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Old 03-14-2017, 04:29 PM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Lake Havasu AZ.
Posts: 1,855
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Hello kr3t3n,
I would use a drip system for large plants like tomato, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, as well as for vine crops like cucumbers, melons, beans, peas etc. etc. It's the most efficient method, as well as uses the least amount of resources.

Personally I probably wouldn't grow broccoli again. at least not before researching getting higher yields per plant. It takes to much time and space to grow only to get 1-2 heads per plant. Especially when it's so cheap at the store. I would prefer to use that space for a higher value crop, one with higher yields, and/or will save me more at the store.

Quote:
Do you happen to know of a good source where I can find expected full growth size of root system and foliage of each plant (vegetables and herbs mostly, fruit will be bonus)?
Yes, the seed manufactures tell you almost everything you need to know. How much light (full sun, part shade, full shade, etc..). The planting zones will tell you if the plant is a cool weather crop or a warm weather crop. They even can tell you if the variety is heat tolerant or not. You can also tell if the plant tolerates wet feet or not by the soil conditions it prefers. Plants that need well draining soil don't like wet feet.

As for the size of the plant, seed manufactures usually give some ranges, but the easiest way to find out is by searching for images. Just go to yahoo type in "tomato plants" then narrow your search to "images" and you will have pages of images. Just scroll through looking at how big they can get.

Examples
tomato plant images Then just scroll through all the images to see how big they can get tomato plants.

broccoli plants---Broccli plant Size

Cucumber plant---- cucumber plant size

Etc.Etc. Etc.. As for how big the root system gets, the root system generally gets as big as the foliage. Each leaf and stem above ground needs a root below ground supporting its water and nutrient needs. The bigger the plant the bigger the root system will be.

Quote:
Do you know a good source where I can find the expected average times for each plant?
Again the seed manufactures generaly give seed to harvest times.

Instead of trying to utilize only one type of system to grow a laundry list of plants, I would grow each crop in the type of system that supports it's needs and space best. It all starts with knowing the needs of the crops you plan to grow, as well as how many plants you want/need to grow. Then breaking the list down into similar groups is easy. Once you have them broken down into similar groups, you can break it down to systems depending on how many plants you plan to grow.

P.S.
Think about maintenance as well. Having 5 systems to grow one crop is a waste of time and resources. It's one thing to have one system for each crop, but it's another to have 5 systems all growing the same crop. That's just going to take 5 times more time and and effort.
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