Video: Growing tomatoes vertically on a balcony
View from the street of my balcony at the end of summer.
Tomatoes on the left and sweet peppers on the right.
Presenting: the mobile semi-glassed plant enclosure
With its four wheels, I could move this box to the front of the balcony when the sun was out, and bring it back to safety when it rained or when the winds were strong, in 2014.
It also protected the younger plants from the winds with its plexiglassed lower section.
Surplus water was redirected into two removable pans, beneath the enclosure, to avoid annoying the 11 neighbors below me.
The plants were grown sequentially; with the older plants at the back.
It's hard to see from this picture, but this box contains 14 tomato varieties, mostly heirloom:
Pink Brandywine
Prudens purple
Stupice
Cherokee purple
Paul Robeson
Sungold OP
Sungold select 2
Gardener's delight
Black Krim
Black cherry
Beefsteak
Pink Ponderosa
Sweet million
Tumbling Tom yellow
Life in the city
Sweet million tomatoes, my favorite!
Black Krim tomatoes, delicious.
Tomato and pepper enclosures with front plexi-g;ass removed.
Zucchini-bicycle cohabitation.
The plants shield the apartment from the sun.
Shade and mildew
Since only about half of the balcony receives enough sunshine, the plants, or parts of plants, growing in the shade progress slower; but they also develop mildew.
Sugar snap peas grow over 7 feet tall. They only produce for about three weeks though.
One day, I noticed some mildew on the top of the plants, a place the sun would never reach. A few days later, I had to remove them to avoid any spreading.
Cucumbers growing in the partly shaded areas are hit by mildew at the end of July.
The beans and sweet peppers grow without illnesses.
In September, it's the tomatoes' turn to be attacked by mildew.
The plants are full of ripening tomatoes, so I try to save them by removing some diseased leaves.
Sweet peppers enjoying the view.
Plexiglass wind protection for the bottom of the sweet pepper plants (left).
The "Carmen" sweet pepper plant, at far left, reached 6 ½ feet.
The tomato plants (right) climb up a trellis of horizontal ropes (every 4") by passing one side and the other.
Jingle bells orange mini sweet peppers. Very sweet, my favorite!
Chives are growing beneath the pepper plants.
Sweet pepper plants grow real well and disease free on my balcony.
I enjoy eating the yellow, orange, red and green fruits for dinner and supper every day for over three months.
I have to figure out all kinds of ways to eat them; so I end up adding sweet pepper to everything I prepare.
I really love gardening.