September is the month NCR households get wrong in both directions. Half sow nothing, because the balcony still looks like a wet, mildewed write-off. Half sow summer seed, because a reel told them to. Both lose the best sowing month of the year.
Delhi’s monsoon normally withdraws around 25 September. Everything below is keyed to that, for a balcony, terrace or patch in Gurugram.
These go in this week. They are ordered by how little sun they need, so start at the top if your space is shaded.
Cuts three times over the cool season and tolerates the least sun of anything worth growing. Soak the seed overnight and crush it lightly between your palms first.
Direct into the gamla. 30–40 days to first cut. Needs 2.5+ hours of sun and 15 cm of depth.
Kitchen methi seed germinates as well as packet seed. Broadcast it thickly in a wide shallow tray; you are growing leaves, not plants.
Direct into the gamla. 25–30 days to first cut. Needs 2.5+ hours of sun and 15 cm of depth.
The fastest win in NCR. Sown now it is on a plate before Diwali, which is the point when a household stops believing it has no green thumb.
Direct into the gamla. 25–35 days. Needs 4+ hours of sun and 25 cm of depth.
Needs a deep pot and loose soil with no stones or the root forks. Sow where it will stay — carrots cannot be transplanted.
Direct into the gamla. 80–100 days. Needs 4+ hours of sun and 30 cm of depth.
Sowing these straight into a wet gamla in September is how people lose a whole winter of tomatoes. Raise them under cover and transplant once the rain has stopped.
Sow the mid-season type now in a tray and transplant when it has four or five true leaves. Cauliflower is fussy about its variety matching the month — read the packet for the season, not the picture.
In a tray, under cover. transplant in 4 weeks, curd in 90–110 days from seed. Needs 5+ hours of sun and a gamla at least 30 cm deep once it moves out.
More forgiving than cauliflower and holds in the pot for weeks once headed. Tray now, out in October.
In a tray, under cover. transplant in 4 weeks, head in 90–100 days from seed. Needs 5+ hours of sun and a gamla at least 30 cm deep once it moves out.
The window closes at the end of September in NCR. Started later it heads into the February heat and buttons.
In a tray, under cover. transplant in 4 weeks, head in ~90 days from seed. Needs 5+ hours of sun and a gamla at least 30 cm deep once it moves out.
This is the month to start it in a tray, not in the pot. Seedlings put straight out into monsoon-wet soil damp off; raised under cover now, they transplant in October into the best tomato weather NCR has.
In a tray, under cover. transplant in 4–5 weeks, first fruit ~90 days from seed. Needs 6+ hours of sun and a gamla at least 35 cm deep once it moves out.
Slow to germinate, so starting it in a tray now is what buys you a plant that fruits through winter and again next year.
In a tray, under cover. transplant in 5–6 weeks, first pick ~100 days from seed. Needs 6+ hours of sun and a gamla at least 30 cm deep once it moves out.
September nursery sowing is the standard second window for brinjal in the plains. It wants the biggest pot on your balcony.
In a tray, under cover. transplant in 4–5 weeks from seed. Needs 6+ hours of sun and a gamla at least 35 cm deep once it moves out.
Raise it in a tray now for an October transplant. It sulks above 32°C, which is exactly why you are not sowing it in April.
In a tray, under cover. transplant in 5–6 weeks from seed. Needs 6+ hours of sun and a gamla at least 30 cm deep once it moves out.
Their windows open as the rain pulls out. Sown a fortnight early they sit in wet soil and rot at the seed.
The most reliable leaf of the NCR rabi season and it re-cuts for months. Wait for the rain to break so the seed does not rot before it strikes.
Direct into the gamla. 40–45 days to first cut. Needs 3+ hours of sun and 20 cm of depth.
Grows faster than palak and takes the cold better. One trough feeds a household of four through December.
Direct into the gamla. 35–45 days to first cut. Needs 3+ hours of sun and 20 cm of depth.
Only works here in the cool window and only in a spot that misses the afternoon. Sown in October it will bolt in March, so it is now or not this year.
Direct into the gamla. 45–55 days. Needs 3+ hours of sun and 20 cm of depth.
Push sprouting onions from the kitchen basket straight into soil; you get green shoots you can cut repeatedly without ever buying seed.
Direct into the gamla. 50–60 days. Needs 3+ hours of sun and 20 cm of depth.
Wait for the heat to actually go — peas sown into warm soil come up thin and mildew. Give them something to climb from day one.
Direct into the gamla. 60–75 days. Needs 4+ hours of sun and 30 cm of depth.
A narrow window: the fourth week of September to the first week of October in the plains. Plant single cloves, pointed end up, and forget them until March.
Direct into the gamla. 5–6 months. Needs 4+ hours of sun and 20 cm of depth.
Opening in October: Chukandar (beetroot); Shalgam (turnip). There is no hurry and no advantage in early sowing.
Its NCR windows are February–March and June–July. Sown in September it grows leaves for six weeks, then the nights drop and it stops flowering. You get a plant, never a pod.
Past their window and squarely into the monsoon tail, when powdery mildew takes gourd leaves in about a week in still, wet air. Their season starts again in February.
Needs a long run of warm days it no longer has, and it is the first thing on a balcony to catch mildew in wet air. February–March.
They need heat and room and four months of it. There is no version of a September sowing that ends in fruit. February–March, and honestly not on a balcony.
This is the part a national sowing chart cannot do for you, and it decides more than the date does. Count the hours of direct sun the spot gets on a clear day, not the daylight.
Under 2 hours
Below the floor for anything from seed. Buy pudina, lemongrass and curry patta as nursery plants instead, and check whether a kitchen windowsill beats the balcony.
2 to 3 hours
Cutting herbs only. Dhania and methi will grow, slower and softer than the packet photo. Nothing that has to make a root or a fruit will.
3 to 4 hours
Leaves work, fruit does not. Skip tomato, chilli, brinjal and capsicum in this spot, this year and every year.
4 to 6 hours
A real leaf-and-root balcony. Everything in the sow-now list works. A chilli will manage; a tomato gives a handful, not a harvest.
6 hours or more
The full list, fruiting crops included. Raise tomato and chilli in trays now for an October transplant.
A west-facing tenth floor and a shaded ground-floor patch are different climates in the same sector. Answer 6 questions about your space and get this week’s verdict: 2 or 3 things you can sow right now, the one thing you must not, and what to do with what is already there.
Get this week’s verdict, freeTiming here is accurate to the half-month, which is how Indian sowing charts and KVK calendars publish it. Where a national chart and a Delhi source disagreed, we followed the local one. beejo sells no seeds, so there is nothing here we need you to buy.