Could you set up a roof top orchard in a mid-atlantic city?”
I put everything in large buckets with drains in the bottoms – each bucket was a 5 gallon bucket like you might get industrial paint in. I cut a couple holes in the bottoms of each and put 5-6 inches of stones in the bottom. Then about a foot to 18 inches of dirt on top of that. I think I had 10 or maybe 12 of them. One had chives and parsley and thyme I usually had two with Tomatoes I planted three with string beans and had a piece of fence behind them to grow onto and I would get a TON of beans – 2 or three plants each bucket there. Had one with melons, one with peppers, one with eggplant, and one had various stuff – did watermelon one year, tried pumpkins – I think we even tried corn Oh yeah, we had radishes and carrots too – so we might have had more than 10 We basically hauled one of those 5 gallon buckets up there every day to water. OK – I did – or my wife would do it in one gallon buckets I can’t speak to the grafting thing. Let’s look
But you’ll have some challenges. I know you would like fruit trees, but they will be the most difficult in your situation. I have some thoughts, but first, I’ll pitch some easier plants as starters. You could start with tomatos, strawberries, cukes, peppers—just about any vegetable, except corn. Would give you a good idea if it’s something you want to pursue and if the logistics of hauling water will work out. I know, not what you asked, but I felt I should at least bring it up. have you gardened up on the roof before? I’ve done dwarf apples in containers, but they were on the ground. You’ll need a zone-hardy tree (I think you’re zone 6) for starters. You also want to make sure you have a dwarf variety. And, unless you want at least two trees, make sure you get a species that is self-pollinating. Apples will pollinate across hybrids, i.e., a Delicious will pollinate a Macintosh. Most of the specialty grafted trees are self-pollinating, but ask or look for a label to be sure. Dwarf ha
