General Tips for a Balcony Container Garden?

[gbuckets]

I planted a bunch of stuff today on my balcony at my apartment.

I planted:
2 different kinds of sunflower
spinach
sweet peppers
brussel sprouts
2 different kinds of basil
and i have parsley germinating which i didnt plant yet


I have an aloe plant which I did not know you arent supposed to water everyday, which is my girlfriend's plant. I think it has almost died because of my watering but she says that it still has a chance.


I have a cilantro plant that is about 4 inches tall that isnt looking too well

and I have a basil plant that is a little over a foot tall with alot of good leaves on it, that i bought at the store.
The big basil plant tends to look very well when hydrated but it seems that the sun beaming down on it might be doing some harm.


I live in south Florida and my plants face the east, so they get all the morning sun light but i am wondering if the sun could be doing some damage if there is too much heat.....



If any of you guys or gals have any tips or advice for me to have my balcony garden flourish and be successful it would be greatly appreciated.


THanks,

Buckets

[Ted M]

buckets, Let the Aloe dry out between watering. Hopefully your container has good drainage. Aloe will turn orange or get spots depending on the species if getting to much light. I water my Aloe plants maybe every 7-10 days and even monthly in the winter. Of course where I live on the patio it can get very hot, so I water more often in the hot summer months. I feed them once every other month. Good rule on succulents and watering, if in doubt, don't water.

Try morning sun and afternoon shade on the basil, mine seem to like that split outdoors. Of course every zone will react differently...

[a0c8c]

What kind of sunflowers? Its the only thing on the list I've grown, but I'm concerned about their height. My skysrcapers hit 9 ft and my Autumn sunflowers hit 6-7 ft. They might be too tall if it's a covered balcony.

[gbuckets]

well the aloe plant is in a glazed ceramic pot. I just noticed that the bottom of the pot has no drain, could that be the problem??? The aloe plant is about a foot and a half tall, it has not grown at all since the problem of me overwatering. The two leaves in the middle are green and look fine while the rest of the outer leaves are very dead looking, the stem of the plant is still solid and does not feel dead.

My girlfriend wants to know what size pots yall use for big sunflowers.

She planted two sunflower seeds in a small pot less than a week ago and they are already about an inch and a half tall with two sets of leaves each. Height is not a problem on my balcony i have easily 15-20 feet to the roof.

The tall basil plant we have has some dark spots on the ends of the leaves and some of the leaves have little holes that to me look like scars on the leaves.

For all of the seeds i have been planting i have just been using potting soil with those little white balls and it is enriched with miracle grow. I got a medium sized bag of it at home depot.


Any other advice???

[Kisal]

Repot the aloe immediately. Use a potting mix specifically designed for cacti and succulents. Put it in a pot with good drainage. If the roots are badly rotted ... and they well may be ... you may have to prune them back to healthy tissue. In that case, you may need to put the plant in a smaller pot than it's in now. You don't want a lot of excess soil around roots that are already struggling to survive.

Prune all the dead stuff off the top, too. Use a clean, sharp knife, and cut as close to the stem as you can, but be careful not to damage the stem.

An alternative, depending on how bad of shape the roots are in, would be to cut through the main stem about 2 inches below the healthy leaves, allow the plant to lie in a dry place out of direct sun until the cut end calluses over (dries out), and then repot it in a much smaller pot, using a mix created for cacti and succulents.

As a general rule, but not an absolute, most cacti and succulents do best in pots that leave no more than 1 or 2 inches of space between the stem of the plant and the rim of the pot.

[rainbowgardener]

You said:
I planted:
2 different kinds of sunflower
spinach
sweet peppers
brussel sprouts
2 different kinds of basil
and i have parsley germinating which i didnt plant yet

It's a kind of strange mixture. You need to pay attention to what kind of conditions each plant needs. The spinach and brussel sprouts are cool weather crops. It's probably still too hot for them where you are. Save some of the seeds and plant them again in Sept or beginning of October to grow through the fall and winter.

The rest are warm weather crops. The sweet peppers like it warm, but they are very slow growing. Even in Florida it could be a bit late for planting peppers from seed--but I don't know where you are or what your climate is like.

Here's a planting schedule for zones 9-10 http://www.thevegetablegarden.info/reso ... g-schedule

[SP8]

Successful balcony container culture comes down to appropriate water management (in my experience).

[gbuckets]

Well i have taken advice and here is my results so far:

I trimmed down the dead foliage on the aloe plant and re potted in a pot with drainage in succulent soil. It is looking well and hopefully will spring back to life.

The cilantro plant died completely, personally i think the cilantro plants are too needy and nagging. so i did away with the cilantro plant.

All of my sunflowers are looking great
They are growing very fast, it has only been about two weeks and my bigger plants already have their third set of leaves.

The big basil plant is doing very well, i transfered it to a bigger pot and it is looking good and providing me and my girlfriend with alot of leaves to cook with.

The small basil plants are all springing up and seem to be growing good.

The sweet peppers, spinach, and brussel sprouts are growing, i just planted them as an experiment but they are growing so we will see how those work out.

and now we planted a bunch of parsley seeds that we germinated and those should go well.

Next on our balcony gardening adventure is peas, rosemary, ....more cilantro.... I don't like cilantro but my girlfriend loves it., and green onions.

To all of you guys and gals who hooked me up with the advice, thank you thank you, things are looking good over here. and i am surprised on how cool having a apartment balcony garden is doing.
If yall have any more advice let me know it would be great..


THanks,
Buckets, buckethead , whatever you want to call me