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Post by SPLASH on May 22, 2011 21:17:38 GMT -5
Got back with Jackie and am back in an apartment. We have a balcony, but it doesn't get as much sun as I'd like so who knows?
One night she came home with the Topsy Turvy strawberry thing. Awaiting approval from the office lady to install the hook in the overhang of the balcony. Next day she comes home with the Topsy Turvy tree. A four legged stand with 3 holes for tomatoes and 3 holes for other stuff. I assembled that and since it said 2 tomato plants per hole I have the following varieties in there- Pink Girl, Sweet 100, Brandywine, Delicious, Betterboy and can't remember which variety I have two plants of in it. Stuck a bell Pepper plant in one of the other holes and sowed Pickling cuke seeds to grow out the other two holes. seems like a lot of roots in the thing to me, but we'll see............
I have four 5 gallon buckets all with tomato cages on them. Yellow Pear Tomato, Celebrity Tomato, Kentucky wonder pole beans, and the last bucket is Marketmore 76 slicing cuke and lemon cukes. who knows with the lack of sun what will happen, but if this all grows to normal size, we will have a jungle out there.
I'll take some pics and post soon.
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Post by SPLASH on May 23, 2011 18:18:24 GMT -5
Topsy turvy Tree  Topsy Turvy Strawberry Planter (15 plants)  From left is beans that haven't sprouted yet, Celebrity tomato, Yellow pear tomato, and Slicing cuke lemon cuke.  Yes, I'm now a citiot gardener. Atleast I get to plant Mom's in a few days. |
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Post by SPLASH on May 31, 2011 18:47:39 GMT -5
Little update My beans and cukes have sprouted since we finally got some warm weather   Tomatoes are growing well   Quite a few strawberry blossoms   |
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Post by jwsquared on Jun 9, 2011 5:26:31 GMT -5
i had grown tomatoes last year on my balcony the plants grew well but when it came to developing fruit is where i had a problem my 2 plants only yielded 3 tomatoes which were undersized and not very flavorful but by looking at your pictures you look to be in a better location and receive more than a few hours of evening sun like i received
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Post by SPLASH on Jun 9, 2011 10:43:53 GMT -5
Actually, I don't get nearly enough sun. Did you leave the plants in the small pots they came in? Can't do that. That topsy turvy thing is new to me, but a 5 gallon bucket is as small as you can get away with. Also, what fertilizer did you use? If it was more nitrogen, that was your problem. Use the more nitrogen during the beginning and that encourages root and plant growth. Once the plant is established you switch to more phosphorus. That is what encourages fruitset. When you look at the back of a fertilizer look for the 3 numbers ex. 12-15-0. Nitrogen is the first number and phosphorus is the second. Now I'm using Bone meal. It is an organic fertilizer that is mainly phosphorus. I'll have to take some new pics and post. That storm lastnight knocked all the plants in the topsy turvy down when they were growing straight up. It put the hurt on the strawberries too.  |
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Post by SPLASH on Jun 21, 2011 12:51:05 GMT -5
Time for an update. My bean plants have reached the top of the tomato cages, no flowers yet.  On the left is my Celebrity Tomatoes and the right is yellow pear tomatoes  My largest tomato so far (celebrity)  Cukes on the right are growing slow, but the Anaheim pepper on the left has a couple flowers open  This is my out of control sweet 100 cherry tomato plant in the topsy turvy tree. Tons of blossoms. The neighbor below may get some free maters off this the way it is growing down the balcony which is fine with me. I plan on using a hanger to lift the vines to harvest.  Cherry maters  This is the full view of the tree with all the mater plants and the sweet pepper infront. All plants now have blossoms and a few of the larger varieties are just starting to put on maters. I still have the pickling cukes inside of it that will be pulled through the 2 holes left, but they too are growing slow like the other cukes.  Jackie's favorite, the strawberries. We enjoyed our first berry Sunday and now I'm letting a few get ripe so I can harvest more than just one. It was a sweet berry   I'll get pics of Mom's garden in the next couple of days. I saw it yestrday (no camera) and some things look good and some don't. She is not controlling critters like I did last year and it shows  Still waiting to see pics of other members' gardens  |
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Post by SPLASH on Jul 5, 2011 20:20:08 GMT -5
A couple days ago I noticed I had these little flea looking things in my buckets and just noticed aphids on the peppers.  A trip out to get some pyrethrin based organic insect spray and hoping they are gone. Earlier today no eggs, now tons on the bottoms of the leaves. How did they find my plants on the 3rd floor I don't know. |
