by katystreet
How Much Space for Herbs?
8:19 am in Getting Started, Plants, Projects in Process, questions, Seeking Advice by katystreet
I’m looking to grow herbs in a fairly small windowfarm using 2″ net cups. How much space do people recommend for the growth and for the roots? Also: will the herb stop growing when it meets the capacity of the cup, or I am going to run into problems?
Hi Katy,
you shouldn’t have a problem with the 2 inch cups — plants grown in hydroponic systems develop their roots differently than soil-grown plants… since the nutrients are in the water, the roots don’t need to explore very far to food. The roots will grow through the bottom of the cup and into the lower half of whatever bottle you’re using — and they should be happy for quite a while. As your plants mature, you’ll have to adjust the level of nutrients they get…
You should also keep in mind that if you’re building a small Windowfarm, it might be best if you start your plants from seed, or get seedlings from a hydroponic grower (sometimes folks buy small soil-grown plants and shake all the soil out, but your system might be a little too small for that). Good luck, and let us all know how your herb WF is coming along!
rule of thumb on roots (in ground) there has to be the same mass under as over. in hydro I see its about 2/3 under as over. so if your doing herbs then you can say if you have a root ball in the bottle the plant will optimally be about 1/3 again as large as the roots, keep up on triming, and the plant should grow pretty well. never cut more than 1/3 at a time.