How do you plan to beat the heat this summer?

15 years ago

I'm gardening in an assortment of black plastic and transparent plastic containers on a rooftop balcony of a 5-story building in the middle of the arid Spanish plains... (btw, the rain in Spain does NOT mainly fall on the plains, reports to the contrary have been greatly exaggerated)

The containers are on top of a ceramic tile floor, which gets ridiculously hot in the middle of the 100Âº+ summer. Last year my tomato leaves turned crunchy and most of the tiny yield that I did get had BER.

So this year, to beat the heat I'm considering:

1. Painting the containers white

2. Using reflective mulch

3. Elevating containers off the blisteringly hot floor they're on

4. Grouping containers to share foliage shade (did this with a few containers last year, they seemed to grow the best)

5. A 45%-grade shade cloth wall to block out the afternoon scorch (also had this last year, helps keep the house cool too)

6. Lastly I'm considering using last year's disastrous overwater-prone Mel's mix as a mound around each container, the idea being that the excess irrigation water soaks the mound, and evaporative action cools everything around the pots down. I guess this adds a bit of thermal mass also.

7. Get a thermometer and actually measure the heat in the containers

Using a Raybo-style SWC is not an option as there is no equivalent to the hefty Rubbermaid totes available in the US. :-(

So for those of you facing desert conditions this summer, what have you done to keep your roots cool? What will you be trying this year?

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Comments (5)

rnewste
15 years ago
ruet,

Here's how I plan to keep cool this Summer (and let the containers do all the work!).

Raybo

{{gwi:5497}}
rnewste
15 years ago
ruet,

Seriously, you have big challenges. Black and also clear containers are not good to use. Black obviously because of the thermal attraction, and clear, because it will break down quickly, as well as algae will thrive in it.

You need to wrap the containers in something like insulated foam, or other material that will cut off all light from hitting the sides. Painting them white will help very little. Next, you will need to build a shade cloth tent over the containers. I would recommend something in excess of 50%.

I have seen some folks build a small fence in front of the containers to also block the sunlight from hitting them.

Stay Cool!!!

Raybo
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gringojay
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I never knew deep water containers could ever grow such big toes - must be the Garden Web's hydroponic forum trick of air stones in the water reservoir.
Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
15 years ago
I wonder if a cheaper alternative wouldn't just be to shade the clear and black containers by draping something fun over the sun side of them to prevent sunlight from striking the container. As this is a balcony and presumably others can see it, perhaps an old RÃ©al Madrid banner, FC Stuttgart, etc. and you can get them wet, using evaporative cooling.

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hitexplanter
15 years ago
A trick I started using a while back was to do the double potting method.

I use some cheap large mexican made pots that I partially fill with cheap mulch on bottom and set my 5 to 10 gallon black pots in them and then fill more mulch around the extra area left between which was usually about 2 inches on all sides.

This created shade and insulation from extremes of cold or heat and also was better looking for my wife than my standard black pots. A win-win.

Helped quite a bit in overall performance and less BER on the maters. The watering stayed more uniform and show much less drooping during the hottest part of the day when the tomatoes have a hard time taking up as much water as they transpire.

I blister my feet on the deck in summer if I don't have flip-flops on and so I knew I needed to create a better situation for my potted plants than I had done.

Happy Growing David

How do you plan to beat the heat this summer?

Comments (5)

rnewste

rnewste

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