Riddle – ‘The more there is, the less you see’
Solution – Darkness
Fans of darkness (astrologers, owls, vampires, etc) know jolly well that this riddle is absolute toffee. They can see in the dark just fine. Whether they’re out gathering stars, mice, or souls, the ‘limits’ imposed by nightfall are in fact nothing of the sort.
For them, the ‘limitation’ of darkness actually affords an opportunity to do something unique and interesting – something that they might not otherwise be able to do. They turn it to their advantage. The ‘limitation’ also adds clarity of purpose, sharpening their focus. Without wanting to compare gardeners to the undead, the same goes for any grower who is working within the limitations of a small space.
In the case of growers – the less there is, the more you really use it. Knowing that each plant in a limited space needs adequate light and room in which to thrive can really help improve your decision making. Learning from small spaces instills the kind of discipline that stays with you if, or when, you graduate to a larger growing area.
So you’re going to turn a limited space to your advantage and maximise what you have. Good. Need some actual ideas as to how you can do this? You’re in the right place.
True, you’ll need the hardware for your garden in place before you begin. But the hardware you choose may be dictated by the type of plants you’re growing and the techniques you use. So it’s best to consider growing techniques first.
A couple of techniques for limited growing spaces really stand out. These can apply equally to greenhouse, indoor, and semi-outdoor settings.
With Screen of Green the aim is to train your plants into low, flat-canopied profiles with no unnecessary branches beneath. You don’t let the plants develop into a towering, chaotic shape. You prevent branches and leaves from spiralling upwards or constantly competing for light and CO2.
Screen of Green works well with chillies, small varieties of tomatoes and peppers and is performed from the mid-late vegetative stage onwards.
With a flat-top, the plants receive much more uniform exposure to climatic inputs and only devote energy to productive growth. This can be very useful in small spaces as the headroom required is dramatically reduced and, with lower limbs pruned out, everything is clean, clear, and manageable ‘down there’ in the lower reaches.
Yes, plants grown this way do become wide, but they’re not wildly bushy. The distribution of vegetation and crops is orderly and optimised for your space.
Firstly, you’ll need a SCRoG Net. Effective, inexpensive, and designed specifically for the task, such equipment is readily available from specialist cultivation outlets online or in store.
Rig your net up horizontally across your growing space. Attach the corners of the net to the poles of your growing tent, to hard points in your greenhouse, or to well planted supports.
You’ll be creating the screen when the plants are about 25cm tall so set the net at a suitable height for that. As the branches emerge through the holes in the netting you route them sideways so that you end up with one branch per hole. Always work gently and in the direction of natural plant growth. Once your ‘screen’ is filled go to work pruning out any branches beneath.
The Sea of Green growing technique involves filling your floorspace with a large number of small plants. As the plants develop they create a single canopy that is (ideally) uniform in height at all stages of life.
The lack of horizontal space in which to grow means the plants focus on vertical development. Because they aren’t growing sideways the plants can start to produce crops sooner and each one favours only it’s strongest site for fruiting or flowering.
As the plants are small Sea of Green still doesn’t necessarily require masses of headroom. Again you can try it with chillies, small varieties of tomatoes and peppers.
The technique can maximise your space, accelerate development, and be highly productive. But it is really only viable with cloned or very closely related plants. Wider varieties of plants may grow at different rates which would give you an uneven canopy.
Arranged together in the third or fourth week of the vegetative stage, the plants should be close but not initially touching each other. From there on there really isn’t a lot of training to do. However, the close proximity means you will need to pay attention to humidity, airflow, disease and pest control in order to stave off any threats to your entire crop.
One quick, simple, inexpensive way to maximise your floorspace is wall mounting. Virtually all climatic appliances can be positioned thus, saving you precious growing room and allowing you to increase your plant count. Here we’re talking about circulation fans, humidifiers, dehumidifiers, heaters, and all aspects of ventilation. Get them up off the floor, reduce clutter, and make your area more space efficient.
If you’re growing indoors in a limited space and you haven’t already made the switch to LED then consider the option strongly. Very strongly. Compared to HID lighting, LED requires less headroom for the fixture and less in the way of climatic inputs to offset heat emissions – which frees up floorspace.
In small spaces automatic plant watering systems can be hugely advantageous. They reach plants with irrigation and nutrients even when you cannot physically do so yourself. Whether you’re growing your own way or using one of the techniques described above, a system can ensure your plants are always properly fed and watered.
Of course, the concern with plant watering systems in a tight spot is the extra footprint they might require – as opposed to simple pots and trays. With our own systems we have several answers to this problem.
Firstly, AutoPot Watering Systems do not require floor-hogging timers, pumps, or computers, and the pot and tray modules that make up each system are extremely space-efficient. If you were to put an equally-sized, plain plant pot in an open tray it would only take up a fraction less room than an AutoPot module complete with AQUAvalve water control device. They keep things really, really tight.
Secondly, we offer a number of systems that can irrigate and feed multiple pots using just one AQUAvalve. Take the Auto3, Auto8, and Auto9 series for example. These can house three, eight or nine pots respectively on an absolutely minimal footprint. As they are controlled by a single AQUAvalve these are brilliant for Sea of Green as they control a uniform rate of irrigation and feeding across the crop.
The same space-efficiency applies to the RHS endorsed Tray2Grow. This system goes even further in that it allows you to choose your cultivation method – whether it be pots, a planter, a growbag, seed trays, or microherb trays. With just one AQUAvalve you lose no space whatsoever to maintenance access and, as none of our systems run-to-waste, you require no space or access for drainage plumbing.
We won’t lie to you, the satisfaction of doing something great ‘on a sixpence’ is very sweet indeed. So much so that sometimes it’s quite tempting to try it, even if you don’t ‘need’ to. The best thing is that, whether limitations of space are enforced or not, it takes the bare minimum of technique and kit to really work your available room.
