Summer troubles

[alisonb]

I decided to disasemble my tower for the remainder of the summer for the following reasons:

I had a lot of trouble combating insects, along with the fact that the tower was using about 10 gallons of water daily ( and nutrients ) due to the size of the plants ( planted late Feb and the plants were huge) and the non-stop heat.

We also will be traveling for a couple of weeks at a time, and did not want to ask neighbor to tend to it's needs. ( I know they would love to tend to the harvesting. )

I think part of my insect problem was due to the fact that I located the tower right next to my husband's soil garden, and the pests were traveling from his, to the my tower.

My green beans, which are located on the bottom, were being eaten by an insect which caused the leaves to burn, but they are still producing like crazy. I took all the sections off above it, and just left the bottom section on, so they may continue to grow. The yield is amazing. I can pick the ripe ones in the morning, find lots more in the evening, then again the next morning!!

I look forward to starting it again when the weather cools just a little.

[johndo9242]

We have had our tower up less than a week and the weather is HOT but the plants seem to be doing well. We have a screen enclosure and hope that keeps most of the bugs away. Some vegetables really love hot weather so we are growing some of those.

[Admin]

One thing to note with the adding of nutrients in the summer. You should NOT be adding full strength minerals as the water will evaporate in the heat but the minerals do not. If the dose on the bottle is added every time you will end up with a solution that is far too concentrated. I just made a post here livingtowers.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=towergarden&action=display&thread=35 about that

[alisonb]

I had inquired about that, and I understood him to say I must add the nutients when I am adding as much as 10 gallons of water. Well, good to know, and makes more sense.

I actually had quit adding the minerals most of the time, and the plants seem to be doing well. ( although I wondered if they were as " nutrious ".

I would like to put it under the screen enclosure, but will have to add an electrical outlet. May do that if possible, because I LOVE my veggies.

[Admin]

If you have it inside a screen you will need to hand pollinate the veggies that don't self pollinate or have bees to do the pollination. We are slowly adding information under the relevant crop under the crops section with information on how to pollinate different veggies!