Planting Question

[Hunter McIntosh]

Hey Everyone,

Got a question for you regarding how folks plant in their grow beds.  We have been just planting everything directly into the hydroton.  The problem we now have is that some of the root balls have completely taken over the growled.  Specifically the broccoli has taken over...lol.  Anyway, does anyone have any suggestions as to how to plant in a way to try and contain the roots a bit more?

Hope that makes sense. Thanks, Hunter.

[Carey Ma]

Why would you want that? The bigger/ longer the roots the healthier the plant, the more it'll produce, bigger, better, tastier. And at the end of growing season, all you need t do is thrash it to get the balls out or one could put it on a sheet of landscape fabric in the fall and let the roots naturally compost.

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Well, if you wanted/needed to contain the roots...you'd just plant in some kind of container (bucket with some holes drilled out, big net pot, those nursery bags...whatever) and just bury that in the growbed. Some root mass will still probably grow through the holes and into the media in the growbed. If even this little bit of root mass was for some weird reason bothersome or unacceptable, you just line the inside of your net pot/container with screen...make sense?

[George]

You're growing broccoli in July in Fla?  I was thinking about starting from seed possibly Sept 1 or so.  Which variety are you growing and when do you expect to harvest?