Farming On Rooftops sometimes called as terrace farming/rooftop farming can be understood the process as growing Vegetables and fruits in roof of concrete building where there is less availability of land and space. It is one of the excellent way of getting healthy food at our own home.
Eating healthy , fresh vegetables and fruits to maintain good health is main desire of any man out there. But, in this busy society where we have less time and land, we aren’t able to maintain a healthy diet. Land and time are the two major constraints that is backpushing many individual from starting their own farm garden. But, What if – I told you there is a way. We can start getting fresh veggies and fruits regularly on our own? You are excited, yes? The simple answer is you can start farming on rooftop which obviously require less time and less space. If we able to manage daily (1-2)hrs – then, we can grow our food by ourselves.
But, You might be wandering, I have no idea on how to do this. I am not a expert. Don’t Worry! We are here to guide you. This article will help you in setting up your farming on rooftop in very easy way. To learn this step by step, you just have to read the article till end. So – Let’s The Learning Begin…
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| Farming On Rooftop |
Farming On Rooftop
Farming on rooftop is modern technique of growing different kinds of fresh vegetables and fruits on roof of the houses in order to fulfill basic needs of kitchen and live a healthier life.
It is applied in area where there is very less availability of land to start kitchen gardening. In cities, Large concrete building has got wider space in thier terrace. This wider vacant space can be utilised to start rooftop farming.
The term rooftop/urban rooftop farming is getting its popularity more and more in 20th century. With increased use of chemicals in greed of earning more money has human immune system very weak and people are suffering from new diseases.
Objectives Of Farming On Rooftop
Generally, Farming On Rooftop is established to utilise vacant space and leisure time. But, It can be done in wider level where whole city can follow the same technique in order to make it self sustainable in growing thier vegetables requirements.
In this situation, Farming on roof of the houses has got certain objectives. Some of them are listed below:-
👉Utilisation of time and space.
👉Making a healthier lifestyle.
👉Self sustainable for kitchen requirements.
👉More organic approach of farming and less use of chemicals.
👉Saving certain amount of money.
So – Here comes our main topic. Steps to start farming on rooftop right now.
Steps To Start Farming On Rooftop
Starting a farming on rooftop is not a big deal.The listed steps of rooftop farming will provide you the ultimate guide to clear your all confusion related to this topic.
We can start growing different kinds of vegetables within our roof at very less cost and with minimal effort by following these steps:-
🔶Step 1:-Selection Of Pots
The first thing you need to start farming on rooftop are pots. Pots are used to store growing medium such as soil and Cocopit.
We can buy different kinds of pots made from different materials in the market. Some of the most commonly available pots are:-
✓Plastic pots
✓Mud pots
✓Cement pots
✓Grow bags
Among these all, We recommend you to use pots made from mud. They are best in all climate no matter weather it is summer or winter.
If you don’t want to buy any of these pots from Market, Here- We have got an idea to make gardening pots from the materials available in our home.
We can use some of these materials instead of buying pots from Market:-
✓Oil containers
✓Bottles
✓Sacks
Don’t forget to make drainage hole in these materials for the optimum performance of your plant.
🔶Step 2:-Making Potting Mixture
After selecting number of pots, Its time to make growing medium. For farming on rooftop we shouldn’t use heavy soil. Instead we should mix soil with other light materials because it will not create any overweight and pressure in our roof.
Here, We have provided the best combination of different materials which you can use for your rooftop kitchen garden.
➡️Garden soil:Compost:Cocopeat=1:1:1
➡️Garden Soil:Compost:Sand=1:1:1
We can also add perlite in potting mixture to get good results. Perlite helps in excellent drainage and help to maintain pH which is very good for our rooftop plants.
Coco peat is fiber of coconut. It can bought from market. It is better to buy coco peat brick which can be used for longer time. Coco peat is light weighted and got good aeration and drainage. This can be mixed with soil to use as a potting mixture.
Note:-
Before filling potting mixture inside the pots, we should make holes in the base of containers and we should cover those holes with stones or pebbles.
These holes acts as drainage system and stones or pebbles don’t let soil to drain out of containers.
We shouldn’t fill the pot fully. There should be gap of (1-2) inch at top. This will conserve soil during irrigation.
🔶Step 3:- Vegetables For Rooftop Farming
Once we fill up the containers with potting mixture. We are ready to sow the seeds. We can sow the seeds of vegetables according to season.
We can also grow offseason vegetables by making small polyhouse in our rooftop.
The best 20 Vegetables that can be grown in while doing farming on rooftop listed below:-
| No. | Social Media |
|---|---|
| 1. | Tomato |
| 2. | Potato |
| 3. | Garlic |
| 4. | Onion |
| 5. | Broccoli |
| 6. | Lettuce |
| 7. | Peas |
| 8. | Radish |
| 9. | Carrot |
| 10. | Beetroot |
| 11. | Broad Beans |
| 12. | Cucumber |
| 13. | Cabbage |
| 14. | Cauliflower |
| 15. | Okra |
| 16. | Beans |
| 17. | Egg plant |
| 18. | Turnip |
| 19. | Chillies |
| 20. | Bell peppers |
🔶Step 4:-Irrigation
Once the veggies grow, we should irrigate them time to time. We can also use drip irrigation system to irrigate them.
Note:-It is recommended to irrigate vegetables in evening because in daytime, there is direct sunlight and evaporation is high.
🔶Step 5:-Care And Management
Once plant grows at our home terrace, we should look after them if they are affected by any insects or diseases and we should act accordingly.
We should try to use organic pesticides as much as possible. We can use insect trap to protect plants. Furthermore, It is better to use nets while doing rooftop farming.
We should look after pollination as there is less chance of pollination by insects or bees in our rooftop. In this case, we can use a technique of hand pollination for better production
Tip:- We can do 3g Cutting of plants in rooftop which is a technique of increasing female flowers in plant to get maximum production.
🔶Step 6:-Harvesting
Once the plants starts fruiting, you starts receiving fresh vegetables at your own home roof.
You can harvest vegetables all round year by planting in all seasons.
Once the harvesting of veggies is over, then the plant dies. After, That we should take all the potting mixture out of pot and we should add some nutrients for next growing plants.
So, These were the 6 steps on starting farming on rooftop. Now – Let’s move toward the benefits and some tips about farming on rooftop which gonna make your production way better.
Benefits Of Rooftop Farming
- We can get fresh veggies at our own home at anytime.
- It saves our money and time.
- We become healthy by eating fresh and organic food.
- Working in rooftop farming gives us physical exercise and mental pleasure.
- We learn to live with and respect nature.
- We can use our kitchen waste to make compost instead of throwing.
- Different waste materials such as plastic bottles which can hamper environment can be reused.
- It helps to reduce air pollution.
- We can learn different farming techniques.
- Rooftop farming helps to use rain water.
Tips For Farming On Rooftop
- Containers should be kept in straight line in between two pillers on roof. This will reduce weight on building.
- Use of coco peat and perlite reduces the weight of containers. It will make easy to carry containers from one place to other.
- Large containers shouldn’t be filled full. This is because the roots of veggies doesn’t go deep. Instead we should put empty jars or bottles in base and soil should be filled above them.
Final Verdict
Thus- We can say that, Farming On Rooftop has got immense possibility. It has lots of benefits not only to our health but also to our environment.
We recommend you to start farming on your home roof from today. This can help to make city independent on veggies.
Very useful in this time good information Prakash