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 |
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!
6 foot by 8 foot – I also grew on my windowsills.
Here is a website to help with your root vegetable yield. (potatoes/yams)
http://urbanfarmerseward.posterous.com/potato-towers-and-living-fence-posts
Many thanks for sharing that Ronni.