Sumilea's Balcony Vegetable Garden

Our little garden, In 22 Days (Before and After photos)

2008-06-02T19:58:00.001-07:00

It's amazing, what 22 days can do to your garden.

Little Tomatoes

2008-06-02T14:10:00.000-07:00

The Photo below is our first pink brandywine tomatoes. We are experimenting with bagging the little tomatoes to protect them from insect and other damages.

Anyone interested in checking my flickr album, can click here .

Tips for Beginner Tomato Gardeners (Myself included)

2008-05-27T09:11:00.000-07:00

Tomatoes need lots of sun (Atleast 6 hrs)
Avoid over fertilizing
Avoid over watering
Don't plant too early, find out what zone your in and your last frost date (I am in Zone 5)
Plant them Deep
spray every 7 to 10 days or so with Daconil (for insects and deseases)
Use good support system (Cage or Stakes)
Grow Extra Seedlings, Just in case
Remember to Harden your plants
Feed the soil and the soil will feed the plant
Get a copy of the book "100 Heirloom Tomatoes for the American Garden" by Carolyn J. Male
If you prune, when you prune, practice rooting the cuttings. Its fun and comes in handy.
And finally, The fun is finding YOUR way

Look at our selection of Vegetables

2008-05-24T07:49:00.000-07:00

For Me and Lea, Growing fresh Tomatoes, Chili peppers, Lettuce, Beans and herbs provides a great sense of joy and accomplishment. Unfortunately, even though we don't have the luxury of garden space, we turned our little balcony in to a arsenal of Vegetables. Maybe one day, we will be able to enjoy our own little garden plot with a nice little house to go along with it.

Hurrah! I Have Blossoms and Baby Tomatoes!

2008-05-24T07:18:00.001-07:00

I know that none of you will be as excited about this as I am, but my tomatoes are blooming flowers everywhere, and at least three of the plants have tiny baby tomatoes. I always get really excited about the first tomatoes. Being fairly new to vegetable gardening, this is one of the few pleasures in life that makes you feel like a kid again.

Timeline of a Tomato Truss

Army of Tomato totes

2008-05-22T20:07:00.000-07:00

These are the second batch of Seedlings i started in mid March. They are growing fast with lots of fat blossoms. The white crud on the leaves is Daconil, its a preventive measure for deceases and insects.

First Tote (Front) - Brandyboy, Early Girl
Second Tote - Pink Brandywine, Husky Red Cherry
Third Tote - 2 Brandyboy, 1 Delecious
Forth Tote - Mixture of Everything (See Other pictures)
Fifth Trash Bin - 2 Unknown Variety

6 Feet Kumato Plant / with many flower clusters

2008-05-22T19:56:00.000-07:00

I didn't have much trouble hardening her, even though most of her life was indoors with supplementary florescent lighting. Shes much bigger than this picture, and I will update everyone when she bears some tomatoes.

The Crude Self watering Tote design with 2 Kumato Seedlings

2008-05-22T19:42:00.000-07:00

The first design was Pretty ugly, however since then we have refined our home made self watering totes. As you can see from the window, its still snowing. I have used the fluorescent shop lights to supplement the lighting till its safe to put the tote outside. Being in Zone 5 our Last frost date is around Early May. The Kumato Seedling on the right, died in April RIP. Since then i have replaced it with a younger seedling.

Building the Homemade Earthbox

2008-05-22T19:32:00.000-07:00

We built this home made earth box for my tomato seedlings. This is our first home made EB, since this pre-model we have made 6 more. The Kumato Seedling that was planted in this container is over 6 feet Tall.

Spoiled aren't they?

2008-05-22T19:28:00.000-07:00

After doing some research on garden web, tomato seedlings prefer 16 hrs of daylight and 8 hrs of darkness. This is a setup we rigged to keep the seedlings from turning leggy. A portable fan is used to stress the plants to grow sturdy stems.

Seedlings potted up from Styrofoam Cups

2008-05-22T19:16:00.000-07:00

This Kumato seedling is loving it, more room to spread its roots and grow. Once I get closer to the Last frost date i will be transferring this seedling in to a Homemade Earth box.

Tomato Nursery

2008-05-22T18:07:00.000-07:00

The tomato seedlings were potted up after the true leaves showed up. We built this setup as a nursery for our seedlings.

When its winter and your a prisoner indoors, plant some Tomatoe Seeds

2008-05-22T17:40:00.000-07:00

After living 14 years in Hawaii, me and my wife had to move to the mainland US (MA) for a career change. This being our first winter and not knowing what to expect, we were hit by heavy snow storms. Feeling, like a prisoner indoors and no sun in sight me and my wife decided to experiment with growing tomatoes indoors. This would be our first time, and a experiment in progress. The Egg carton above with F2 Kumato tomato seeds were started Jan 6th and germinated Jan 12th 2008.