Balcony gardening?

I’ve grown tomatoes, mint, the little oranges, and peppers. For the life of me, I can’t get chives to grow. Purely by accident I’ve also gotten some lettuce to grow. My goal is to grow as many edible plants as I can.

Has anyone had any luck with growing anything food-wise on their balconies? Any suggestions on planting seasons and what to grow when in northern Taiwan?

I tried parsley, bought a nice ready grown plant which seemed to be ok for the first couple of weeks and then just decided to slowly die on me…
I grew mint in the kitchen window when I lived in Taoyuan and that thing few like crazy, I cut it down all the way down and within a couple of weeks it was taking over the kitchen again…
I also tried growing spuds on the balcony there, but has since learnt that I didn’t go about it the right way :smiley:

I’ve got rosemary, basil, tomatillos, ancho poblano, pasilla, serrano, cayenne and jalapeños all flourishing on my balcony. I was unable to get sage, thyme and epazote to sprout, for some reason. The jalapeños are lovely – fat, little green peppers on a very small plant. The ancho poblano and tomatillo plants are really thriving, too. Huge. :smiley: I’ve been a very constant gardener, though, watering in the mornings, before the peak heat of the day, and on hot days I’ve been sprinkling water on the tile walls and floor twice daily to keep the balcony a little cooler. Large pots, good quality soil and fertilizer have helped. I started to get some bug-eaten leaves, so I boiled up a good handful of Thai chiles and put the water in a spray bottle then coated all the leaves with capsicum. Be very careful of the wind when doing this! However, the wasps which used to visit my balcony, and which apparently pollinated my jalapeños, have since disappeared. I wonder whether the capsicum drove them away too. :doh:

[quote=“TheLostSwede”]I tried parsley, bought a nice ready grown plant which seemed to be ok for the first couple of weeks and then just decided to slowly die on me…
[/quote]

Mine did ok. A vacation did it in though. My sister has some growing nicely back home in a really big pot. I might try that next time.

I’ve got passion fruit, pomegranate and blueberries going on my balcony, and wonder of wonders, the pomegranate actually produced fruit this year. Had passion fruit on the vine a couple of times, but always lost it before eating.

So I’m not the only one. They always die on me too even if I buy them already growing from the flower market.

I’m trying to get a some berries and fruit trees that will give me more yield but no luck so far. Even the tart little oranges you get from the flower market don’t produce so well at home for me. Not sure why.

If you have an interest, the baby tomatoes are fairly easy to grow. Keep the sprouts out of the sun for a few weeks until they’re about 6 inches high. Then transplant them to the balcony and water them constantly. They grow a bit like weeds and they’re hard to stake properly on the balcony. But they can produce fairly well.

Any more tips?

What I am interested in finding out is what kind of soil (those of you who have successfully grown stuff) use and must you have fertilizer?

I get the rich soil in the big bag near the front of the flower market. I just plant most everything in that. I don’t know enough to do otherwise. :slight_smile:

But I also don’t use fertilizer. I figure if I have the richer soil, I don’t need it for the low-level stuff I’m growing anyway. If I was a farmer, then maybe I’d use it.

I bought bags of cheap all-purpose soil at B&Q, about NT$80 each, 通用 or somesuch. Seems good. And they have bags of fertilizer pellets too, which are cheaper than liquids in the long run.

Balcony vegetables: Hmmm… Got soot?

wash well before eating!

and best of luck.

Ah, my dear fellow balcony gardeners!

A great thread and the perfect place to share my woes.

I work my green fingers on my small East facing balcony (perhaps 12ft x 4) but no matter what I do or don’t do ~ nothing ever works out. It’s like I’m cursed.

Rosemary = bought a fit and healthy plant. Looked ok for 3 weeks but then went brown and died.

Mint = bought 2 fit and healthy plants about 2 months ago. They seemed to be doing well but have slowly withered away over the last 2 weeks.

Parsley = grown from seed but has not grown more than 1.5 cm tall in over 4 months. Does not look healthy.

Sage = grown from seed but died just before they were ready to be moved out of the potting tray.

Fennel = grown from seed but died as soon as I moved them from the potting tray.

Basil = Same old death story but I don’t care as I need lots of it and it’s cheap in the market.

The only thing that is going strong is my Hass avacado tree. I forgot I planted the seed (I threw it in with the soil of my large rubber plant and it poked it’s head out the other day). It’s now 2 ft tall and looking strong. I dare not touch it for fear of my curse; although the roots will be getting mixed in with the rubber plant and it will need its own pot sooner or later.

p.s. My other seed projects never even sprouted: sweet marjoram, peppermint, chives, oregano, catnip, thyme, cumin.

Oh well.

