Urban Balcony Garden, what to grow?

I am moving into a small apartment and have a balcony.

What plants produce well in pots besides tomatoes?

And could I make a micro-aquaponics setup that won't be too heavy for the balcony?

I'm in zone 7 high desert. I also want to grow some kiwi to shade the balcony. Do they grow well in pots?

I'd like all the plants to be edible if possible. I already plan to grow basil and peppers.

Depends on the size of your patio and how many containers you can establish. If you can handle a few 3 gallon containers, you should be able to get peppers, eggplants, bush beans or peas (if you have the space you could trellis pole beans or peas as well). I have even had some luck with bush squash in containers. Also depends on the exposure. Certain plants need more sunlight. You definitely can get a good herb garden going, and dwarf marigolds are wonderful on a patio/balcony. Just a few thoughts.

Herbs are very easy and a lot of bang per square meter. I have a pot of mint, some cilantro, and small patches of other stuff planted between my veggies. Basil and arugula has all been pesto'd and is done for the year.

My fall crops are beetroots, fennels, carrots and various leafy greens (lamb's lettuce, winter spinach). Some tomatoes and peppers are still going. Right now is also the time to put garlic into the ground for overwintering.

I hear that strawberries can overwinter in pots, but it's the first year I'm trying this.

Potatoes also do ok in pots, though they do grow a bit out of control in a small space.

Watering is a constant headache with containers. You go from dry soil and drooping leaves to waterlogged in an instant. Get as large pots as you can manage. It's better to have many plants in one pot than a collection of tiny pots.

As has been said, much depends on the amount if space you have available.  I keep a “winter garden” in pots so I can move them indoors as the temps dip. My goal is salads.  I have lettuce, mixed greens, carrots, onions, beets, tomatoes, and radishes. My pots measure about 2 sq ft each.

I would suggest starting off with plants you like to eat.  

Some easy ones would be lettuce, cherry tomatoes and peas or beans.

I like your idea for a small aquaponic system.  This thread is for a really small system:

https://permies.com/t/84041/permaculture-house-plants/grow-herbs-fish-cheap-Easy

This one is a little bigger though I bet it would work with a smaller barrell:

https://permies.com/t/30351/watt-Aquaponic-system

Weight is absolutely an issue! I would try to get some indication about what the load limit for the balcony is. Water is *very* heavy, so full blown aquaculture could be too heavy, but small versions may be OK. I'd suggest you actually weigh some of the ingredients you plan will involve?

I also agree that large pots are a huge help, as is putting a layer of punky wood in the bottom of the pots to act as a natural sponge. I have both the large nursery tree pots with rubber feed bins under them to act as a water reservoir, and half plastic barrels which I drill drainage holes in, but drill them about 1" up from the bottom so they can act like "wicking pots". As much as I don't like bringing in material from overseas more than necessary, in pots having some coir in the mix will help the water situation a lot, as will a proportion of biochar.

Hours of sunlight will be a big part of determining what will grow and be productive. This is something you need to observe over seasons, and may be affected by location even on a deck.

This sounds like a fun project and I suspect you can grow much more than most people would expect!

I’ve personally grown tomatoes and peppers in pots on an east-facing roofless balcony. They thrived with morning sun and afternoon shade (in Chicago).

My neighbors who live on a middle floor run twine from their balcony railing to the “roof” formed by the floor of balcony above theirs and grow pole beans, vining squash, and tomatoes in pots. They face south, but have dappled shade.

I have 3 planters outside my door that I made from pallets - each are about 2x4foot, and about 2 foot deep. 2 containers grow lettuce, spinach, radishes and herbs (succession sown) with peas growing up a trellis at the back, which we switch over to runner beans once the peas start to fade. The third container we sow thickly with kale seed and harvest the small leaves for salad, then select the strongest 4-6 plants to let grow big and provide us with cooking greens. Sometimes we grow tomatoes instead of kale, but the kale is a safer bet in our climate (PNW). We can easily grow all our salads and herbs and a good portion of our green veg this way.

Greetings from another Pacific Northwest balcony grower!  I'm in zone 8b so there are a few things I can grow that may not work for you, namely kiwi, I've heard that zone 8 is as cold as they go, so it may not work for you, but your other ideas are possible.  I went from patio gardening to balcony gardening this summer when we moved to a different complex and I don't have a heck of a lot of sun, only morningtime and, at peak Solstace time, some into the early afternoon, but its all dappled as we have maple trees overshadowing our balcony (still trying to figure out if we can get away with tapping them come Jan. or Feb. and trying to assertain whether the seeds need to be harvested from the tree to eat, or if we can pick them up off the ground after they fall, but anyways ...).

Anyways I've noticed that some things are doing okay with the limited sun and some aren't.  Some flowers love it, particularly if they're forest flowers.  My blueberries were happy, my baby plumtree, pre-fruiting, loves it.  But growing greens here has been a disaster.  Almost all of my attempted autumn harvest plants died, my lettuce is limping along, but will likely die soon.  I'm getting some grow lights from my MIL but I won't see her until Oct. and I forgot to pick them up back at the beginning of the month when I saw her last.  

So I've sort of thrown in the towel and will just get back into it in the spring, with grow lights to supplament sunlight.

If you have sun, like I did at my old apartment, you should have success with:  Potatoes, lettuce, spinich, mint, radishes.  Those are what I've grown so far in my gardening time.  And a carrot, yes one.  Sigh haha.

In the introductions forum there is a post in the "greatest hits" best-of list, about a balcony gardener, she has an amazing set up and it might be useful for you to see it.

Some others here mentioned space and weight, and those are certainly considerations. However I'd like to share something I've been doing that might also help you get more "real estate" out of a small space garden, and it may work well for your balcony.

I call it "stackable gardening." I start with a very large container (such a 45 gallon storage bin). This one goes on the bottom, and will hold my heaviest feeding plants, like squash or tomato. Then I place a second smaller container on top of the first one (grow bags or 5-gallon buckets work well) and reserve that one for something like carrots, onions, potatoes or peppers (take into account time of year). Finally, on top of the second container I will place one more, usually a small bucket or plant pot and reserve that one for plants that will remain compact, like strawberries, radishes, lettuce, or even petite ornamental flowers like violas (again, time of year is a factor in what I plant).

So in a nutshell, think of a pyramid. When you water the top plant, the nutrients in the soil (presuming you're using compost or fertilizing) will "leach" down through the second and into the bottom one. Each plant on top feeds the one below it. Discovering this was a breakthrough for me, teaching me to take advantage of vertical space since my horizontal space was severely limited when I lived in an apt. And I had the best veggies!

There are vertical stacking containers available online, some that even swivel (usually you see these demonstrated with lettuce or strawberries) but I found them to be expensive, wonky in heavy winds, and each compartment is the same size -- very small. Personally, I'm looking to grow food that is sustainable. And as much as I love strawberries, they won't keep us fed.

You may also need to consider water collection and use drip trays if your balcony is wood. In any case, I hope this gives you some ideas. Good luck!