Still Harvesting, September 30, 2009

I was going to hold off another harvest until tomorrow, just before I would walk to the Cherry Street Food Bank, but noticed a few tomatoes had fallen, perhaps because the wind had been whipping around yesterday.

We pulled a couple of pounds each from both locations but I'll hold off waiting until tomorrow, since I think I can let the green go until the morning; the wind doesn't seem to bother them but the extra half-day might make a little difference in their freshness. The lettuce at the Court and the parsley at the Tower look magnificent! Unfortunately the aphids (or some suchlike) are chowing down pretty hard on the chard. I'll try to knock 'm off with the sprayer tomorrow but I don't see how that could really discourage them much.

Green bugs on the Chard?

The lettuce continues to grow well. It's pretty remarkable how they are flourishing at the Court!

The mixture of leaf colors and designs are attractive; a tub of mixed salad greens would be a nice way to dress up any way!

And it still keeps growing even in this fall's cooler weather. We may have to experiment with harvesting some leaves and seeing if the plants are happy to keep growing more.

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However ...


However, the chard has some green bugs. What are they? What to do?

Slowing Down through September 19 2009

The tomatoes in particular seem to be growing more slowly. There are some large ones that have been red on the vine but not quite ready to go all week. The weather has been cool and of course the days are getting shorter, so this is not unexpected.

The lettuce continues to grow; some of it in the Court should be ready to go soon but much of it may need another week or two.

More Water, More Worms - Sunday, September 13, 2009

We got reports today that the soil was dry, so we went to have a look. It seemed kinda borderline, so I gave all the tubs a drink.

We harvested another 1/2 pound of cherry tomatoes, about half from each location. Unfortunately one large tomato had split since yesterday and the crack was fuzzy, so we discarded it.

The greens tub at the Court has some lettuces growing to a pretty good size (as shown) and maybe almost ready to harvest. I had been concerned because the lettuce had been coming up kinda of sparsely, but perhaps I merely accidentally sowed them an appropriate distance apart.

The greens tub at the Tower has a more even and thick crop of lettuce, but the leaves are much shorter. It may be time to thin them. We found a half-dozen more looper works by checking leaves that had holes in them; mostly it was the chard but there's one type of plant in the salad mix that the critters seem to like too. This may be a continuing battle.

Attack of the Cabbage Looper Worms?

This morning, Saturday, September 12, 2009 we saw what appear to be Cabbage Looper worms in the Tower greens tub. We picked off about a dozen (they went over the side, where most likely they will join the Circle of Life via Brother Crow.)

They seem to have concentrated on the chard, but a few of the lettuce mix plants have bit marks too. Also, there are round, dark green nodes on the tops of some leaves that may be eggs.

What's the next step? This effort is strictly organic; we have no way of knowing when or if people who are sensitive may wander by or be recipients of the food via the food bank, we don't want to poison our community on general principles, and we don't want to disrupt our local micro environment which is already pretty hacked up by development. This is a test of brains: are we smart enough to figure out a solution?

Friday, September 11, 2009

We gave the plants a good drink; they seem to have soaked up the rain from earlier in the week.

Several of the large tomatoes look almost ready to go but should make it to Monday, when the food bank is open. One had split and had to be wasted.

Cherry tomatos keeping producing, a little all the time

• Tower: 3 oz cherry tomatos
• Court: 9 oz cherry tomatos

It's not gigantic but it's steady!

The greens are coming up steadily. The parsely at the Tower looks almost ready to harvest for the 3rd time!

Windy and Rainy Sunday, September 6, 2009

Today started with a strong downpour, so no watering. It was quite windy at sunset; as I noticed the plants on my own patio were whipping about a bit, I figured I'd better check on the Project Plants.

• At the Tower, a few cherry tomatoes had fallen or were ready to pick: maybe 1 ounce of Cherry Tomatoes
• At the Court, more had fallen (including six or more greenies; perhaps their position near the end of the branches made them more vulnerable): 3 oz Cherry Tomatoes.
• Also at the Court one large tomato was starting to split so I harvested it; it should be fine to eat: one 4oz Tomato

It all went into the clean shoe box for eventual delivery to the Cherry Street Food bank. I suppose windiness on a roof is just something we'll have to plan for.

Saturday, September 5, 2009

The last couple of days each started with a morning rain, so when I checked, each tub seemed pretty well watered & I left them alone.

Today (Saturday) I picked some of the cherry tomatoes and will store in a clean shoebox for delivery Monday. We found out the hard way that storing them in bags mushed some.

• From the Tower: 7.5 ounces cherry tomatoes
• From the Court: 9 ounces cherry tomatoes

The chard seems to be doing well, although something is nibbling a lacy pattern in their leaves. They seem to be thriving none-the-less. The parsley left in the Tower tub was, IIRC, harvested for the 2nd time last week and is almost ready to go again!

Some large tomatoes at both the Tower and the Court seem almost ready. The Tower features another large cuke too!