End of a Hot Week; Grumpy's Castle --
The warm weather this past week was very good for Grumpy's upside-down tomatoes. And also for his Raspberry Row! But the hot weather (103o on Wednesday!) brought a problem: keeping the tomatoes properly watered. Once or twice a day, Grumpy poured two or three cups of water into the upside-down "pots" from which the tomatoes hung. This still did not keep the plants from showing some wilting toward the end of the very hot days. The necessity to provide plenty of water gave rise to the mothering of an invention: A heat-powered watering system (see photo at right.)
Each one-liter-sized bottle is filled approximately 3/4 full and then capped. A 5mm hole is punched through each bottle cap. The bottles are turned cap-side down into the watering hole at the top of the upside-down planter. When the daytime temperature warms the water and the air pocket above the water, the air expands and pushes out the water. The warmer it gets, the more water is pushed out. The result is that the water is supplied to the roots of the tomatoes in proportion to the amount of heat that is experienced during the day. Grumpy has found out that just about the entire 3/4 liter of water is emptied during the hottest day. On a relatively cool day, less water is expelled and so during the cooler night, air is sucked into the bottle and is available for the next day.
While we are on the subject of tomatoes, Grumpy is proud to show off his first "Yellow Pear" that is finally showing signs of ripening! Grumpy will give it a few days before he samples this hopefully delicious fruit. In the meantime, the reader is directed to note the abundance of the cherry-sized fruit developing on the "Sun Gold" vine on the right. The Sun Gold is by far the most prolific tomato vine of the four Grumpy has.
Perhaps the second most prolific is the one he thinks is an Early Girl, shown here in the photo on the left. Grumpy and the Grand Mother have had five ripe tomatoes off of this vine already.
The Glacier tomato vine has produced one ripe tomato which Grumpy sampled and concluded that it wasn't nearly as flavorful as the Early Girl. Grumpy is concerned that the size of these two varieties is much smaller than he would like. Perhaps the soil in which they are growing does not have the right pH -- he heard today that lime is needed in the soil to grow good tomatoes. Maybe next year.
Finally, the Raspberry Row! In an earlier post, Grumpy stated that no one had harvested raspberries while Grand Mother and he were gone to Florida. I was wrong! We were honored this week with a visit from Nancy Nurse and husband, Paul, from up Norske way. Paul mentioned that he had picked a half gallon or so of the raspberries while we were gone. Grumpy is glad that someone was able to benefit from ripe berries rather than let them be ravaged by Starlings or Clark's Jays -- or attract an itinerant Black Bear!! Oh no!!
Since returning, Grumpy has picked about three gallons of raspberries, resulting in one pie, three batches of freezer jam and enough frozen raspberries for a half-dozen more pies. Grumpy believes that he will be able to pick enough berries in the next week or so to enable the Grand Mother to make one or two more batches of freezer jam.
So much for Grumpy's weight loss goals!!
The warm weather this past week was very good for Grumpy's upside-down tomatoes. And also for his Raspberry Row! But the hot weather (103o on Wednesday!) brought a problem: keeping the tomatoes properly watered. Once or twice a day, Grumpy poured two or three cups of water into the upside-down "pots" from which the tomatoes hung. This still did not keep the plants from showing some wilting toward the end of the very hot days. The necessity to provide plenty of water gave rise to the mothering of an invention: A heat-powered watering system (see photo at right.)
Each one-liter-sized bottle is filled approximately 3/4 full and then capped. A 5mm hole is punched through each bottle cap. The bottles are turned cap-side down into the watering hole at the top of the upside-down planter. When the daytime temperature warms the water and the air pocket above the water, the air expands and pushes out the water. The warmer it gets, the more water is pushed out. The result is that the water is supplied to the roots of the tomatoes in proportion to the amount of heat that is experienced during the day. Grumpy has found out that just about the entire 3/4 liter of water is emptied during the hottest day. On a relatively cool day, less water is expelled and so during the cooler night, air is sucked into the bottle and is available for the next day.
While we are on the subject of tomatoes, Grumpy is proud to show off his first "Yellow Pear" that is finally showing signs of ripening! Grumpy will give it a few days before he samples this hopefully delicious fruit. In the meantime, the reader is directed to note the abundance of the cherry-sized fruit developing on the "Sun Gold" vine on the right. The Sun Gold is by far the most prolific tomato vine of the four Grumpy has.Perhaps the second most prolific is the one he thinks is an Early Girl, shown here in the photo on the left. Grumpy and the Grand Mother have had five ripe tomatoes off of this vine already.
The Glacier tomato vine has produced one ripe tomato which Grumpy sampled and concluded that it wasn't nearly as flavorful as the Early Girl. Grumpy is concerned that the size of these two varieties is much smaller than he would like. Perhaps the soil in which they are growing does not have the right pH -- he heard today that lime is needed in the soil to grow good tomatoes. Maybe next year.Finally, the Raspberry Row! In an earlier post, Grumpy stated that no one had harvested raspberries while Grand Mother and he were gone to Florida. I was wrong! We were honored this week with a visit from Nancy Nurse and husband, Paul, from up Norske way. Paul mentioned that he had picked a half gallon or so of the raspberries while we were gone. Grumpy is glad that someone was able to benefit from ripe berries rather than let them be ravaged by Starlings or Clark's Jays -- or attract an itinerant Black Bear!! Oh no!!
Since returning, Grumpy has picked about three gallons of raspberries, resulting in one pie, three batches of freezer jam and enough frozen raspberries for a half-dozen more pies. Grumpy believes that he will be able to pick enough berries in the next week or so to enable the Grand Mother to make one or two more batches of freezer jam.
So much for Grumpy's weight loss goals!!
Nice invention grandpa.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see your tomatoes are getting prolific for you.
It is interesting to watch as other plants wilt, the tomatoes just thrive in the heat.