All sounds wonderful Trish and if were not studying Horticulture, then you
should have been.

In answer to all who were kind enough to respond.

There is plenty of sunshine, pots have good drainage, nothing is crowded and
as the roots just don't grow there is no likelihood of that happening.
I don't think I am over watering as there was a time when I could be relied
upon to kill any plant in site by drowning it
I now poke my finger in the soil to test for dryness.

I did not buy anything today as I was pressed for time and I wanted to apply
the advice you all gave before I choose my next victims, including tomatoes.

My thanks to all

Kind Regards

Kate (Sydney, Australia)




"Trish Brown" wrote in message
...
Coming in late on this thread, but I can say I grew a lovely balcony
garden when I was at Uni and I did it in K-Mart potting soil and
cast-off greengrocer's styrofoam boxes.

Tips I can sha

If this is your first garden and you're watching it daily (as I did),
resist the temptation to overwater. It's better to use some kind of
mulch (I used shredded paper, but you could use straw or hay or even
well-rotted leaves/grass clippings).

The K-Mart soil is OK, but would benefit from the addition of some
well-rotted horse-poo if you can get it. Lots of others prefer cow- or
chook-poo, but I like horse because it contains so much fibrous
material. It rots down to make really nice soil! (I got mine from the
racecourse... the horse-poo, that is...)

Are the containers getting enough sun? That might be a reason for your
depressed shoot-growth and increased root-growth. You could try hanging
baskets or standing containers up on something to expose them a bit more?

Take note of what you're planting. Don't fill a trough with a huge,
greedy planting of, say, cinerarias and then add little, vulnerable
things like pansies. IIRC, I had a perfectly lovely show of stocks with
pansies in front. Another pot had 'Bijou' sweet peas and a miniature
rose. Yet another had cherry tomatoes (growing up a bit of old plastic
lattice) and a pumpkin vine that spilled over the balcony and threatened
those walking in the cloister below! LOLOLOLOL! Oh, and the strawberries
were *great*! I carefully put sheets of paper (old essays) beneath the
fruit as they ripened and the plants grew like mad!

A hint for a pretty spilling-over balcony plant: White clover! It will
riot over a balcony or out of a hanging basket, smells like honey and
gives you a lovely bridal-veil of huge creamy flowers. Omit this if
you're not big on bees, though. They'll come from miles around!

Oh yes, and one more thing! Drainage! If your balcony is sunny, it could
be that your soil will dry out very quickly. Using mulch is good, but it
might also be an idea to line your pots or troughs with a thick layer of
newspaper (into which you've punched a few big holes). This will help
prevent water from running straight out.

Hah! And the last thing (sorry to be so long-winded) is to ask your
nursery supplier for some plant hormone powder. You don't want the
rooting hormone (gibberellic acid), it's the other one (whose name I
temporarily disremember) you're after. It will promote shoot growth to
balance out what the roots are doing.

HTH,

--
Trish {|:-} Newcastle, NSW, Australia