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Post by SPLASH on Jul 7, 2011 17:18:23 GMT -5
Time for an update........... The sweet 100 cherry tomato plant has grown quite a bit and is full of tomatoes. Can't see in the pic, but a couple are starting to turn ripe. This is the only tomato plant that I have done no pruning on.  Gotta love the shapes of heirloom tomatoes (Brandywine)  This is what the topsy turvy tree looks like now. That sweet pepper plant infront has dropped blossoms where the Anaheim pepper plant has not done this and has peppers on it and continues to blossom more. I'm thinking peppers are not a good choice for sharing a "TT tree" with other plants. The Anaheim plant is all alone in a 4 gallon pot.  This is the anaheim pepper plant with cukes on the right. The cukes finally started growing and has the beginnings of blossoms on them. 2nd pic is a closeup of anaheim peppers   My pole beans are growing a lot and I have had to wrap the vines around the top of the tomato cage a few times and now I have them going between spindles on the balcony and back around on top. I won't try tomato cages on them again. Still no flowers  Tomatoes on the Celebrity (left) and yellow pear (right) are growing larger and putting on more fruit. I should've had a largest tomato plant contest. Yellow pear  we are up to 33 strawberries harvested from this little hanging basket, but the plants started drooping the past few days. I talked to a woman at the farmers market today that grows strawberries in Corunna (bought some and they are great) and she said these everbearing types the she and I grow go through a week or two phase of this after they put out a bunch of berries. Hoping that's all it is and they get back to making nice berries for me.  |
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Post by SPLASH on Jul 7, 2011 17:25:40 GMT -5
One more thing. Strawberry plants constantly grow new baby plants. I have to trim them away from the parent plant in order to keep getting new berries. It's killing me having to throw them away so anyone close enough or passing by near Grand blanc, let me know if you'd like some. FREE. I have roughly a dozen I've saved that are in with the Anaheim pepper plant for now, but they can't stay there.
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Post by OJ (Original Junkie). on Jul 8, 2011 21:43:44 GMT -5
My pathetic six tomatoe plants and my solo squash are doing ok. Just didn't have the time or drive to do it up this spring. Nice looking plants bud, pretty soon you'll need a machete to access the balcony.
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Post by SPLASH on Jul 9, 2011 12:42:27 GMT -5
That's funny you say that because I did some mater plant pruning after taking the pics.
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Post by SPLASH on Jul 26, 2011 11:29:21 GMT -5
Time for an update. My strawberry plants did recover after a little tlc and we're up to 45 harvested. My Anaheim pepper plant grew great and gave me a couple of nice sized peppers, but the aphids got to it. I treated for that, but the plant isn't putting out new flowers yet. Hopefully they will because I need a few more peppers for salsa and bbq sauce  This is the only pepper on it right now, ugly and curly  Finally starting to get some small bell peppers growing  I added a 2nd tomato cage for the beans to climb and I got a bunch of flowers, but no beans. Been reading it's due to heat.  The cucumbers loved the heat. They shot right up to the top of the 2nd cage in under a week. Starting to get some lemon cukes  A couple of slicing cukes too  The yellow pear tomato plant needed to be tamed. I let it get as tall as me, but then trimmed it down. I did this to both that and the celebrity tomato plant in hopes of encouraging ripening.  Yellow pear tomatoes  Celebrity tomatoes  Cherry tomatoes have produced well   Brandywine  Better boy and Pink girl  My one tomato on the Delicious plant that was broken in the wind  Todays harvest   Can't wait for the larger tomatoes to ripen. |
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Post by SPLASH on Jul 31, 2011 16:08:44 GMT -5
I'd been eyeing a celebrity tomato for a couple of days that was ripening. Well, today was the day. I picked it, sliced it up along with a cucumber I picked a couple of days ago, sprinkled some salt and pepper and WOW! That mater tasted so good that I can't wait for another. I had been buying tomatoes at the farmers market from Arkansas and Kentucky (only field grown vine ripened I could find) and they were much better than storebought, but this one was excellent. Call me a nerd, but I got super excited. I have another small one that will be ready in a few days and a pink girl tomato that is starting to ripen too. some yellow pear tomatoes are almost ready too, and I've been picking loads of cherry tomatoes. Love it when the harvesting begins.
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