A few photos of my balcony garden

[johnnytwofingers]

Yes, red cherry, round.

[johnnytwofingers]

So today I tried to set up some improved makeshift mini-greenhouses over my cucumbers, peppers, watermelon, and cantaloupe.

One of my cucumbers died last week, the plant that had a good sized cucumber well underway on it. Frickin rain.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by johnnytwofingers

So today I tried to set up some improved makeshift mini-greenhouses over my cucumbers, peppers, watermelon, and cantaloupe.

One of my cucumbers died last week, the plant that had a good sized cucumber well underway on it. Frickin rain.

That's what you get for putting in a drip system.

Worth

[johnnytwofingers]

I guess things aren't all that bad on the tomato front at least....

Pic 1 is planted from seedlings on May 6, and the 2nd pic is taken today, June 23.

That's 48 days / 7 weeks, and considering we've had rain and 100% cloud cover for at least 90% of those days, not to mention the cold temperatures, these ones are actually doing quite well.

[Worth1]

Looks nice.

Worth

[Tania]

Trevor, they look absolutely terrific!

Mine have not grown much in this weather, except the ones in the large GHs.

it is cold today again, and we had 45 mm of rain overnight. The garden paths are still flooded.

[meadowyck]

This is our weather today. All day long, which is rare for us. Hope yours will clear up soon. We have to wait out the storm.

[johnnytwofingers]

Originally Posted by Worth1

That's what you get for putting in a drip system.

Worth

Haha, ya I know, we had decent weather this spring, and I think literally right after I finished the install, the non-stop rain began.

Originally Posted by meadowyck

This is our weather today. All day long, which is rare for us. Hope yours will clear up soon. We have to wait out the storm.

That's about how it looks here too, except I'd die to have that awesome indoor pool room to hang out in while I was feeling sorry for myself!

[johnnytwofingers]

Originally Posted by Tania

Trevor, they look absolutely terrific!

Mine have not grown much in this weather, except the ones in the large GHs.

it is cold today again, and we had 45 mm of rain overnight. The garden paths are still flooded.

Hi Tania.....I know, it's raining frequently, and also raining unusually hard here.

The tomatoes you gave me are coming along a bit, flowers on 2/3 plants, and I think they're grown a few inches and bulked up a bit.

I've finally got some fruit set on my beefsteak and green zebra hybrid tomatoes. The sweet 100 & million are going to be the big performers it looks like though - they are absolutely flourishing, lots of flowers, and tons of new flowers forming. (Almost blew over in the wind this afternoon though!)

It seems my front balcony plants are doing better, even though they get MUCH less sun (no sun until 11AM or so), they are more sheltered from the wind. Do you think the wind could have that much of a negative affect? I'm debating moving one of your plants onto the front to see if there is a noteworthy difference in performance.

I'm not spraying with anything though as everyone else seems to be doing on here, should I be looking into that more seriously??

[RobinB]

Wow! You have accomplished a lot. Impressive!

I really like Gartenperle for hanging baskets. It grows dark pink round cherries that will cascade in a basket. I grew them over last Winter in my bathroom window and the plant is still producing. It's not pretty, but It's still giving me ripe tomatoes!

[meadowyck]

johnny two fingers, it is only a screen cage, it helps with keeping dirt out of the pool and the bugs off of ya, well that is except the frogs, snakes and lizzards...LOL

I'm hoping later this year I'll have some wonderful tomato plants filled with maters to show off.

[Tania]

Wind make a big [negative] difference when the temperatures are so low - so I think this is why your sheltered plants are doing better. As long as you get 6+ hours of sun per day, it should be fine, but of course the more the better - considering we have not had much of sunshine in June.

My greenhouse tomatoes started to bloom, but there is not much fruit set. I think I should start shaking blossoms.

At least out temperatures are moving into 19C high, that's a great improvement!

You did such a humongous job setting up your balcony garden... I hope everything performs well for you!

[johnnytwofingers]

Originally Posted by Tania

Wind make a big [negative] difference when the temperatures are so low - so I think this is why your sheltered plants are doing better. As long as you get 6+ hours of sun per day, it should be fine, but of course the more the better - considering we have not had much of sunshine in June.

My greenhouse tomatoes started to bloom, but there is not much fruit set. I think I should start shaking blossoms.

At least out temperatures are moving into 19C high, that's a great improvement!

You did such a humongous job setting up your balcony garden... I hope everything performs well for you!

It seems so, I can already see a difference after a few days in my peppers that are covered in the garbage bags compared to the one that is out in the wind.

[johnnytwofingers]

Time for another weekly update.

The carrots didn't turn out too well...the self watering 5 gallon pail they're in is terribly made and I think they ran into the bottom. Pulled them all out, and the corn and put in two new cucumbers.

Lettuce that I planted from seedlings from the store is doing nicely. Any that I planted from seed sprouted and have stalled, not growing larger (or dying) for a month now.

The tomato plant that I bought from the store that already had tomatoes on it is outperforming everything. It looks relatively weak, but lots of flowers which seem to all set fruit. My larger healthier looking plants don't seem to be setting fruit too well.

Have started harvesting white currants from one of the two plants I have in pots. Will probably get about 6 or 7 servings that size from the one plant, probably a similar amount from the other (which has much larger berries and will take a few more weeks to ripen). I'm quite pleased how well these have turned out.

Several cucumber plants died (too much rain) but since I've covered them they're doing nicely, LOTS of cukes forming.

Peppers that are covered have really taken off now. Watermelon and cantaloupe are still just kind of hanging out.

The 2 tomatoes in the Earthtainer are a mess of a jungle. I tried to get in there and prune a while back but fear I may have totally lost control at this point. The Roma (not really shown in these pics) that is in the EarthTainer with the pepper plant is all wound up in itself inside the tomato cage...don't know what to do about that. Should I just start indiscriminately pruning? It has very few flowers so nothing much to lose.

The plants I got from Tania are really coming along nicely, quite a few flowers, one or two fruits set already.

Now we just need some sun and warm weather!!

A few questions
1. Is the big green leafy plant in the first picture zuchinni? (I lost the label when I planted it)
2. The bush beans have gone almost nowhere in the 4+ weeks they've been outside. I assume they should get much larger than this?
3. Do I have to hand pollinate cucumbers or peppers? I don't have many bees or insects up on the 11th floor.
4. Is it too late to start anything from seed at this point? If not, what would be a good idea for a newb like me to try?

[clara]

Great work! Congrats! Yes, the big green leafy plant is a zucchini. I suppose you will get some huge yellow blossoms soon. clara