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Does anyone have a handy 20 minute guide to getting started with balcony farming for apartments? 1) sunlight requirements, different for plants 2) soil and re

Does anyone have a handy 20 minute guide to getting started with balcony farming for apartments? 1) sunlight requirements, different for plants 2) soil and replacement. 3) water, frequency and outlet. What are some other things to care about? Where do I get soil? Is it okay to dig from an existing farmland? I live quarter mile from a river. Should I collect from river bank?

syntaxing 7y ago
I've been researching about this since I moved to a more urban area. I think the best bet is hydroponics in terms of cost and logistics. I know some people have a hybrid indoor/outdoor solution using the IKEA stuff[1]. The biggest problem with soil is bugs. I've had problems even with miracle grow bags. The only way to prevent this is to let the soil dry up in the sun for a day or two but it's very difficult for a small apartment balcony. [1] https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/cat/hydrophonics-pp002/ https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/cat/hydrophonics-pp002/
jsilence 7y ago
The limited area you have at your disposal will not be able to actualy feed you. With intensive farming one would need around 200 - 500 m² to produce the calories required. So with balcony farming I'd recommend focussing on greens that make your meals better. Microgreens are easy to do and add a lot of flavor to your salads and meals. For the rest herbs and leafy greens are the way to go. Herbs as perennials can be grown in soil pots. The plants in pots you can get in the supermarket usually do not last long. They are produced for maximum harvest yield at market time and usually have a hard time when trying to keep them. Get some heirloom seeds or cuttings and make soil from coco coir and perlite. For leafy greens hydroponics can make sense. Jeb the gardener on YT is funny and informative. It is easier to automate hydroponics than soil culture. Chili Chump on YT has a good series on that. Consider running a bokashi indoor compost. The liquid collected from that is excellent organic fertilizer for the coco coir and the hydroponics. Start small. Scale up as you gain more experience. Microgreens have a 10 - 14 day culture, so starting with those will give you a fast turnover and quick iterations for improvement. Try to purchase seeds in bulk, otherwise cost will be prohibitive. Organic seeds for commercial growers come in larger quantities at a reasonable price. Try to source those. Most important of all: Have fun! edit: fixed typo.
- supermatt 7y ago
  Maybe you mean square feet instead of square metres? Less than 50 sq m (approx 500 sq ft) per person using conventional row gardening would be the norm - and with intensive gardening, that same plot could support a 4-person family.
  - NoOneNew 7y ago
    Yea, but there's one problem I have with this estimate. It requires near perfect efficiency. There's almost no buffer here for poor crop yields, less than ideal climate conditions, weeds overtaking, pest destruction, wrong breed of crop for conditions, soil/hydroponic management, etc. For 500 sq ft to be viable for 4 people, it needs to be taken care of in a very regiment fashion. Not saying it's impossible. But that number shouldn't be advised for beginner homesteaders or people with less than ideal time to spend on the garden. It's great if at least one person out of four can devote a good amount of their time everyday to it and are already well experienced (hands on experience, not just internet articles) in horticulture. Plus, you generally want plenty extra to harvest so you can jar, can, preserve however you want. That way in case you do happen to have a bad next yield, you still have something. Don't forget about seed-saving too. Most plants you have to sacrifice from eating to some capacity so you can plant again next season. Let's not forget the compost pile too to help re-fertilize soil and some rest time for the soil if you can't properly maintain it. Oh and back on climate. Here in Florida, yea, I could probably figure it out with 500 sq ft. I have like a 10 month growing season here. Easy. Throw up a greenhouse with a heater that only needs to be ran maybe 10 days out of the year, at most, then I have 12 months. I can compost small piles fast all year round. It's near perfect here. Michigan? Ha! I know there are certain types of greenhouse designs that extend the growing seasons in places like Alaska to a certain extent and somewhat efficiently. But that's a lot more effort and work that most people aren't willing to do. Long way of me just saying, that 500 sq ft for 4 people year round needs a heavy asterisk of "Under ideal and perfect conditions". But my rant also requires an asterisk. I'm not saying that if you can't grow all your food, then don't grow anything. I think everyone should grow at least some of their own food in a manner that fits their wants, conditions and lifestyle. Just... have realistic expectations. I hate to see people have unrealistic expectations with gardening and be disappointed. Misses the point to the whole venture. There are downsides too. As a kid we grew our own tomatoes for fun. Nothing serious or wide scale. Like 10 plants a year. Problem with that (besides caterpillars), I absolutely hate most store bought tomatoes, even 20 years later. I have to have organic farmer's market grown or my own. Anything conventional store bought is just red-dyed, solidified water.
mbank 7y ago
Its important to think in multiple layers: For example carrots and salad on the ground, tomatoes on top and way above beans. One thing I would always recommend: potatoes - one of the most robust crops, that almost always work out. For a balcony, the fun and the created atmosphere should play a role alongside the yield. You won't match your need for calories anyway...
- animalnewbie 7y ago
