Any advise on how to grow healthy fruit trees in pots on the roof in morocco. I have different family members who have many hectares of land on where they grow vegetables, fruits, olive trees etc.
They gave me plenty of earth from their land, and sheep manure. I need to get good stones to place in the bodem of the pots and make holes under de pots.
I have bought:
2 apples trees
2 grape trees
3 mandarin trees
1 orange tree
2 fig trees
1 pear tree
1 date tree
1 banana tree/plant
1 cherry tree
2 Peach trees
2 apricot trees
I watched YouTube videos with advise and I got some help from family but I also want advise from you all. I lived 30 years in the Netherlands and now 4 years in morocco.
The first thing I would check is a max allowed load for your roof. In the countries with no snow I wouldn’t expect any significant reserve put in the roof construction. Make sure all your pots will not end up in your bedroom. The second thing, pots require special light weight mix, not natural soil.
In addition to what @anon89542713 said, I would recommend NOT adding stones to the bottom of your pots. It won’t help the drainage and effectively makes your pot smaller. It’s counterintuitive, but this video helps explain why.
Remembering the weight is a good idea and I would also say no to stones and try to get some perlite, rotted wood, sand if you need a drainage layer but i am not sure you do anyways.
I like how you can place the pots so that the wall will give them some shade. At your latitude, I would worry about too much sun scalding the trees. I think you definitely need to be concerned about keeping them well watered.
You might look at Mrs G’s potted patio orchard in her new place in S France for some ideas.
Yes the sun starts shining on the left of the roof because my office (room on the roof) blocks the sun so that on part has shadow in the morning until around 2/3 o clock. And after that, the shade starts from where the sun begon the shine until sunset.
Most of the fruit trees like warmth and sun right? Just need to give them enough water. It can be cold here around 2 months a year and there can be also a strijd wind.
What a beautiful spot you got here abdars! Plenty of space for sure and very nice designed building
What is your yearly high temperature and low temperature or do you know your zone?
I would be a little concerned about afternoon heat and reflected light and if that is a thing you could put up some shade cloth maybe? Or move the trees right now so they only get morning sun possibly? You got plenty of light so the larger the container the less often you will be required to water it. I would do some mulch and things to conserve water. Would you be able to put up a pump and bucket of water if needed as you could also set up some sort of irrigation system if they need frequent watering
