Plants on the roof?

[FITN]

So here's the thing. I am fairly limited on space for pepper plants. I have a detached garage, a 6 foot privacy fence and a very large horse chestnut tree and a maple tree that all create a lot of shade. This all limits the amount of space suitable for growing. Also we grow much more the just peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, squash etc. As a way of adding real estate for peppers, I was contemplating building 3 or 4 small platforms to compensate for the roof pitch and put some potted peppers up on my garage roof. Each would be made of 2x4's and only hold one plant to keep the weight down.

So far the only real downside that I can come up with is heat. I'm thinking that the shingles might radiate too much heat during the summer and cook the plants.

Any thoughts? I'm open to any ideas and or suggestions.

 

[dragonsfire]

Foil covering the area were the plants are.

 

[rghm1u20]

Or use sheets of polystyren, expanded or extruded. Here can find 50cm x 100cm sheets, 1 cm thick. Good insulation.

 

[Uncle Eckley]

I've got a similar problem and I got it into my head to build a platform hung by pulleys on a track frame I could hoist up to the eaves for sun and down to the deck for watering and such.  Keeps the plants off the shingles and saves me from having to climb (which I wouldn't handle very well).  Still working on the design.
 
Edit: I'm a little worried about wind up there, too.

 

[Mr. West]

Check out Mulchydreams' post at the end of this thread.

 

[FITN]

Check out Mulchydreams' post at the end of this thread.

So would I be correct in thinking that if acclimated well, the plants should do ok on the roof?

 

[dragonsfire]

making sure they dont dry out would be the main thing to watch out for I would guess.

 

[FITN]

I would like to avoid having to cover my roof with insulation or foil if possible. Also, my garage is pretty small so I'm not sure if a rope and pulley system would work well. I appreciate the ideas though.
I've also though about building something that might mount to my privacy fence to set potted plants as well.

 

[FITN]

making sure they dont dry out would be the main thing to watch out for I would guess.

I'll be using setups like this so they should have a good supply of water.

 

[Mr. West]

Ya that guy said he hardened off through progressive stages of sun/heat exposure.
I think using those SIPs should keep the roots insulated from direct heat conduction since the bottom pot is liquid nutes. There's still hot air convection coming off the roof...

 

[FITN]

Ya that guy said he hardened off through progressive stages of sun/heat exposure.
I think using those SIPs should keep the roots insulated from direct heat conduction since the bottom pot is liquid nutes. There's still hot air convection coming off the roof...

I'm hoping that having a gap between the buckets and the actual roof created by the 2x4 platforms as well as the double buckets will give them a chance at dealing with the heat.