  Can you elaborate or link to a picture, please? What you're saying does sound interesting and I would love to have tomatoes too, besides beets and carrot. But I'm not sure how I would do it. To give you an idea of what I have at my disposal- 3 balconies (except east), all small, 2ft by 20ft. All have iron railings which could come handy for the right type of veggie I guess. ..
vilaca 7y ago
I had a small 'jungle' on a balcony less than 3m2. - Learn the hardiness of your area. This will tell what type of vegetables you can grow. - Check how many _direct_ sunlight hours your balcony gets every day. - Choose the vegetables you want to plant based on the two points above (hardiness and sunlight hours). Example: if you have lots of sunlight plant full size tomatoes. If you have less than ideal sunlight exposure plant cherry tomatoes. - Learn what you can plant in each season and when to fertilize. Liquid fertilizer is your best bet in a small apartment. - In a balcony on a tall building, wind is the enemy. - If you get many hours of direct sunlight (6+) and your balcony faces south you can grow almost anything there. - Prefer a few big pots to many small ones: A few big pots means less variety but will require less maintenance, watering and the plants will be stronger because their pot is bigger. I have 70L pots and they're great. I would bother with less than 20L. - Some fruit plants will take more than 10 years to give you fruit and others can't self-pollinate. Avoid those at least when starting out. Radish grows in less than 30 days. - I've successfully planted and harvested Raspberries, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, peppers, strawberries, carrots, parsley, radish and basil in a small balcony that isn't even south facing in Lisbon. It never produced enough calories but it was fun and the produce was very tasting. I tried to plant cantaloupe twice but it failed mostly because of the wind (I think). - I prefer store bought soil with added perlite and textile pots. Perliet and textile pots improve root health in small pots.
- animalnewbie 7y ago
  I have an entire apartment floor but with small balconies so not much sunlight. Did you catalog your journey somewhere? I'd like to grow beets carrot and tomato (cabbage bonus)
  - vilaca 7y ago
    Planting is very easy. Bury some seeds in the soil (not very deep) add water and if the temperature is right a plant will grow :) The biggest mistake beginners do is too much water/to frequent waterings. When pests/disease appear ask in reddit until you start identifying the problems yourself but if a plant has enough sun, water and soil (don't overcrowd a small pot) and the temperature is correct for it to grow don't expect many problems. If you don't have enough sunlight for fruits you can start with herbs like basil, parsley and coriander. Cherry tomatoes will probably also work but don't expect a huge harvest without appropriate sunlight. Carrots are a tiny bit harder to grow but I got a few to grow in a pot near a window so it's not impossible but they do like a lot of fertilizer.
VvR-Ox 7y ago
I recommend an iterative approach: Plan -> Do -> Evaluate -> Change plan accordingly -> Do... With limited space you will not have a high yield so planting potatoes etc. will not be that "profitable". If you like to use herbs for cooking it can be a delight to grow your own. Maybe you don't cook at all and think about plants which are expensive to buy so you can sell them as a side business. So to maximize the return on invest you probably want to choose plants that: 1) don't need much space 2) survive the conditions at the location (try several plants and strains and only keep the survivors) 3) have a high-yield and are not consumed that often or in huge amounts (e.g. very hot peppers) The soil you need and the ability to survive the conditions depends on the plants and their strains. I had some bad experience with "normal" basil and it would die very quickly but then I found some African Basil which has very fleshy leaves and strong trunks it would survive for years without changing the soil. Some plants can survive more easily when combined with others. Philodendron[0] does not need or want full exposure to sun so putting some peppers in front of it increased it's life-time considerably. You may want to do some research on the frequency of watering depending on the kind of plants you grow but also look for the condition of the plants while applying a certain amount of water, sun, fertilizer etc. They won't die instantly if you water them too much or less but you will recognize that their growth rate is inhibited or the leaves and fruits don't get the "right" color or size. You will have to look for these indicators and experiment a little bit until you know the conditions of your place and the needs of your plants and therefor have more success with your growing efforts. You can take the soil from pretty much everywhere but of course you should not take it from near some factory that may have contaminated it. Just think about the kind of plant and what it's natural soil would be like. Aloe prefer soil with some amount of sand while Philodendron maybe don't like that much of sand. The soil from a river bed is probably a good choice for Mint, Philodendron etc. but not for Aloe (I assume it may not be dry enough for their taste). I wish you all the best and hope you can use some of my advice. Happy planting :) [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philodendron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philodendron
- animalnewbie 7y ago
  Thank you for taking the time to write a detailed response! Some of what you've written has indeed been helpful in corroborating a few of my learnings, and some new- eg. Soil type requirement is plant dependant and not universal. While I was hoping for a very general and very quick guide for people to just dip their toes and figure out the rest as one goes, my specific intention is to grow carrots, beets, tomatoes and maybe cabbage.

