Why to start a rooftop farming?
Rooftop farming is the practice of growing plants in rooftops of the building in small scale to fulfill the daily food requirements. Major beneficiaries can be the gardener themselves as they can have the regular access to organic product also, ensure the tremendous positive Impacts on natural ecosystem.
- Rooftop farming has attracted many families in urban areas towards utilization of their open flat rooftops for the cultivation of diverse crops and procure the opportunity of access to their daily necessities of Nutritious food. Some even took it to the commercialization level.
- Growing tomatoes, spinach, berries, cucurbits, herbs etc. provide us with the incessant supply of fresh organic product every day which in excess can be shared with our Neighbors.
- It is evident that one cannot generate income from this practice, however, it can bring out desirable change in the community. Build up a smart urban city and motivate people to rebound into the long-abandoned food production system.
- Infrastructural advancement in the urban area though made our life convenient in every way possible but one cannot deny the negative consequences of those extensions to the health of environment and human. Not only rooftop farming helps with the beautification of surroundings but also helps purify the air we breathe reducing the carbon emission and working in the farm serves as therapeutic too.
How to start the Rooftop farming?
For the successful rooftop farming one must take into consideration of several factors that determine the success and failure of your farming.
- First, you come up with your garden design and select what things goes in the design, that could be for an instance, Trellises to support the plants, foam containers etc. Roof receives more wind than normal field which can damage your garden plants easily by lodging and snaping off the plants.
- One must not build the strong concreted wall or any structures that completely restricts the air flow as a windbreak because gentle flow of air is very essential for pollination in plants and to prevent the insect-pest incidence.
- Similarly, during the preparation of rooftop farms one must ensure that the growing medium to use is not as bulky as in normal field and consider foam containers, light trays, plastic buckets to grow the plants.
- Whenever you are to start the rooftop farming you must ensure the use of lightweight potting mixture to grow your crops. You need to keep the potting soil light enough for the roof to handle the pressure.
- To prepare the lightweight mixture there are options, like using the soil less combination of substrates such as peat-moss, perlite or vermiculite, and coarse sand or even can use the mixture of compost, pebbles, and coarse sand.
- Substrates like Peat moss helps in water retention while the perlite or vermiculite helps in facilitation of drainage and air circulation within the root zone of plants furthermore, harbor microorganisms too. It is beneficial if you incorporate some fertilizers during the preparation of growing media.
So, yeah, I hope it is clear why and how you should initiate
Rooftop farming. Feel free to comment and let me know what you think.
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