How much can you grow on a balcony?

Over the summer I found time to analyse last year's harvests from my small balcony and window sills (more details in 2010 growing diary). Below is a table that shows you the weight of each of the main crops. The table also shows you what this equates to in terms of typical supermarket packs. As you can see, we harvested (and ate!) a lot of salad leaves (144 packs), herbs (165 packs), and tomatoes (113 punnets) as well as plenty of stir fry greens (44 packs) and French and runner beans (51 packs).

The low yields of root veg are partly due to my lack of success at growing them (any tips, please?) and partly because they are allocated less space.
  Kgs Equivalent to
Cherry tomatoes 11.5
Large tomatoes 16.9
Total tomatoes 28.4 113 punnets @ 250g each
Salad 14.4 144 packs @ 100g
Pea shoots 2.1 21 packs @ 100g
Stir Fry 4.4 44 packs @ 100g
Total green leaves 24.2
Courgette 2.8 14 packs @ 200
Squash & Marrow 9.6 4 BIG squash
Total cucurbits 12.4
Mange tout 0.8
Runner beans 7.1
French beans 2.3
Total beans and peas 10.2 51 packs @ 200g
Other (incl rhubarb & radish, green tomatoes, etc) 6.5
Herbs 3.3 165 packs @ 20g each
 
Potatoes 1.2
Carrot 0.5
Total root veg 1.7
Grand total 83.4
 

 

 

4 comments

Ronni
 

Here is a website to help with your root vegetable yield. (potatoes/yams) http://urbanfarmerseward.posterous.com/potato-towers-and-living-fence-posts
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Mark RS
 

Many thanks for sharing that Ronni.
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Urban Gardeners Republic
 

Hi Mark, What is size of your balcony. We are looking for example of balcony production to improve this article: https://urbangardenersrepublic.com/starting-a-balcony-garden-tips/ I'd love be able to make a ratio Space/kg per veggies. Can you help us? Congrats for this amazing production anyway!
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Mark Ridsdill Smith
 

6 foot by 8 foot - I also grew on my windowsills.
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