In tight urban spaces one of the biggest problems is getting enough light and growing in appropriate conditions. I was concerned about the short time we have direct light for in the apartment and whether the cooking in the apartment was upsetting the plants in the living room so I tried a small experiment.

I took 3 chili seedlings that would have otherwise been binned and put them at three places in the apartment window, in two different rooms.

Position 1
Advantages: Longest light in the afternoon.
Disadvantages: In same room as kitchen so big fluctuation in temperature, maybe humidity.

Position 2
Advantages: Consistent temperature
Disadvantages: Limited light, balanced between afternoon and morning.

Position 3
Advantages: Longest light in the morning, consistent temperature.
Disadvantages: Very little light in the afternoon.

As you can see in position 1, the plant grew quite a lot but there is very obvious discolouration on the leaves. In position 2 we see slightly better growth and no noticeable discolouration. In fact the leaves are a dark green. In position 3 it’s clear that the plants has been struggling to reach for light as it cranes over (’photo-tropism‘ if my Junior Cert. biology doesn’t escape me!). The plant leaves are also thinner and smaller. This is also the only position where flowers haven’t started to form.

This confirms what I thought: (i) that getting the light in the afternoon is very important, perhaps more-so than morning light and (ii) the plants are somewhat disturbed in the living room / kitchen. The plants were put in very small pots for the experiment so it is possible that the discolouration was due to lack of nutrients. However, I have seen this dicolouration  before in our plants in that position so I am inclined to think there is something else at play. I’d be interested if anyone else had any thoughts on this.

The upshot is that we are going to try keep as much as possible in position 2 above – a mixture of constant temperature, and as much afternoon light as possible. 

The next challenge is to figure out what to do with the greenfly on a couple of the plants on the balcony. Does anyone have any tips? At the moment, we are washing them off with soapy water but this seems to only temporarily resolve the problem. Are ladybirds the answer?!

In this post I wanted to take a break from the recent tutorials to do a bit of an update on the growth on the balcony.

As you can see above the potatoes are looking good (at least the above soil portion is!). At the near end of the trough are the pentland javelins, coming in at about 50 cm and at the far end are the charlottes towering at 70cm. I have been filling in the trough with compost as they grew so the charlottes are now about a metre above where the original seed potatoes were planted. They have been down now for just under two months.

The french climbing beans have been less than enthusiastic in their climbing pursuits:

On the contrary, the berlotti beans are doing well. This comes as a bit of a surprise as I was worried that the berlottis would prefer something a little sunnier than Ireland’s East coast:

At the other end of the balcony we have our second crop of potatoes. I used the same varieties are before. Perhaps I should have used something later cropping – any spud experts out there? In the background are the peas which have climbed on the trellis to 60cm:

Clockwise below from left we have carrots, lettuce, lavender and sage. The sage is flowering at the moment which we are going to let go even though I suspect culling this might give better leaf growth. Note the lettuces are ones we bought as seedlings in the Farmleigh market in Phoenix Park after multiple failed attempts to produce homegrown seedlings. (Note the random cabbage top right we got as a surprise in the lettuce seedling batch!)

I am a bit concerned over the lack of light that the tomato plants are getting and I think this is reflected in their less than inspirational growth. The first picture below is the cherry tomatoes and the second the harbinger tomatoes:

The parsley plants are doing well as always – both flat leaf (left) and curled (top). Unfortunately our chives (right) got aphids. We washed them out with mildly soapy water on the advice of Google which seems to have done the trick for the moment.

Lastly there is the corn salad (front) and more lettuce (back). The corn salad seems to be growing quite slowly but perhaps this is normal. Despite the window boxes being quite small for the lettuces they seem to be doing well. We are trying to just take leaves from our lettuces rather than harvesting whole heads of lettuce in an effort to maximize the yield.

As usual send on any comments, advice, criticisms, observations etc. If you are growing any of the same plants I’d be very interested to see how you are getting on.

A lot of people ask what the easiest thing to grow in an apartment is. Well here’s my answer:  bean sprouts.

Bean sprouts growing in a sprouter

I always try to focus on efficiency and convenience when growing food. After all, if growing a food proves to be too difficult or too impractical, it is of limited benefit

Sprouts offer a number of distinct advantages:

1. They can be grown in minuscule space without light
2. They have a number of health benefits
3. They lend themselves well to everyday convenience cooking: stir-fries, salads and sandwiches

For these reasons they are the ideal food if you just want to get your toes wet growing your own food or you have a fast-paced lifestyle which doesn’t permit slightly more involved garden and windowsill pursuits.

Sprouting

Equipment:

1. Mung Bean Seeds (also possible: alfalfa seeds, sprouting broccoli seeds etc.)
2. Option: (i) A pint glass with a rubber band and some muslin or (ii) a sprouter – good place to get these is health food shops from my experience

Method:

1. Soak seeds (overnight will do fine)
2. Drain
3. Rinse daily
4. Eat when they look OK to eat (2-5 days)

For some sprouts you may wish to greenify them so stick them on a windowsill towards the end to encourage the chlorophyll. 

When done, they can be kept in a refrigerator, often for weeks, and are guaranteed to add a bit of crunch to mealtime. My personal favourite are mung bean but I would encourage people to experiment and mix with different types of sprouts. Let me know how you get on!

Alfalfa seeds sprouting in a pint glass