11 Days without TLC

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So we went to Hawaii for 11 days.  According to my niece Nat who held down the fort while we were away, it was very hot and humid the entire time and there was no rain. So it was with some trepidation that I climbed the ladder to the roof on Tuesday to see how everything had faired during that time without any TLC (no I didn't think it was fair to ask someone else to climb to the roof).

So I definitely had to take some remedial action but had some fun spraying the neighbour's kids with the hose from our roof (shout out to Hayden and Ruby for being such good sports) while I was up there!

The buckets (both the plant containers and the siphon buckets) were either entirely or nearly dried out. One more day and I think I might have lost some plants for good. The cucumber that was ailing when I left in now fine, and the one that was in good shape when I left is now ailing! That said, it is no worse than the other one was in early July so I am hoping it bounces back. There are loads of zucchini coming soon, leaves a bit dried out but not too bad. The roma & early girl tomatoes are looking a bit dry but with loads of fruit coming on the romas.  The other things that are in earlier stages of maturity ( and therefore I assume consuming less water) such as the pink lady tomato and all the peppers are looking very leafy, green and healthy.

I hope that with some more constant TLC and water I can get those that are ailing back on track. 

Foreground cucumber is now fine and other one
(right) is ailing 

Cucumber coming on the healthier of the two. Yum!

The zucchini is looking fine

Pink Lady doing well ( a few blossoms)

Roma laden with fruit

and the zucchini goes to...

My neighbour Martine for being the first to leave a comment on my blog! Congrats and let me know how it tasted.

Good thing I went up to harvest the zucchini because I found that the water level was very low in the buckets. I had filled them on Sunday but not enough. I had to do CPR on one of the cucumber plants which was very wilted.

The second cucumber was a bit wilted but not too badly.

See very badly wilted cucumber in the foreground with second not so wilted just to the left. 

Tying the siphon tubes to the bucket using tie wraps was Martin's idea and should keep the tubes in place better to keep the siphons working and avoid future problems (I hope). I have also doubled up on the siphon buckets, to provide more water overall. Whereas previously I had one siphon bucket per 4 plants I now have two for 4 plants.

First cucumber is coming on the healthier of the two plants