syntaxing 7y ago

I've been researching about this since I moved to a more urban area. I think the best bet is hydroponics in terms of cost and logistics. I know some people have a hybrid indoor/outdoor solution using the IKEA stuff[1]. The biggest problem with soil is bugs. I've had problems even with miracle grow bags. The only way to prevent this is to let the soil dry up in the sun for a day or two but it's very difficult for a small apartment balcony. [1] https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/cat/hydrophonics-pp002/ https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/cat/hydrophonics-pp002/

jsilence 7y ago

The limited area you have at your disposal will not be able to actualy feed you. With intensive farming one would need around 200 - 500 m² to produce the calories required. So with balcony farming I'd recommend focussing on greens that make your meals better. Microgreens are easy to do and add a lot of flavor to your salads and meals. For the rest herbs and leafy greens are the way to go. Herbs as perennials can be grown in soil pots. The plants in pots you can get in the supermarket usually do not last long. They are produced for maximum harvest yield at market time and usually have a hard time when trying to keep them. Get some heirloom seeds or cuttings and make soil from coco coir and perlite. For leafy greens hydroponics can make sense. Jeb the gardener on YT is funny and informative. It is easier to automate hydroponics than soil culture. Chili Chump on YT has a good series on that. Consider running a bokashi indoor compost. The liquid collected from that is excellent organic fertilizer for the coco coir and the hydroponics. Start small. Scale up as you gain more experience. Microgreens have a 10 - 14 day culture, so starting with those will give you a fast turnover and quick iterations for improvement. Try to purchase seeds in bulk, otherwise cost will be prohibitive. Organic seeds for commercial growers come in larger quantities at a reasonable price. Try to source those. Most important of all: Have fun! edit: fixed typo.

supermatt 7y ago
Maybe you mean square feet instead of square metres? Less than 50 sq m (approx 500 sq ft) per person using conventional row gardening would be the norm - and with intensive gardening, that same plot could support a 4-person family.
- NoOneNew 7y ago
  Yea, but there's one problem I have with this estimate. It requires near perfect efficiency. There's almost no buffer here for poor crop yields, less than ideal climate conditions, weeds overtaking, pest destruction, wrong breed of crop for conditions, soil/hydroponic management, etc. For 500 sq ft to be viable for 4 people, it needs to be taken care of in a very regiment fashion. Not saying it's impossible. But that number shouldn't be advised for beginner homesteaders or people with less than ideal time to spend on the garden. It's great if at least one person out of four can devote a good amount of their time everyday to it and are already well experienced (hands on experience, not just internet articles) in horticulture. Plus, you generally want plenty extra to harvest so you can jar, can, preserve however you want. That way in case you do happen to have a bad next yield, you still have something. Don't forget about seed-saving too. Most plants you have to sacrifice from eating to some capacity so you can plant again next season. Let's not forget the compost pile too to help re-fertilize soil and some rest time for the soil if you can't properly maintain it. Oh and back on climate. Here in Florida, yea, I could probably figure it out with 500 sq ft. I have like a 10 month growing season here. Easy. Throw up a greenhouse with a heater that only needs to be ran maybe 10 days out of the year, at most, then I have 12 months. I can compost small piles fast all year round. It's near perfect here. Michigan? Ha! I know there are certain types of greenhouse designs that extend the growing seasons in places like Alaska to a certain extent and somewhat efficiently. But that's a lot more effort and work that most people aren't willing to do. Long way of me just saying, that 500 sq ft for 4 people year round needs a heavy asterisk of "Under ideal and perfect conditions". But my rant also requires an asterisk. I'm not saying that if you can't grow all your food, then don't grow anything. I think everyone should grow at least some of their own food in a manner that fits their wants, conditions and lifestyle. Just... have realistic expectations. I hate to see people have unrealistic expectations with gardening and be disappointed. Misses the point to the whole venture. There are downsides too. As a kid we grew our own tomatoes for fun. Nothing serious or wide scale. Like 10 plants a year. Problem with that (besides caterpillars), I absolutely hate most store bought tomatoes, even 20 years later. I have to have organic farmer's market grown or my own. Anything conventional store bought is just red-dyed, solidified water.

mbank 7y ago

Its important to think in multiple layers: For example carrots and salad on the ground, tomatoes on top and way above beans. One thing I would always recommend: potatoes - one of the most robust crops, that almost always work out. For a balcony, the fun and the created atmosphere should play a role alongside the yield. You won't match your need for calories anyway...

