King Neptune’s 2019 Garden contains 4 Big Beef tomatoes, 4 Kale, 3 Mini Bell Peppers, 2 Jalapeno, 1 Basil, 1 Oregano, 1 Thyme, 1 Cilantro and one empty. The empty spot was for rosemary but we were having troubles finding good seed starts.
Our summer voyage of Alaska’s Aleutian Chain and Kodiak Island began with an uncomfortable transit from Kodiak town to Chief Cove near the village of Larsen’s Bay. The wind was around 20 knots and wave height around 4-6 feet all on the nose the entire day. Before heavy sailing or uncomfortable motoring we let the garden run and as the garden gravity drains back into the reservoir we shut the valves to leave at least a 1/2 inch to inch of water in both the top and bottom garden post. This allows only so much water to slosh back and forth with the natural motion of the boat to supply enough water and air to the roots while we are moving.
After we were at anchor in Chief Cove we turned back on the garden pump. The garden pump cycled two times before we went to bed, so we thought the strainers stayed pretty clear. We woke to an overflowing garden. The entire bottom row was full of water and clay pebbles we use to retain the moisture and roots in the baskets had flowed out. Sometime in the night or in the morning, gunk must have dislodged and plugged the strainers, so the garden could not entirely drain and the poor bottom row was drowning. We cleaned the strainers and filled at least 20 gallons in the reservoir. After a few days in the same anchorage the garden has bounced back and looks very healthy.
One concern once the garden overflows and if the stems sit in water too long is stem rot. The sad part about stem rot is it doesn’t happen very quickly. There have been times our tomatoes get stem rot when they are young and we keep growing them because it’s too late in the growing season to plant new plants. The plant can still get big and produce some fruit but normal sailing is hard on them and they tend to not last the entire growing season.
