How do I maximize my crop canopy?

March 7, 2014 - PRLog -- Question: I have ½ acre to work with. I’d like to maximize my crop’s growing canopy without overcrowding and shading individual plants. We are looking to improve quality and reduce susceptibility to pests. Any suggestions?

Answer: Our experience suggests that culinary herbs and other annuals benefit from growing in a balanced living soil (compared to growing in a fertilizer solution). Herbs have more flavor, seem to keep better, and are apparently more resistant to certain pests.

You didn’t mention your plot’s light exposure, which is critical to quality of most commercial crops. One option to “maximize canopy” or growing area is to go vertical - and I’m not talking white vertical pipes with fertilizer solution. That kind of vertical is measured against canopy for certain crops!

A new product called GrowScape™ was recently introduced by a company called Muscle and Arm Farm in Washington State. This vertical bed design is unique in that it may be built to almost any height and utilizes concentric rings of 0.060” thick, black HDPE (cutting board plastic) to create mini terraces, like a mini version of the farming terraces at Machu Pichu.

There are several benefits to this design. First, because the terraces have no bottom (unlike stacked containers), there is a relatively large soil reservoir in the center of the “mini mountain” to which plants on each terrace have access. Soil moisture and nutrient uptake by the plant is quite stable.

The second benefit is that GrowScape’s vertical walls are black in color, so the soil warms more quickly than plants growing in the flat ground, aiding root development early in the season.

And finally - more to your point on maximizing canopy - plants grown in the GrowScape bed are quite densely planted when viewed from above - the terrace ledges are only 3 inches wide. But this kind of density can work when the plants are separated vertically. As the sun moves at an angle over the course of a day, there is much less individual shading due to this vertical separation.

The standard GrowScape configuration utilizes 6 inch high steps, a 3 inch wide terrace, and as many as 11 different levels (almost 6 feet high). However, we are told by the manufacturer that step heights and ledge widths may be increased or decreased easily to fit a specific crop. Talk to the manufacturer.

GrowScape is quite reasonably priced due to the circular design making very efficient use of the  HDPE walls. If the bed shape were square, a lot more support material would be required.  The beds store in a small space and go up quickly.

There is one additional benefit to “going vertical” that I didn’t mention - weeding is a cinch! If you are starting on sod, I would put a chunk of corrugated cardboard under the bed when first installing, to keep grass from growing up into the lower levels. After that, with a clean soil mix, not much to worry about.

The website for GrowScape: www.MuscleAndArmFarm.com (http://www.SimplyLivingFarm.com)

Link to video clip of GrowScape vertcial garden: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMTjwPZjBh4