However, seeing the obvious differences between my Earthbox and my “control” plants, my vision for next year is changing. So, overall, this is still a lot of fun, and quite exciting. I don’t know if I’ll have any ready for the August 8th festivities, though. Lots of blossoms, as you can see, so it looks like I’ll have plenty of zucchini to munch on. From the top of the box, it’s a full 30″ tall, with some leaves that are nearly 18″ across. No flowers, so it may be a loss for this season. The melon is still pretty small, shaded by both tomato and zuke plants. But, each plant has lots of blossoms and I found two fruit on the yellow pear tomato plant, so looking good there. This gives them nearly five feet of support structure (which is good, because the single line of mesh with the Earthbox frame is not sufficient, given the wind we sometimes get. I had no idea that they’d get so big (and they haven’t stopped), so to the top of the already present wire frames around each plant I attached another, inverted wire frame. These are “indeterminate” heirloom tomatoes, which means that they don’t grow to a specific height and size, but just keep on getting bigger. The tomato plants are now over a meter tall. (Unfortunately, I lost the little tag, so I don’t know what it was I planted!!) ![]() Lots of flowers and it looks like fruit has started to form. ![]() Then I lifted the vines from the ground and put them up onto the frames, where they seem pretty happy. I did not know that the cucumbers would climb, so this weekend I added a mesh frame to the box, and also put in a tomato frame. The few early blossoms fell off a couple weeks ago, but most of these new flowers seem to be getting the bee-attention they need. I believe some fruit has started to set on the golden cayenne, but it’s hard to tell. The chili peppers are now about 18″ tall and have several blossoms. The bees, so happy out front with all my lavender, have obviously found the few tiny blossoms over here. The strawberries have put out flowers and are now developing fruit. I put this down to less hydration and poorer soil. The in-ground basil is pretty munched by insects, and though the others are healthy, they haven’t grown as much. The “control” herbs ( oregano, basil, marjoram) that I planted in the ground, nearby, do not fare as well. However, I’ve let it go, and will harvest the coriander seeds later. The cilantro, due to the sudden heat wave we’ve been having, has bolted and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. The basil, after a couple weeks of looking sallow, have perked up and are putting on leaves (almost faster than I use them up…almost). The herbs are by far the least impressive, but primarily this is because I’ve been munching on them pretty steadily. Soon (based on my neighbor’s results), they’re going to need watering morning and evening. ![]() If I decide to take this large-scale and go in-ground instead of container, I think I’m definitely going to need some sort of drip irrigation system.Īs it is, the larger plants are going through most of the 3-gallon reservoir every day. I’m astonished at how much water they take in, though. ![]() We’re six weeks into this experiment, and things are continuing well above expectations.ĭue to our suddenly sunny summer, the plants are thriving.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |