vines. The Stupice is producing some ripe tomatoes on a consistent basis. The zucchini is starting to come in as are the peppers. The lettuce was replaced by herbs and the chard has slowed during the heat but is still resilient. Here you go...









Trying to attract some bees with wildflowers...

ViewsAskew wrote:Tem, sorry I didn't see this more quickly. Did you spray the plants with water to get as much of the dish detergent off as you can? It may be too late, but what the heck.

You are thinking you used the anti bacterial, but even if you'd used whatever it is you use to wash dishes, it's most likely a dish detergent. They are very, very different than soap. Most of us hear "dish soap" and think that anything they sell that we wash dishes with is OK. But, detergents remove protective layers from the leaves, making them ripe for sunscald, among other things. As I understand it, very few items are actually soaps. I believe that Murphy's is, but don't count on it. I'd do a search on some garden forums first to find out what people say. I've just read of a few other people doing what you have done so was a bit aware of it, but not aware enough to know what to use instead.

I've heard that you can temporarily move the plants to a shady place to protect them, but it may be a bit late since the damage already happened. It might be worth trying anyway. You might be able to salvage them if they have enough leaves to hang on until new growth comes in.

I think I'm through the woods, but probably still delayed my harvest of tomatoes by a month or so. I'm getting leaf regrowth on the tomatoes and have 4-6 green ones on my cherokee purple and the other 5 are flowering more. The peppers seem OK, but again, I probably delayed any sort of harvest by at least a month.

I ended up harvesting what broccoli was there (4 or 5 small-ish heads) and making soup as it was yellowing.

The parsley survived intact.

So, we'll see what happens from here !

Well seems there are tomatoes on each of the 6 plants. Habanero has lots of flowers and a few peppers, beans are ready to harvest again and the zucchini transplant from a few weeks back is now flowering. Quite a difference from photos a few weeks back!

I did have a TON of little white aphids that I used a soap spray from Home Depot on. Seems to have worked, just have small areas of them now. Any other good remedies?

I lost a tomato plant recently. First, the bottom leaves had some interveinal chlorosis, consistent with nutrient deficiency. Then, the whole plant became lighter green, blossoms started to drop, and formed tomatoes died.

Thinking it might be a case of calcium deficiency (though really hoping it wasn't a wilt), I tried some lime. Didn't work.

I pulled out the plant two days ago. Interestingly, it has almost no stem left just above the soil. That's covered in the EBs, so I didn't see that. I cut the plant off at the break; I didn't notice any rot above that point, or anything inside the stem to indicate a problem. I then stuck it in a glass of water, where it still sits today.

I haven't a clue as to what caused it. In all my years of gardening in the past, I had remarkably few problems and learned almost nothing, lol. Here in the city, I've found I've had to learn much more.

Above I said "interestingly' because it's the second time that happened to me this season. The first time was about a month ago. I had a hanging upside down thingee that I decided to use for the heck of it (really because I wanted one more tomato plant and had no place else to put it). It was looking a bit wilty, so I looked at it and low and behold, the stem we almost completely severed. I looked at the holder and decided it was the fault of the foam holding it in place. It was sooooo firm and we'd had all those storms and wind, I figured it was worn down from the sawing action.

I took it and place it in water. It rooted. After two weeks I placed it in soil with my Swiss chard (temporary housing). Yesterday, I replanted it in the hanging thingee. I cut out a space in the foam for the stem so it's not rubbing. The plant rebounded beautifully.

I'm not as hopeful that my second plant will do that. It seemed to have suffered much longer and was showing more signs of problems. It really is likely that it was more than a simple wearing of the stem....there is nothing there to cause a wearing of the stem! Sure, it definitely moved around a lot in those storms, but the other stems did, also, and they're fine. But, maybe I'll have a miracle with both of them.

I thought I would share a pic with you guys. A little tip: don't go on a 2 day business trip without having someone harvest your zucchini. I planted a Romanesco variety that is known for its huge flowers (mostly male as well) and thought that I would get a workable amount of zucchini as well. I saw this guy before I left and actually thought, "oh, I'll just grab that when I get back." Well, it turned out to grow to almost a 2lb zucchini in that time - I usually will pick them much smaller. I actually like this variety of zucchini. It has a mild nutty flavor that works well on the grill.



I also started getting some Black Cherry tomatoes as well (Bill/SFNM's pic inspired me to do likewise - although I wish I had a macro lens). I think one of my Cherokee Purples is close so I'm letting hang out on the vine for another day or two. Stupice is still going strong and I'll be swamped with San Marzanos soon. On a side note, I'm really happy with my Santa Fe Grand chilies. They are a bit hotter than a jalapeno but I think have a sweeter flavor. They're coming faster than I can eat them. Maybe a pickle in the future...

Tyrus-

I have tomato and zucchini envy. Both look great!

-Mary

My tomatoes are rotting! Some of the fruits show a dark patch at the blossom end. Is this blossom end rot? I will try to post a picture.

Jen