We’re six weeks into this experiment, and things are continuing well above expectations.
Due to our suddenly sunny summer, the plants are thriving. I’m astonished at how much water they take in, though. 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.
As it is, the larger plants are going through most of the 3-gallon reservoir every day. Soon (based on my neighbor’s results), they’re going to need watering morning and evening.
From front to back, our report:
The herbs are by far the least impressive, but primarily this is because I’ve been munching on them pretty steadily. 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 cilantro, due to the sudden heat wave we’ve been having, has bolted and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. However, I’ve let it go, and will harvest the coriander seeds later.
The “control” herbs (oregano, basil, marjoram) that I planted in the ground, nearby, do not fare as well. The in-ground basil is pretty munched by insects, and though the others are healthy, they haven’t grown as much. I put this down to less hydration and poorer soil.
The strawberries have put out flowers and are now developing fruit. The bees, so happy out front with all my lavender, have obviously found the few tiny blossoms over here.
The chili peppers are now about 18″ tall and have several blossoms. I believe some fruit has started to set on the golden cayenne, but it’s hard to tell. 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 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. Then I lifted the vines from the ground and put them up onto the frames, where they seem pretty happy. Lots of flowers and it looks like fruit has started to form. (Unfortunately, I lost the little tag, so I don’t know what it was I planted!!)
The tomato plants are now over a meter tall. That’s a meter from the top of the box. These are “indeterminate” heirloom tomatoes, which means that they don’t grow to a specific height and size, but just keep on getting bigger. 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. 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. But, each plant has lots of blossoms and I found two fruit on the yellow pear tomato plant, so looking good there.
The melon is still pretty small, shaded by both tomato and zuke plants. No flowers, so it may be a loss for this season.
The zucchini, however, is monstrous. From the top of the box, it’s a full 30″ tall, with some leaves that are nearly 18″ across. Lots of blossoms, as you can see, so it looks like I’ll have plenty of zucchini to munch on. I don’t know if I’ll have any ready for the August 8th festivities, though.
So, overall, this is still a lot of fun, and quite exciting. However, seeing the obvious differences between my Earthbox and my “control” plants, my vision for next year is changing. Rather than terracing everything, I may simply double the number of Earthboxes.
You can do controlled growth on your tomatoes to get a better fruit harvest by picking off the tiny new shoots that begin in the elbow of existing branches. This helps the plant put more work into growing the tomatoes instead of expanding the plant. 🙂
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Sort of what I do for my roses. I _did_ pinch off the shoots that branched out lower down, and as I mentioned last month, I intend to pinch off some of the fruit on the brandywine, if I get more than 3 per bunch (since they grow so large).
I should probably inspect the plants mid-height, though, to make sure there aren’t too many shoots/stalks. Thanks!
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🙂
I’ve managed to get two cherry tomatoes already this year, with a few more getting riper each day. Cherry tomatoes fresh off the bush… just like candy!
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Eat them up, Yum!
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… fish heads?
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We must have watched ALL the same shows/movies…
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*snicker* 😉
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…or we all remember when MTV was new. That video made an impression.
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Did I inadvertently quote something? I’m not of the MTV generation, so trust me, it wasn’t on purpose.
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Fish Heads Fish Heads Rolly Polly Fish Heads.
The song weirdness starts at about the 2:20 mark. I don’t recall the earlier part of this film on MTV.
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Looks like the first part was stored in an nuclear reactor for a decade or so.
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Oh, that! Yeah, I don’t remember the intro, but I remember the song well. My kid brothers loved it.
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