Hello everyone,
My situation is that I'm growing in pots on a balcony and recently it's been really hot, right now we're in a bad heatwave with the sun relentlessly scorching every single day. Temps outside get up to 35C/95F but to make matters worse the balcony I'm growing my plants on is "inside" the house (it's not sticking out from the exterior walls) so on days with no wind there is a pocket of heat being accumulated, plus the balcony is so much insulated (white walls, white window blinds down during most of the day) that it's almost an oven sometimes. Temps can easily get up to 43C/110F.
I already got some excellent advice in my other thread about insulating my pots using mulch and wrapping the pots in a reflective material, but my bigger concern is prolonged ambient heat. Let's say for example I have my plants on my balcony and I manage to keep the pots in the shade, but the sun hits the balcony for 9 hours straight causing the pots even in the shade to be surrounded in 43C/110F for that long time. I image eventually equilibrium sets in and the roots will also reach that temp.
What is the maximum temp you guys would allow the roots to be exposed to? And how would you solve this intense heat problem in my particular case?
Moving the plants inside during the day would not really be an option I reckon since drawing the window blinds on hot days means the room is dark and the plants would not receive any light except for a regular 5W LED bulb on the ceiling and I can't do growing lights inside. The sun is all I have
I'm growing AK420 Auto and BCN Critical XXL Auto.
My situation is that I'm growing in pots on a balcony and recently it's been really hot, right now we're in a bad heatwave with the sun relentlessly scorching every single day. Temps outside get up to 35C/95F but to make matters worse the balcony I'm growing my plants on is "inside" the house (it's not sticking out from the exterior walls) so on days with no wind there is a pocket of heat being accumulated, plus the balcony is so much insulated (white walls, white window blinds down during most of the day) that it's almost an oven sometimes. Temps can easily get up to 43C/110F.
I already got some excellent advice in my other thread about insulating my pots using mulch and wrapping the pots in a reflective material, but my bigger concern is prolonged ambient heat. Let's say for example I have my plants on my balcony and I manage to keep the pots in the shade, but the sun hits the balcony for 9 hours straight causing the pots even in the shade to be surrounded in 43C/110F for that long time. I image eventually equilibrium sets in and the roots will also reach that temp.
What is the maximum temp you guys would allow the roots to be exposed to? And how would you solve this intense heat problem in my particular case?
Moving the plants inside during the day would not really be an option I reckon since drawing the window blinds on hot days means the room is dark and the plants would not receive any light except for a regular 5W LED bulb on the ceiling and I can't do growing lights inside. The sun is all I have
I'm growing AK420 Auto and BCN Critical XXL Auto.
