MacSmiley's photostream

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!

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.

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. ;-)

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch

Yesterday, I was quite perturbed when Bryn disappeared on me. I could hear her responding to my call, but I just couldn't place the direction where her voice was coming from. Bryn enjoyed my confusion as she watched me search for her. Back yard. Front yard. Side yard.

I don't know why I didn't think to look up. I guess tree climbing skipped a generation. It was one of my favorite pastimes as a kid, but Kristin just wasn't the arboreal type.

When I finally figured out where Bryn was, I couldn't help laughing, nor could I stay angry.

"Stay right where you are, young lady. (Smirk) I'll go get the camera!" :-D

Besides, Bryn one upped her grandma at that age. She was actually able to climb down, too!

(But then, I used to climb big OAK trees that I still don't know how I got up in the first place!)

[Update: I finally got Kristin to look at my Flickr to see this picture. (Generally, if it isn't on Facebook, she doesn't want to bother.) She claims she did climb trees as a youngster. But I still don't remember seeing her do that.]