Rooftop garden

[Jiro Aki]

Hello - I'm new to the forum and live in an apartment in New York City where we have access to a large roof. We can plant in the spring/summer, but need to bring planters in during the winter. Last year, we had some steel planters with butterfly bushes but by the end of the summer they were overrun with silver pillbugs, so we needed to throw away all of the soil. Does anyone have recommendations on how to maintain planters outdoors in the spring/summer so that you're able to bring them inside (soil included, if possible) for winter storage? Thank you!

 

[Gail_68]

Hello @Jiro Aki welcome to the forum, sorry i can't help you with planters as all my plants are in the garden but members will help in due time as they're very helpful

 

[Mike Allen]

Greetings Jiro. What part of the U.S do live. A british gardener, Monty Don made a tour of gardens in the states, and included a massive roof garden. So you garden on the roof, using containers. So for starters. Plants grown in containers, have restricted access to natural soil borne nutrients. So regular feeding is a must, however. Be careful. Don't become, over generous. The label says, a handful. Please don't give it two handfulls. Now. Do you really have to take your pots and containers off the roof and store them over winter indoors. Please, trust me. Plants have an inbuilt ability to shut down for winter. Think about many of our wildlife creatures. Winter is coming and they eat and stock up for a winter sleep. So do plants. So in a like manner. Help your plants to stock up. Then thankfully we now have so many artificial aids to help us. Check your plants. Can they be safely be cut back hard. Consider using various kinds of wraps, horticultural fleece, hessian. Old lace curtaines etc. Hope this helps.

 

[Jiro Aki]

Thank you very much for your reply Mike. Because we leave in a co-op building we have restrictions on common spaces. Unfortunately, the roof needs to be completely cleared in the winter so everything needs to come inside. I wish this wasn't the case.

As mentioned above, I needed to discard the soil because it was overrun by silver pillbugs. I currently have the steel planters in a closet in sealed garbage bags in case there was a stray pillbug so none of our indoor plants gets infested. I'm curious to hear if anyone has suggestions on if planters with soil that spent all summer outdoors can be brought indoors for the winter or is it inevitable that we will get an infestation of insects that took up home in the soil over the summer?

 

[DirtMechanic]

Thank you very much for your reply Mike. Because we leave in a co-op building we have restrictions on common spaces. Unfortunately, the roof needs to be completely cleared in the winter so everything needs to come inside. I wish this wasn't the case.

As mentioned above, I needed to discard the soil because it was overrun by silver pillbugs. I currently have the steel planters in a closet in sealed garbage bags in case there was a stray pillbug so none of our indoor plants gets infested. I'm curious to hear if anyone has suggestions on if planters with soil that spent all summer outdoors can be brought indoors for the winter or is it inevitable that we will get an infestation of insects that took up home in the soil over the summer?

All you need is a bio-weapon called spinosad. Its cool, they use it on cats. You can flush the soil with a weak betadine drench, like 30mL (2Tbsp) per gallon water for hitchhiking fungi. Grab some heat mats and a grow light or 7 and carry on through the winter.

 

[cpp gardener]

If you have to kill the plants anyway, douse them with spinosad, malathion, or Sevin. Wait 3-4 days, bag them up and store them again. If you can and want to keep them, douse them and put them in the very brightest location you can. If you use grasses or other perennials that die down to nothing you can stash them in an unheated storage area for the winter and put them back out in the Spring.

 

[Jiro Aki]

Thank you all for your replies. Not having had experience with these agents, do you think one of these will be better suited to clear silver pillbugs -- spinosad, malathion, or sevin?

And, this was only a problem last season and I do not know if it will recur. Would you apply the best suited agent at the end of the season before bringing the planters in regardless of whether any bugs are seen to reduced the risk of bringing unseen bugs inside, which could contaminate indoor plants?

 

[deckman22]

I would use DE, does not harm soil and will kill the pill bugs. You can't get it wet tho or it no longer works. Better choice imo than using poison.

 

[Jiro Aki]

Thanks very much - that would be preferred. What does DE stand for?

 

[cpp gardener]

Diatomaceous earth. Spinosad is derived from soil-dwelling bacteria and safe for people and pets.