Tough go...

It's been a pretty tough season with our weather this year. Last week we had four consecutive days over 100 degrees and then this weekend it gets down to the fifties and forties at night. The tomatoes have gone into shock and are showing signs of it. The blossoms have fallen off just about all the plants and blossom end rot has been a problem across the board. Even with the purple haze. Leaves are now purple with shades of blue and the new growth has turned spindly. When you go to sucker them the suckers don't just snap they bend and don't want to break. I think I need to leave them be and hope they bounce back. I hit them with a strong dose of bloom and may give them a shot of CalMag in a few days. The tomatoes that have held up well are the Berkley tie dye and the purple haze. The pepper plants are doing fine, eggplant is great, peppers are doing well, and the melons are out of control. The melons on the dirt strip by the compost bins are taking over. I've also planted random clones from my tomato plants along the fence and their taking off. That soil is so nutrient rich I'm anxious to see how everything produces. Right now I'm just hoping August levels off with the temps and we can salvage some sort of tomato harvest.

End of July

Things are looking good at the urban farm. The melons are out of control and taking over the plot. The corn looks good and should be ready soon. My tomatoes in the big pots are not doing as well as I would like. I think the kids at the farm are watering them everyday and its just drowning them. It's frustrating not having control of these things and to make maters worse the fruit is constantly taken.

Stolen Tomatoes

I watered the whole team with buddha bloom this past Sunday morning July 14th. We are entering the hottest week this summer with temps into the 90's. The corn and tomatoes are thriving in the heat as well as the peppers. My prize tomato on the Todd's county Amish was swiped as well as two perfect chocolate amazons. Thats just the cost of doing business at the good old urban farm I guess.

Blossoms....

The tomatoes are really starting to pump out fruit and the blossoms keep growing. So far the Chocolate Amazon is leading the way in production. Tomatoes are baseball size and the plant is really starting to take off. It's in the 100 gallon smart pot and is 7ft tall now. The Paul Robeson in the 65 gallon is also off to a fast start with fruit setting all over the plant. One of the interns at the farm took it upon herself to sucker the top growth off so the plant is temporarily stunted. The purple haze and foxy lady are not far off and I'm sure will begin to pass everything up. Todd's County Amish has a nice size mater in the works and my Stump of the World has a mega blossom on it. The Mantis's finally hatched and are ready to eat.

 Blue Fruit

 Blue fruit

 Todd's County Amish

 Chocolate Amazon

 Paul Robeson

 Paul Robeson

Paul Robeson

 Stump of the world mega blossom

 neighbors plot

  neighbors plot

  neighbors plot

 Todd's county bigin

 Chocolate's