Grow Food On My Rooftop?

[BBBBB]

I want to try to grow a few herbs or possibly some vegetables on my rooftop in Bangkok. Will this mean a lot of effort, insects just eating them or attracting pests to my house? If it doesn't work out that way could anyone recommend plants for a large rooftop that will not attract or may even repel mosquitoes. I'm a complete newb so a bump in the right direction here would be great. Finding an extensive gardening list/blog for this climate on google proved hard.

Thanks.

[Mosha]

Given the pollution, I'd be careful.

[Crossy]

Go and have a look at the packet seeds in Homepro or similar places, they will grow here. Plenty of lettuce type things, chillis of course and a few flowers.

Decent sized (big) pots filled with the potting soil you can get in white bags for 20-30 Baht and you're good to go.

We are using the concrete rings you get for septic tanks as beds, but we're in a house, you may have fun getting them on to your roof

Whatever you do, don't place soil directly on your roof, use plastic under the containers to prevent staining and potential leaks.

[cooked]

If you have a small area you can at least keep the flying pests off with netting. Give it a try and learn.

Sent from my iPhone using ThaiVisa app

[Rsquared]

For starters, have one pot with lemongrass.....not only an essential ingredient for Thai cooking, but keeps mozzies away if you spend any time on your roof.

Have fun and experiment.

Cheers.

[ThaiMouse]

Not good with plants but for everyone try this:-

How to Build a Mosquito Trap

What you'll need

• 4 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 pinch of yeast
• 2 liter bottle
• water
• stove
• pot
• black construction paper
• tape
• knife

If you are plagued by mosquitos, you may want to consider using a mosquito trap to reduce their numbers. Should you expect to spend a lot of money doing this? Should you shop around for the best deal on mosquito traps? In reality, you can build your own mosquito trap with a few common household items, as long as you know what you are doing. What follows should help anyone trying to build a mosquito trap.

Step 1 - Setting Up

• Cut the top off of the 2 liter bottle with your knife.
• Cut at exactly where the bottle starts to curve, or as close as you can. Ideally, when you are done, you should have 2 pieces of plastic—1 cylinder that you can fill with liquid, and one curved top section.
• Measure out 4 tablespoons of brown sugar and 1 cup of water.

Step 2 - Mixing the Ingredients

• Heat up 1 cup of water in the pot on the stove.
• Once it is hot, add the 4 tablespoons of brown sugar. Mix them together until the sugar dissolves.
• Add cold water to the mix until it is merely warm.
• Once you have lowered the water temperature a bit, add a pinch of yeast to the mixture.

The goal here is to ferment the sugar with yeast, which creates carbon dioxide—mosquitos are attracted to both sugar and carbon dioxide, so this mixture will really attract them to your trap.

Step 3 - Building the Trap

Now you have all of the required materials to make a mosquito trap prepared, and it is time to put them together.

• Set the bottom half of the 2 liter bottle upright, and pour the mixture of sugar, water, and yeast in.
• Take the top half of the bottle, turn it upside down so it is pointing downwards, and put it into the lower half of the bottle. At this point, no part of the upper half should be above the top of the lower half.
• Push the lower half down as far as it will go without touching the liquid, just to be sure—you want the upper and lower half to seal off completely, with no opening but the place where the cap used to be.
• Cover the outside of the trap with the black construction paper. You may have to cut it down to size to do this part properly.

Step 4 - Placing the Trap

Your trap is complete. Now all you have to do is put it to good use. Select a cool spot outside, preferably with high humidity, and place the trap there. A spot in the shade is best.

Check the trap every 2 weeks. You will need to empty it out and replace the mixture inside, both to prevent mosquitos from laying eggs in it, and to replenish the supply of sugar and carbon dioxide. With any luck, you will also be emptying a lot of dead mosquitos.

[xen]

What I would do is find a couple of styafoam boxes - you will find them dumped all over the place , fill with a good potting mix ( High porption of sharp river sand with the remainder coco peat ) and sit them ona couple of bricks/wood for drainage and then sow your seeds and experiment with what works and what doesn't . Then as you find out what does works and if you want to invest a bit more money you can upgrade to better / deeper containers etc. . Netting will protect your crop from some insects and birds.

Best of luck and remember to enjoy your gardening.

[sunsamourai]

you'll find all the info you need (may be even more ) here :

http://www.echonet.org/content/urbanGardening/774

Guys are from Florida, everything they say applies just the same here, except one thing : you wont find garden centers...

[bumpkin]

Check the roof structure. Soil and water are both heavy materials.

Not sure about pollution contaminating the crops.

First attempts might be herbs.

[bumpkin]

you'll find all the info you need (may be even more ) here :

http://www.echonet.org/content/urbanGardening/774

Guys are from Florida, everything they say applies just the same here, except one thing : you wont find garden centers...

Plants at Chatuchak, sometimes

[peridot]

I have had good success with purple eggplants, lemongrass, bai thoey, Thai basil and Chinese long beans. Bad luck with pumpkins, zucchini, papaya and tomatoes. I use big clay pots about 50 cm wide, and a built-in cement planter box about 60 cm deep and 40 cm wide. I got plants of lemongrass and bai thoey from Isaan. The others were from seed. I could not get the tomato seeds to germinate, neither American seeds nor Thai seeds. The pumpkins and zucchini grew and flowered, but no fruit, and then white mold. The Chinese long beans are growing like mad, each bean growing 6-8 cm per day.

[Matt1leg]

I have been trying to grow veggies here in Thailand for more than 7 years and let me tell you its not easy. The big factors here are the light cycle and the heat. Most plants in the northern hemi receive lots of light (spring) and then little light(fall). Here in Thailand they get the same light throughout the year. Therefore, growing stuff native to Thailand or other places with similar latitude will work best but dont forget to provide shade and only water when the sun isnt out. I have had sucess with carrots, cabbage and bell peppers but found it hard with tomatoes and corn (not maize). I buy plant food from the local shop in isaarn 20-20-20 P-K-N and that seems to work. Please keep me posted on any results

[aquaponeer]

Greetings,

Growing all your vegetables, herbs, flowers and fruits have never been more easy.

check out the guys at www.urbanaquaponica.com ... the site redirects you to a facebook fan page where you can see pictures and videos of an Aquaponic Garden built on the 4th story of an urban townhouse in Bangkok. It has been running for 3 years, and is infact now Off Grid producing vegetables and fresh fish on only 2.4kW from an array of Solar Panels and Wind Turbine. they also catch their own rain water, nothing is wasted in the system. Any waste either goes back to the fish, or is used as high nitrogent soil based gardening supplementation. They even get free worms from the beds, the largest red worms ive ever seen.

This is exciting for home and hobby gardeners!

https://www.facebook.com/AquaponicsThailand/photos_albums

[Joe Mamma]

The vertical growing is getting popular. Xmas tree shaped racks, roof tile garden plots, even available at the big home improvement shops.

Do some creative net searches for other ideas and use roofs or other places that will benefit from being cooler.