Crop Layout to get maximum use from Grow beds.

[Hamish]

Crop layout is something I am learning as I go. To start with I roughly followed seed packet and seedling label directions but from what I have seen the space requirements seem to be quite different for AP than for dirt gardening. This thread is here to discuss what people have learned about maximising crop yeild in the sometimes limited space available in AP Grow beds.

[Hamish]

Here are a few things I have learnt so far about growing the maximum crops from limited space. Sorry if I am saying things that may be obvious to some people. Im very new to gardening of any sort so these are things I have worked out the hard way.

1. Plant tall plants at the back of the grow bed - they will reach for the sun without blocking light to the smaller plants in the front. This can be reversed if you want to shade plants like lettuce from too much direct sun by planting the tall plants closest to the sun so they will shade the lettuce.
2. Plant beans at the end or sides of your grow beds as they take up very little space in the actual grow bed. You can train the bean vines up a pole and then along a string line to utilise air space away from the grow beds. This really maximises yeild with a very small grow bed foot print. You can also plant other crops quite close to the base of the vines as the bean is up out of the way and doesnt rely on leaves close to the ground.
3. Plant seedlings in mesh baskets placed in short tubes between larger plants. This allows you to have a constant supply of seedlings (lettuce etc) without having to water them as they get water from the grow beds. Also allows you to transplant them easily once they are big enough without transplant shock. I have found the best medium for growing these seedlings is fine coco peat (coir). This system also allows you to put new seedlings in without disturbing the roots of larger plants around them.
4. Stack your system. Put coco pete grow beds under your flood and drain grow beds - this doubles your space and you can water the coco pete grow beds with the same water distribution pipes that feed your flood and drain beds.
5. Use NFT grow pipes to return water to your fish tank - easy and cheap way to add lots more grow space. Why not use the water to grow more plants as it is flowing back to the tank anyway!
6. Plant lettuce that you can keep picking leaves off without taking the whole plant. This allows the lettuce to keep a good root and stem growth which you dont eat anyway. The plant then uses the established roots and stem to really push out the new leaves (its a bit like coppice trees for firewood). The Cos lettuce I have in my system have been great - I just keep picking off leaves. I was initially frustrated waiting for the lettuce to grow big enough to cut and make a salad. The lettuce seemed to get to a certain size then stalled. What I should have been doing was picking a couple of leaves off each plant to make salads. If you have 10 or 20 plants a couple of leaves from each plant can make a decent salad for a couple or enough to make tacos there is also no waste outside leaves or stem like in a purchased or cut lettuce. This regular usage of leaves also seems to stimulate new leaf growth.
7. Plant things that are expensive that you will eat. No point putting in all the effort to grow things that are cheap to buy or you dont eat. Sounds simple but I have seen people do it. For example capsicum is expensive here at $10 kg - so I am growing these as they will save me more money than taking up the same space with something like garlic that is dirt cheap to buy.
8. Plant herbs around awkward places in the grow beds - places like in odd corners near autosiphons etc. Herbs like Italian parsley, corrianda and chives take up these odd spaces well as they are clumping plants with thin stalks and small leaves.
9. Rather than having bare gravel under plants like Basil, Corrianda and Italian Parsley - I have started sprinkling seeds of the same plant around the base of the plant to grow more of the same and make a thicker clump of the same plant. Why not use as much of the surface area of the grow bed as possible rather than just having a specimin plant sitting in a sea of pebbles

What will I do differently next time I plant my grow beds?

