Elevmike - Any updates?

Hi Mike,

I was wondering if you could give us an update on your rooftop garden project.

I was looking into doing something similar when I saw your post back in early April. I would be curious to hear what you have come up with, what works, what doesn't work, etc.

If you wouldn't mind, I (and I'm sure many others) would be interested to know how its going.

Thanks!

I started the seeds and have about 30 plants in pots. So while they are nursing, I'm still working on getting the dirt & planters on the roof. The mistake was buying 100lb bags of M-Grow dirt from HD. Huff--Puff-Huff.. Anyway this comming weekend I should finish building the planters and filling them with topsoil. I havent yet run accross the soil moisture gizmos at either Home Depot or Lowe's. I'm gonna need more dirt so I plan on going to a different store again to look for the automatic watering thing.

BTW,

This years variaty includes Beafstakes, Grape & sauce tomatos. Pepper plants include Bannanas, Jhelopinos, (how do you spell that?), Halabranos, and cayane.

I also have snow peas, and lots of herbs (basil, orgagno, chives, thyme, etc...

Really weird thing; cant find a tomato cage to save my life...What, is there a ban on them??

Mike, haven't you heard that caging tomatoes is cruel and unusual punishment? <insert audible groan here>

Sounds like the makings for salsa

Roll your own?

I've been a home vegatable gardner for many years. I find the store bought tomato cages to be very flimsy. My tomato plants often reach 6 feet. What I did was buy a roll of concrete re-enforcment wire, the wire is about 3/16" in dia.
I then cut off a section leaving the long pieces at the cut, then wrap them around the other end, making a circle. Then cut the bottom piece of wire off, leaving the connectors, then the connectors become the spikes.

I know that didn't come out very clear. Basically cut a piece of the roll big enough to make about a 2 ft. dia. circle. When you cut it, leave the vert. piece on the roll, this will leave about a dozen horz. ends, wrap the ends around the beginning of the cut piece to form a circle. Then remove the bottom horz. piece, this will leave 10-15 shout vert. pieces, that can be pushed into the soil.

I've been using these for many years and they work great. The squares in the wire are big enough for your hands to get inside for picking and or weeding.

Have you tried doing away with cages altogether? I've grown tomatoes for years, and always had a mess after the season, with the rotten tomatoes that spent most of their mature life in ground contact. A guy I work with turned me on to 'upside-down' planting. Seems kinda neat, so I thought this year, I'd give it a try. Seems to keep the pesky rabbits away too! (Until they find a way to scale walls, that is!)


Check out this link
http://www.seedsofknowledge.com/tomato2.html

BTW, jalapenos, along with cauliflower and carrot chunks, make a great canning project for the fall!

Being an ole redneck country guy I do not know why you need a cage BUT any Home Depot etc sells chicken wire that can make a cage.

Sticks are good enough for me though.

BTW it is Jalapeno and cayenne.

I know this isn't the Gardening Site, so forgive me.
Are you growing Grape tomatoes from Seeds or plants?
The seed packets are awfully expensive, but I haven't found potted plants of the Grape variety.

All the plants are from seeds. It's more for the benifit of my kids, & to show them the entire process. Otherwise I'd just buy the plants.

TSmith,

Yes it's going to be Salsa & Speg sauce for the most part.

Mike,

It sounds like you are going the route of an off-the-shelf watering control system.

I am looking at doing my own control system with a DL06 and, like you, the sticking point is finding the right sensor (adjustable, inexpensive, etc). Have you come across anything useful in your research since your initial post back in April? I am looking for a way to plug a sensor into the ground and have a sensitivity adjustment that will turn the watering solenoid on at the appropriate soil moisture level.

Also, what are your thoughts on watering method? I was thinking of running a closed loop of piping with small drilled holes under the soil to minimize the losses due to evaporation that you get when watering above ground. Any thoughts?

DL06,

Yes I was going to go with an off the shelf system. I printed some of the info from the other thread and it's in my truck, but cant remember much about it right now.

If I remeber correctly the other viable option was a sensor that would require an analog module. Figuring the cost, I decided not to re-invent the wheel....

As for watering, I bought a few soker hoses, and planning to cut and fit them to the planters.

Have you heard the story of the $65.00 tomato?? So some guy plants a garden and gets invaded by gophers, groundhogs rabbits & deer etc... He put up a big fight and eventually prevailed, but in the end, each tomato cost an average of $65.00... I hope to keep my budget to no more then $25.00 a tomato...

Gee...I hope a $65 tomato at least tastes better that a $25 tomato.

Fair enough...I was actually thinking of just using discrete inputs and outputs, but be able to change the moisture level at which the sensor changes from off to on (almost like a sensitivity adjustment on a photoeye - still discrete, but allowing you to change the threshold at which the switching occurs).

I'm thinking $65 per tomato might just spoil the taste a little. $25 tomatoes would probably taste better at that rate.

Sounds like a really fun thing to do with the kids tho. Good luck!

Hydroponically Growing

Ill post some pics in a few weeks when i visit my dads place.

He has a greenhouse growing toms, cucumbers, melons, aubergines and chillis.

All grown hydroponically in a system called Autopot (Ozzy invention i believe).

The Uk site can be found here.

The media he uses to grow in is Coir (Basically coconut fibre type medium). The system has minimal water/nutrient loss (only to the plant. We have been using it for three years now and found it to be excellent!

I am meeting with the UK Distributor in a month or so for a few beers and so on, should be taking a look at a site with a few acres of peppers grown in autopots, if i remember ill take some photos to post here for anyone whos interested.

The cost of the tomatos just went up to approx $100.00. A few days ago we had quite a windstorm, and being on the roof with no wind protection, (above the tree line), most of the plants are now in the parking lot hanging on the fence etc... with what's left, there are about 10 pea pods, a dozen pepers, & a few tomatos. So much for urban gardening...

You wouldnt think so, but Michigan has it's fair share of tornados & high winds and such. In the 60's Flint had the deadliest tornato in U.S. history (hit a trailer park), about 10 years ago one came within 300 yards of our house, and about 6 years ago a tornado whipped through Detroit/Hamtramick killing, amongst others, the parents of a woman I know. Now the latest victim is my rooftop garden.