Sacrifice the rubber plant. But getting real and useful avocados from a pot plant is tricky: two years to fruit, and that in a mini pot? good luck!

I’ve got mint, peppers, and the small orange trees that are still alive and kicking after three years. But many other things have failed for me.

You should try the cherry tomatoes. They grew like weeds and produced pretty well. The toughest part was trying to keep the branches up.

LOL but considering the climate, I’m thinking about trying bananas. The small fruit trees seem to work better than many herbs for reasons I don’t understand. More hardy? Not sure.

If you’re not interested in edibles, I’ve gotten many of the other plants from the flower market to grow. The little cedar trees and the other potted plants seem to do well with constant water.

It’s the edibles that are a bitch. I expected the herbs to be easier. :frowning:

I would guess most things should grow ok here between October and March, but the rest of the year is too hot?
Just discovered that the house we’re moving too has quite a tasty little chilli plant in the garden which is a bonus :smiley:

I sprinkle the walls and floor of the balcony with water to keep it cool. It seems to help.

[quote=“TheLostSwede”]I would guess most things should grow ok here between October and March, but the rest of the year is too hot?
Just discovered that the house we’re moving too has quite a tasty little chilli plant in the garden which is a bonus :smiley:[/quote]

Be very careful with that. I’ve grown some chilies here that almost burned my tongue off.

The full-grown plants seem to do well in summer even in direct sunlight as long as you keep them watered. For containers that could mean twice a day. Two days without watering could means the end.

Yeah, I think they have really shallow roots and you can’t let them go thirsty. Mine start wilting at the merest hint of a delay in their daily watering. This is my first experience with growing peppers, but so far so good. There are even some cute little jalapeños growing one one.

[quote=“Formosa Fitness”][quote=“TheLostSwede”]I would guess most things should grow ok here between October and March, but the rest of the year is too hot?
Just discovered that the house we’re moving too has quite a tasty little chilli plant in the garden which is a bonus :smiley:[/quote]

Be very careful with that. I’ve grown some chilies here that almost burned my tongue off.

The full-grown plants seem to do well in summer even in direct sunlight as long as you keep them watered. For containers that could mean twice a day. Two days without watering could means the end.[/quote]

Yes this is the crucial failure, water and a little research, some plants like water all the time, some like a deluge now and then.

Tomatoes are the former so the soil should be constant, not wet not dry, just dampish - try wood bark or (even better) sawdust to in the soil to retain the water. Saying that my tomatoes never got fertilized so I didnt get any crop (next time will plant some flowers nearby)

The latter is guava trees, they like the soil to dry out before being watered again, so once every three days is better, or two in the super summer heat.

Again, the biggest issue is persistance. I only water once a day, but once night out on the piss and forgetting to water can mean the end.

Check out the intructions or seeds, and in my experience (with the named seeds) it may be because the soil isnt getting hot enough. Instead try the following method

Fill a small plastic container with compost (black soil is preferable and plug or dont drill holes in the container) then add the seed and water till moist and cover with cellophane (clingfilm) - no need to water while the wrap is trapping the water in - then place in direct sun or on a window sill, in 2-3 days you should see sprouts, after 1-2 weeks (or when there is no longer condensed water inside or when the sprouts are too high) you can take the cellophane off and remove the plugged holes (or make holes) move outside and water as above.

I even sprouted cherry seeds this year using that method.

Also note that some seeds (I think tomato) prefer to sprout in the dark, so use black plastic for germination. Others need to be soaked overnight to be “activated”. If you can read chinese BnQ has a whole 500page book dedicated to growing fruit seeds (including betel nut!), or just use t’internet.

Good luck!

Yeah, I think they have really shallow roots and you can’t let them go thirsty. Mine start wilting at the merest hint of a delay in their daily watering. This is my first experience with growing peppers, but so far so good. There are even some cute little jalapeños growing one one.[/quote]

yes, but they are eaily salvages, I have “killed” mine about 7-8 times already, but they come back with a little TLC

Now wait a minute. I understood that basically fruit trees are either male or female and you need to have both so they can pollinate each other if you want them to bear fruit, and even then it’s tricky, which is why people generally buy fruit trees in which the two sexes have been grafted together. For that reason, I thought an avocado tree grown from seed will almost never bear fruit.

Which brings me to the reason I dug up this thread. I want to grow a papaya tree on our roof, since one sees so many of them and they seem to grow easily and bear a ton of fruit. Has anyone done that? From seeds? If not, where would I buy a small papaya tree – ChienKuo Flower Market?

I also want to grow a kumquat tree, but I’ll wait to buy that till CNY, when there should be loads of those in the flower markets, adorned in red ribbons.

And how about mint? Anyone know where I’d buy that? ChienKuo or Neihu flower markets? Hola?