First Post! Urban Balcony Vegetable Container Garden

Thanks for the update photos. Everything looks wonderful! I have never tried to grow bell peppers either, so I don't know if the plant should grow or only the peppers.

 

As nice as you are getting your plants to look I think you need to be giving us help. I have grown lots and lots of peppers and I think they are a little "temperamental". Very slow to germinate very slow to grow to a transplant size and then they like warm leaves and cool roots. Duh! We all would like it to be perfectly temperate.. But maybe your pepper is slow to grow if the pot is too warm. Last year was a very difficult year for us here in Ohio. Weather extremes were normal Neither last year or the previous year were good pepper years.I had about 100 bell peppers in the garden last year and was hard pressed to pick a decent amount at a time and we irrigate and fertilize regularly. Too dry and hot last year and too wet and cool the previous....no happy medium at all. This year I will try mulching the plants with a deep organic mulch to see if keeping the roots more shaded will help.
If yours is producing flowers it may really slow the growth of the plant, but peppers usually do well as potted plants and you can hopefully keep it for a couple years (or more). During the winter it probably won't produce anything, but it will survive if it doesn't get frosted or freeze. Do you fertilize at every watering or do you have a cycle/schedule for fertilizing?

I have another question, too about the airstone. Would you use the airstone if your water wasn't chlorinated? Wouldn't just letting the water sit overnight dissipate the chlorine? or is the airstone for another purpose, too. Thanks.

 

Great question. The primary purpose is to help dissipate the chlorine. As you said it would technically evaporate over night but sometimes I don't have a full 12-24 hours to wait (especially on very hot days where I have to water twice). In this case the bubbles help speed it up. I haven't done a chemical test to determine what the minimum time is for all the chlorine to fly but there is a noticeable difference in smell and taste before and after air stoning. Also, since I am using several different types of liquid nutrients, it's difficult to keep the solution well mixed. Each nute has its own mass and the mixture would separate into different layers if allowed to sit. It is highly concentrated and the measurements depend on a set volume of water. The big blue container I used to mix can hold up to 6 gallons but my watering pail only holds two. So as you can imagine the plants being watered first would get barely any nutrients since the chems would have settled to the bottom and the plants being watered next would be killed by overdose. The bubbles help keep everything mixed for my purposes but if you have a clean water supply or access to a river or chlorine is not an issue, a pump or something that constantly mixes the water would work just as well if not better.

I don't feed everyday (despite what the instructions say) because these nutrients are designed for hydroponically grown flora where the roots are submersed in a nutrient solution and then allowed to air dry several times a day. The nutrients always drain away so over feeding is not too much of a problem for hydroponics. However since my plants have potting mix, its safe to assume that much of the chemicals are still in there lingering in the mulch even if the water drains down and out the bottom. That is why I only feed them every 3 waterings or so.

My peppers look exactly the same size as they did a month ago. You are right though, the multiple buds will slow down growth since the plant is likely utilizing its resources to produce fruit. I highly doubt my small 1 foot tall plant can produce as many bell peppers as there are currently buds. Would you advise I trim off some of the flowers for a higher yield?

 

Thanks for all the info. I do understand the concentration issue. We just installed an injector in the greenhouse instead of the siphon type that sucks the nutrients in and spews them back out diluted, but when you get the solution emptied you can't tell that there isn't anymore coming through the hose. This one dilutes it in a uniform ratio and you can tell the solution is gone once the tube starts sucking air. The old one (which we used for one season) needed a huge amount of water being used in order for it to suck the fertilizer through. Not quite exactly a good fit for fertilizing in a greenhouse, but for a whole field it was fine.

I have never "pruned" flowers off of any peppers, but I have never planted them in containers, either. This is my first year for container peppers. Maybe try picking a couple off or all of them and see if it will grow a little more. I really don't know what to advise you on there. Maybe someone else will have grown some in a container and will have some experience to go by.

 

Balcony looks great. I'm up north in Vancouver BC so waiting to plant veggies, but I started rooting and planting a bunch of things indoors this winter. Lots of water rooting too, so it will be interesting to see if I can transplant and grow outside. I like the shelf, going to get one tomorrow, great idea for space

 

Fantastic garden. You are definitely maximizing your space. Excellent!

 

Tomatoes Update

Just Counted 54 Tomatoes on the Early Girl! All from one plant! I can't believe it.





The Brandy Wine only has 15

 

Superb condition of all your plants from start to the present,..brilliant use of space as well,..its not just balcony gardening i would say you have made it an art,..loved all the pictures.

 

Look at those tomatoes!! so jealous... those early girl tomatoes are all in one plant? how many plants do you put in one pot? it's 16" right? thanks for those pictures, makes me motivated to plant more :-D

 

Awesome job on those tomatoes.

 

Im as amazed as you are! It's just one plant in a 16" pot. Ever since growing a tomato plant last year and tasting what real tomatoes taste like, i've been in constant misery for a year. I pretty much refuse to buy tomatoes because they taste terrible. I can't wait until these guys are ready.

 

That garden looks great! I learned something new today, I always though that you needed a large patch of corn so that it would pollinate, i wasn't aware that there was a variety that was specifically bred for containers!

 

Oh I love your container garden, I have all my plants in containers this year as well since moving to the beach. I'm curious do you have high humidity in cali? I'm still new to gardening and this is my second year. Do you have problems with fungus on the west coast? If you have high humidity when you water don't wet the leaves to much. That's just something I've noticed with my veggies. Water the soil directly.