1. Next time I will plant more climbing plants like beans, cucumbers, zuccini, miniature squash at the back of my grow beds as this really increases the yeild area of your grow bed by utilising air space.
2. Plant other tall plants at the back of the grow beds. I know they are an aquired taste - but I am currently trialling Brussels Sprouts as they grow on a tall stalk (see attached picture I found online to demonstrate the height). Again this may seem simple - but until I searched around I didnt know what a mature brussels sprout plant looked like! I always use to think they grew like small cabbages taking up lts of ground space!
3. I would plant my cos lettuce a bit closer together. I could probably get another row in the same space I have used. This is especially true if you intend to harvest leaves as they grow rather than cutting a whole lettuce. Harvesting leaves off the outside of the plant keeps the lettuce plants taller and thinner thus taking up less space in the grow bed.
4. I want to trial other climbing plants like passionfruit - again to utilise height and air space. Any suggestions for tall thin plants or vines please let me know!
5. I have cauliflower and broccoli in my system - the cauliflower seem to take up less space and are a more compact plant than the broccoli. The broccoli seems to be a taller and larger plant. I would probably alternate these in a row in the future (cauli, broccoli, cauli, broccoli) and plant them a bit closer together as a result of alternating the planting. In this way the taller broccoli and the shorter cauli can take up less room for the same plant growth as they will nest together better. Might not seem like much but if you can fit a couple of extra plants in then why not. Not sure if this is true for all species of broccoli and cauli but it is what I am observing at the moment with my plants. Time will tell if this trend continues as they grow.
   
   On another note I would plant cauli and broccoli close to the edge of your grow beds along the edge closest to the sun. They seem to grow up and the leaves grow over the edge of the grow bed and lean towards the sun. This way they are using air space out the side of the grow bed for almost half of the plant. If you plant them in the middle of the grow bed the leaves spread out and take up more grow bed area. Even better - plant them in the corners of your grow beds - then almost 3/4 of the plant will be hanging over the edge of the grow bed and using air space rather than grow bed space.
6. I want to try to find hanging plants that I can grow over the side of the grow beds and will hang down - again using air space. Any suggestions for these sorts of plants?
7. I will plant things like chilli right near the edge of the grow bed - as they grow like a small bush why waste grow bed space when they are just going to hang over the edge of the grow bed anyway.
8. I will stagger rows of lettuce next time - rather than align the rows an columns - it would make more sense to stagger them to fit more in - I will post a drawing of what I mean later.

I will post some photos soon to show a few examples of what I am taking about.

[Hamish]

Here is an example of sowing seeds under italian parsley, basil, corrianda and chives to fill the space that was around them and get more yeild from the space.

You can see a few new chive plants coming up (the black dots on the top of the chives are the seed shells) I need to put more seed around the chives as they didnt take as well as I had hoped.

[Hamish]

This shows the yeild you can get off beans in just a few weeks grown from seed. Beans are also really easy to plant directly into the grow bed as they are a large seed. This also saves on transplanting which eliminates shock. Also allows you to plant lettuce near them and no need to disturb the lettuce to transplant the bean

As you can see the beans take up very little grow bed space for the size of the plant. There are already a lot of beens on the plant and there are more flowers appearing every day. Beens are the way to go to increase yeild. They will just keep following the string for meters and push out beans all the way along

[Hamish]

This shows the cucumbers I have trained up the bamboo teepees I have made - left to themselves they seem to want to lay down and spread out. Giving them a structure with a few ties will keep them high and means using air space rather than grow bed space. Look at all the flowers and mini cucumbers already out after just a few weeks! Very happy with this!

You can also see the spacing of the lettuce - probably could have been a bit closer. Also should have put seedling subes in the gaps between them. Could have had the lettuce closer to the edge of the grow bed so they grow over the side of the grow bed giving room for another row. Stagering the rows also allows more room for plants and less unusable gaps.

[Hamish]

If you look at this pic of broccoli - you can see that I could have planted them closer to the edge of the grow bed so they take up less space. I dont think it would do them any harm to be planted where I have put the red dots. They just hang over the edge of the grow bed and use less space in the grow bed and more air space which there is plenty of

[Hamish]

This is my chilli plant - it could have been planted right in the corner and would have used less grow bed space. The red dot and arrow in the picture indicate where I would plant it if I was to plant this again.

[Hamish]

Here are the seedling tubes and mesh pots to make use of the spaces between the main plants. The picture shows clay balls in the mesh pots but it is better to use fine coco pete (coir) as the clay balls easily damage the young seedlings.

[Hamish]

This is how I would plant one of my grow beds next time. Last time I planted I think I left too much space between plants.

[GaryD]

Hi Hamish,

I like the analytical, helpful approach that you've taken to your grow bed planting. Great stuff!


Gary