Cutting Back Tomato Plant…Redux

After consulting a horticulturalist, I’ve decided to abort my experiment in cutting back the tomato plants.  Seems while you can cut them back for a second season here in Houston, the production will diminish and the plant will be weaker inviting more pests now and in the future.

I pulled out the tomatoes and the peppers (which never did anything for me this year), and planted some bush bean seeds.  Seemed the logical thing to do to fix the nitrogen and because this is the time of year to plant bush beans!!  I also started a cherry tomato in a large container on my deck.  More info on these project will be forthcoming.

More Eggplant

Picture from 7/27:

Harvested on 8/2 (ate on 8/3, yum):

The eggplant is in full swing now.  There’s another one ready to be harvested this week and one probably a week away.  That’s a total of 4 so far this year.  I’m optimistic that one of the other flowers is about to form a fruit too.

Planning the Fall Vegetable Garden

Urban Harvest will have two classes coming up on planning the fall vegetable garden:

http://www.urbanharvest.org/classesevents/calendar/fallveggarden.html

I understand the class on 7/26 is full but there are still openings for 8/2.  Bob Randall, who is probably the leading expert on permaculture in the Houston area, will be teaching the class.

Cutting Back Tomato Plant

I read somewhere that you can cut back tomato plants in the summer to prepare them for a late summer/early fall harvest.  I chopped both the slicer (on the right) and the roma back on 7/13.  Let’s see what happens!

You know I have to say it was deeply satisfying to cut these back.  I had one good harvest from each which I tried to eat all in one week.  It gave me an ulcer and neither plant produced another tomato.  I felt I was extracting my revenge.  I don’t think this was a good year for tomatoes though.  I’ve heard that from a number of friends that are more experienced than me.  What was your experience?

Eggplant Problem – Updated

The advice I got was that I left it on plant too long, should have harvested earlier.  Also the three new ones have doubled in size this last week.  Can’t wait!

Can anyone help me identify what is wrong with this eggplant:

Why am I so yellow?

I harvested it on 7/13.  It seemed to be getting less purple.  Plus there were two new fruit forming, so wanted to give them a chance.  I’ve had this curing in a paper bag since then, will let you know if it was just unripe.

Here are the other two on the same day:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have this plant in a raised bed I made with cinder blocks.  As you can see I planted marigolds in the holes of the cinderblocks.  They’ve made the bed more aesthetically pleasing since this faces the street and my neighbor’s house.  More importantly though it has hugely reduced the amount of insect damage done to my garden this year.