Mark Mulich's planting system. Planted on April 12, 2008
Tomatoes: Better Boy (quantity 2 tomato plants)
Peppers: Bell Peppers (quantity 3 yellow, 1 red)
Effort: Once I planted these, I haven't done a thing to them. I don't even water them. They are watered automatically by a timer. I only visit them once a week to take the pictures. Now as the tomato plant becomes a tree, I've got to make sure it stays inside the ringed cage otherwise it will fall over.
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Tomatoes
Peppers
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Tomatoes
Peppers
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2 Weeks later (April 26, 2008)
Tomatoes
Peppers
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Tomatoes - I added the cages today. This bush will soon be a tree. The tomatoes have made it to the first ring.
Peppers
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Tomatoes - Front view
Side view: The tomatoes have made it past the second ring.
Babies!
Peppers
Babies!
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Tomatoes - Front view (I counted 12 tomatoes at least)
Tomatoes side view
Peppers (about 24 baby peppers at this point)
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Tomatoes (I believe there are roughly 20 tomatoes now. They are hard to count because it's so bushy - it's like "Finding Wallace." And holding the camera phone with one hand while trying to part the plant with the other makes for excellent blurry photos :-) )
Peppers
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Tomatoes: I managed to get rid of the blossom end rot by mixing a gallon jug of water with some lime and pouring it into the tube. Also sprayed a little on the leaves. The blossom end rot appears to have stopped but now many leaves are turning yellow. The plant still looks healthy though, and it's still generating new tomatoes.
Peppers: There seems to be a runt, second from the left, that is not getting enough water. So I've had to babysit it to make sure it gets the water that it needs. This is not an earthbox problem, it's me not following the directions. I tried to fit them all in in a way that went against the instructions. So I'll just roll with it. Our Spring is officially over. We had temps of 97 degrees all weekend, so I've had to reprogram the timer to fill the reservoir once at 7am and again at 2pm, instead of just at 7am.
It's hard to believe that this scrawny little plant can put out such big vege's and so many of them. The last bell pepper plant on the right has about 12 bell peppers on it. I don't know how it plans to pull that off but we'll see.
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Tomatoes: The tomato tree is so big now that I can't get it in all in the shot when I'm zoomed all the way out (I only have so much room to step back). They have totally engulfed the tomato cages that I put in there. Won't do that again. I counted about 43 tomatoes even after I had to throw out about 7 of them from the blossom end rot a couple of weeks ago. They are doing great now. We are in the triple digits this week...it's about 104 degrees today and my timer decided it was going to stop working. So I've got to head to Lowe's and buy another one because it needs to be watered 3 times a day now with this heat.
Peppers: I still haven't gotten rid of the "extra" pepper plant that I should not have added in there. It's not getting enough water so I'll have to give it away soon. And just as MaryB said, the yellow peppers are just left on the vine (they start out green then eventually turn yellow) and as you can see they are starting to turn colors now. On the far left it's turning yellow and on the far right I have one turning red. I planted all yellow bell peppers except for the far right - it's a red bell pepper plant.
