Lots bigger
This cherry tomato plant is now considerably crowding the pepper plants, so I've turned them towards the right (west) side of the box. Imagine what this would look like if I hadn't pruned the suckers off this monster as it grew!
The plant now reaches the eaves on the house, which measures 93" from the deck floor. That makes the plant 80" tall, or 6 foot 8 inches tall. I am now pruning the tops so they don't grow any further. They'd keep growing if I let them.
The fact that a plant like this can grow so large in a container on a balcony says volumes about the EarthBox growing system!!
Is this typical? Well, my daughter harvested NINE 13" long cucumbers this week from 2 plants, with more on the way!
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Uploaded on Aug 25, 2009
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Fraternal twins
These two Champion plants are the same age, and they were planted within a few days of each other.
For awhile, the plant in the clay pot pulled ahead, like the the hare did with the tortoise. It was taller, flowered first, fruited first. In fact, it has baseball sized fruit on it now.
However, the Champion plant in the EarthBox has been concentrating on building better infrastructure. And now it is 40 inches tall to the 31 inch height of the other plant. In fact, the growth of the other plant seems to have stalled, and the last blossoms have set no or little fruit.
The Champion plant is supposed to grow 4 to 5 feet when planted in the ground. I'm sure it will reach at least 4 feet in the EarthBox, but the potted plant won't even get close, I'm afraid.
I have a feeling that by the end of the season, the EarthBox Champion will be the champion. If that's the case, I'll get another EarthBox to replace the clay pot, and I'll use that pot for something else.
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Uploaded on Aug 24, 2009
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Peekaboo!
Me = 5 feet tall
Tomato = almost 2 feet over my head
Yes, I am standing up! :-D
Immediately in front of me is the EarthBox with the "Gardener's Delight" cherry tomato and 3 different types of sweet pepper. This plant is pushing 6 feet tall right now. Since the EarthBox itself is 13-14" tall, the top of this heirloom indeterminate tomato is about 7 feet from the deck, getting close to the 86¼ inch tippy-top of the 2nd tier trellis. I think it's time to start pruning the top of this tree!!
In the foreground EarthBox are the Patio and the Champion plants. They are supposed to be more compact plants than the cherry tom but will, of course, yield bigger fruit.
The Patio plant is supposed to grow to only 2 feet and bear 2" in diameter fruit. However, it's already 33" tall, its largest tomato is already 2" wide. Yet it still has 11 days to go before full maturity. The Champion plant is a slower growing indeterminate plant, which is slated to eventually grow to 4 or 5 feet tall. It's bred to yield solid, meaty sandwich-slicing fruit.
I bought these plants in relative ignorance, so it's a good thing they all turned out to be "mid-season" bearers. I didn't plant until after the first week of June, and the cool weather has really slowed things down. Yet this growth and the impending fruitage is still very impressive.
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Uploaded on Aug 6, 2009
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Patio variety tomatoes
The largest tomato is already 2" in diameter, the alleged target size for the Patio variety. Yet this plant still has 11 days of growing to do before its expected 71 days to harvest.
The spots on the tomatoes is merely dried fungicide. Although late blight (phytophthera infestans) is not devasting tomato crops in the Great Plains the way it is in the Northeast United States, I'm not taking any chances with the disease that caused the Great Irish Potato Famine of the 1840!
BTW, I never claimed to be an organic gardener. ;-)
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Uploaded on Aug 4, 2009
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Inside the EarthBox
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Uploaded on Aug 1, 2009
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