animalnewbie 7y ago
Can you elaborate or link to a picture, please? What you're saying does sound interesting and I would love to have tomatoes too, besides beets and carrot. But I'm not sure how I would do it. To give you an idea of what I have at my disposal- 3 balconies (except east), all small, 2ft by 20ft. All have iron railings which could come handy for the right type of veggie I guess. ..

vilaca 7y ago

I had a small 'jungle' on a balcony less than 3m2. - Learn the hardiness of your area. This will tell what type of vegetables you can grow. - Check how many _direct_ sunlight hours your balcony gets every day. - Choose the vegetables you want to plant based on the two points above (hardiness and sunlight hours). Example: if you have lots of sunlight plant full size tomatoes. If you have less than ideal sunlight exposure plant cherry tomatoes. - Learn what you can plant in each season and when to fertilize. Liquid fertilizer is your best bet in a small apartment. - In a balcony on a tall building, wind is the enemy. - If you get many hours of direct sunlight (6+) and your balcony faces south you can grow almost anything there. - Prefer a few big pots to many small ones: A few big pots means less variety but will require less maintenance, watering and the plants will be stronger because their pot is bigger. I have 70L pots and they're great. I would bother with less than 20L. - Some fruit plants will take more than 10 years to give you fruit and others can't self-pollinate. Avoid those at least when starting out. Radish grows in less than 30 days. - I've successfully planted and harvested Raspberries, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, peppers, strawberries, carrots, parsley, radish and basil in a small balcony that isn't even south facing in Lisbon. It never produced enough calories but it was fun and the produce was very tasting. I tried to plant cantaloupe twice but it failed mostly because of the wind (I think). - I prefer store bought soil with added perlite and textile pots. Perliet and textile pots improve root health in small pots.

animalnewbie 7y ago
I have an entire apartment floor but with small balconies so not much sunlight. Did you catalog your journey somewhere? I'd like to grow beets carrot and tomato (cabbage bonus)
- vilaca 7y ago
  Planting is very easy. Bury some seeds in the soil (not very deep) add water and if the temperature is right a plant will grow :) The biggest mistake beginners do is too much water/to frequent waterings. When pests/disease appear ask in reddit until you start identifying the problems yourself but if a plant has enough sun, water and soil (don't overcrowd a small pot) and the temperature is correct for it to grow don't expect many problems. If you don't have enough sunlight for fruits you can start with herbs like basil, parsley and coriander. Cherry tomatoes will probably also work but don't expect a huge harvest without appropriate sunlight. Carrots are a tiny bit harder to grow but I got a few to grow in a pot near a window so it's not impossible but they do like a lot of fertilizer.

VvR-Ox 7y ago

I recommend an iterative approach: Plan -> Do -> Evaluate -> Change plan accordingly -> Do... With limited space you will not have a high yield so planting potatoes etc. will not be that "profitable". If you like to use herbs for cooking it can be a delight to grow your own. Maybe you don't cook at all and think about plants which are expensive to buy so you can sell them as a side business. So to maximize the return on invest you probably want to choose plants that: 1) don't need much space 2) survive the conditions at the location (try several plants and strains and only keep the survivors) 3) have a high-yield and are not consumed that often or in huge amounts (e.g. very hot peppers) The soil you need and the ability to survive the conditions depends on the plants and their strains. I had some bad experience with "normal" basil and it would die very quickly but then I found some African Basil which has very fleshy leaves and strong trunks it would survive for years without changing the soil. Some plants can survive more easily when combined with others. Philodendron[0] does not need or want full exposure to sun so putting some peppers in front of it increased it's life-time considerably. You may want to do some research on the frequency of watering depending on the kind of plants you grow but also look for the condition of the plants while applying a certain amount of water, sun, fertilizer etc. They won't die instantly if you water them too much or less but you will recognize that their growth rate is inhibited or the leaves and fruits don't get the "right" color or size. You will have to look for these indicators and experiment a little bit until you know the conditions of your place and the needs of your plants and therefor have more success with your growing efforts. You can take the soil from pretty much everywhere but of course you should not take it from near some factory that may have contaminated it. Just think about the kind of plant and what it's natural soil would be like. Aloe prefer soil with some amount of sand while Philodendron maybe don't like that much of sand. The soil from a river bed is probably a good choice for Mint, Philodendron etc. but not for Aloe (I assume it may not be dry enough for their taste). I wish you all the best and hope you can use some of my advice. Happy planting :) [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philodendron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philodendron

animalnewbie 7y ago
Thank you for taking the time to write a detailed response! Some of what you've written has indeed been helpful in corroborating a few of my learnings, and some new- eg. Soil type requirement is plant dependant and not universal. While I was hoping for a very general and very quick guide for people to just dip their toes and figure out the rest as one goes, my specific intention is to grow carrots, beets, tomatoes and maybe cabbage.