How to Harvest Balcony Vegetables in Japan

    Toward the end of the global gardening trend, I jumped in and planted some of my own vegetable favorites on my balcony, including lettuce, cauliflower, and broccoli. I also bought purple carrot seeds and planted them even though it was late in the year.

    I made a few major errors with the carrots. First, I didn't plant them early enough. If I had wanted to pull them before the first big freeze, they would be puny. It turns out that carrots are a good cold crop though, so I figured I would just leave them in until it seemed like a good time to pull them.


My carrot harvest. 1/3 of what was originally planted. 100% of the ones I didn't try to replant.

    If I had stayed true to that idea, I probably would have been fine, but I also realized I hadn't put enough rocks to stop the soil erosion due to leakage in the little repurposed pots I had chosen to use. Replanting the seedlings killed them all. Only the handful I had left alone managed to survive. So if you're planting carrots, do it right the first time and then leave them alone save for watering them.

    The cauliflower quickly grew a purple corona and then stopped completely, which just confused me. Only now has it started to create an edible white head. Next to it, the lettuce grew fine for a short time but was fully harvested when it started to wilt on the vine. There was only enough left then for sandwich toppings at that point anyway. In the same planter, the broccoli grew taller and taller over fall, only finally sprouting a broccoli shaped head in late November.

November's broccoli.


New Year's Broccoli.

    Around New Years, I decided it was time to eat the green plant and researched how best to do this. I learned two important things about harvesting broccoli:

1) If you don't massacre the plant, you can get more fleurettes from the sides of the stalk as it continues to live.

2) Cut the fleurettes you take at an angle so water can flow out. If you cut it flat across the top, water will stay in and rot the remaining plant.

I took that advice and am still harvesting fleurettes months later.


The plant that keeps on giving!

    Back in February, we were told that our water was being shut off and had no idea when it would be turned back on. Realizing that I didn't know when it would be safe to water my carrots again, I decided to go ahead and have the harvest while I could still rinse the vegetables.


My whole harvest.


The biggest carrot, being about the same circumference as a finger.

    The tiny carrots were still gorgeous and delicious. If you ever grow tiny carrots, remember that you don't have to peel things this small and fresh. Wash them thoroughly, perhaps with a brush, and remove stringy root bits. That should be enough.