Bangkok Balcony Garden.

[dddave]

My 70 S/M studio is on the 9th floor of a Bangkok apartment building. I have two balconies: one South facing flat balcony ok for potted plants with strong morning and early afternoon sun and a Southwest facing rear balcony that gets strong afternoon sun. The rear balcony has a built in, concrete garden box (undrained)) on the outer wall; 2m long X 40cm wide X 35cm deep.

I'm not at all an experienced gardener but I have successfully grown Basil and some other herbs on the rear balcony and small tomatoes on both balconies though the plants on the south facing one were more productive.

Chili pepper plants on both balconies grew to about 50cm and then the leaves suddenly yellowed and dropped off with the plant totally dead. This happened several times. As I said, I am inexperienced and have a tendency to over water, though I do not know if this was the cause of their demise. I noticed a thread by another poster with the same problem.

I would like to try a little more than herbs and tiny tomatoes. I would like to try larger tomatoes, maybe plum sized. Is that a practical idea for pot plants here. Should they be on the balcony with the most direct sunlight? Somebody told me that tomatoes here need a lot of water every day. true or not?

My soil is mostly fairly chunky bagged soil bought from a local nursery.

The soil on my rear balcony is very old, probably half of it more than 10 years old. Most of the herbs and tomatoes I've grown have been in pots set atop the soil. Would I be better off to just dig out the old soil and replace it? It stays damp most of the time (my a/c drains into it.), has a huge resident population of bugs and worms and I sure a resident population of fungus spores as well.

What edibles would be practical for this environment? I love Rosemary...is that possible to grow in a Bangkok garden?

All suggestions and tips welcome.

[fruitman]

You can make a drain in that big undrained bed by sticking a pvc pipe in it and inside the pipe you put something like a thick cotton wire, it should touch the bottom of the soil and on the other end of the wire it should hang lower than the first end. Then it wicks the water out of that box.

If the drainage is fixed you can grow many plants/tree;s.

I have achacha fruittree's which even fruit in shade, or the garcinia intermedia lemondrop mangosteen can also do so. They fruit better in more sun but also do without it.

I also grew bell peppers on my balcony in the past and even had fruit on it, it got sunshine for 2 hours a day, only in the morning.

[Scoop1]

Hi all, dddave, you may want to have a look at some of the post in the Hydroponic farming , post #287 and also this post , there are also other good post in the Hydroponic and Aquaponics farming section that may help you. in your situation hydroponics may be a better option for you.

Cheers

Scoop

Tomato Cropping - Farming in Thailand Forum - Thailand Forum

Light and the Humble Tomato Plant - Farming in Thailand

[cobbler]

Hi Dave , also if youre a bit adventurous have a crack at aquaponics. Tilapia are great for this as they cope very well with high amonia. Its not rocket science. Just coppying nature

[Scoop1]

Hi all dddave, this is a pic of plants I grow in hydroponics using polystyrene boxes and plastic pots which would be ideal on a balcony

Cheers

Scoop

[fruitman]

Hi all dddave, this is a pic of plants I grow in hydroponics using polystyrene boxes and plastic pots which would be ideal on a balcony

Cheers

Scoop

Hydroponic Garden 1.jpg

That looks great but is that in BKK or in a cooler place?

Iceberg can grow here in hydroponics but only does well in the cool months like now to come.

And strawberries are sold here as well but i guess they made them have fruit in chiang mai or some other cooler place. Not sure about those.

[cobbler]

Hi all dddave, this is a pic of plants I grow in hydroponics using polystyrene boxes and plastic pots which would be ideal on a balcony

Cheers

Scoop

Hydroponic Garden 1.jpg

Hi Scoop1 . How does the water ect get back to the tank? Cheers cobbler

[Scoop1]

Hi all dddave, this is a pic of plants I grow in hydroponics using polystyrene boxes and plastic pots which would be ideal on a balcony

Cheers

Scoop

Hydroponic Garden 1.jpg

That looks great but is that in BKK or in a cooler place?

Iceberg can grow here in hydroponics but only does well in the cool months like now to come.

And strawberries are sold here as well but i guess they made them have fruit in chiang mai or some other cooler place. Not sure about those.

Hi all, fruitman, those plants were grown on the Mid North Coast of Australia , with the Icebergs I grow them all year round and in the summer here temperatures can and do get up to 30 to 40 degrees and sometimes with humidity of 35 to 45 %, pretty harsh conditions, and once again the nutritional needs are very important in those conditions, I sometimes have to lower the EC to .8 where as in a more normal conditions { 26 degrees} and humidity { 70 % } I would run them at EC 1.6 .

As for the strawberries they need to go through a "chilling period" and "short day lengths" .During the winter here we can get down to 0 degrees and that's is ideal in the natural environment, it is also very easy to manipulate young strawberry runners or "daughter plants" if you like .

One of the best methods of chilling are as follows, seven 9 hour day lengths without chilling at { 21 degrees Celsius day / 21 degrees night } followed by seven 9 hour day lengths with chilling during the night { 21 degrees day / 12 degree nights , I have done this quite often just using the household fridge and a dark box or similar, obviously you cant fill the fridge with runners, but if you want to grow your own in non suitable climatic conditions that's the way it is done.

Cheers

Scoop

[Scoop1]

Hi all dddave, this is a pic of plants I grow in hydroponics using polystyrene boxes and plastic pots which would be ideal on a balcony

Cheers

Scoop

Hydroponic Garden 1.jpg

Hi Scoop1 . How does the water ect get back to the tank? Cheers cobbler

Hi cobbler, the nutrient does not get recycled, I just hand feed it, very simple, there is a spout in the boxes and pots about 75mm from the bottom and that serves as a small reservoir , sometimes the most simple growing methods work the best, have a look at the very simple system that I use to research the nutrient requirements of tomatoes and some other plants I grow at times, it is in the hydroponic section, I have just started to do some nutrient research on hydroponic corn, there is very little or no research on this crop in hydroponics probably because it is not a commercially viable option and I will update photos and information of the growth rate and analysis results when I do them .

Cheers

Scoop