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Interplanting Vegetables: Root Depth, Plant Height

Interplanting Vegetables: Root Depth, Plant HeightInterplanting is a growing method that will allow you to fit more vegetable plants in a single planting bed. It is a way to increase your crop yield. Interplanting is also called intercropping.

Interplanting is often used in intensive vegetable gardening where an effort is made to use all available space in the growing area–the counter point to single row planting which requires the most cropping space since the space between rows goes unplanted. (In intensive gardening you can space plants individually equidistance apart or in wide rows–several plants across a row to as much as 4 feet wide.)

There are several ways to interplant your crops. You can grow fast-maturing plants, such as radishes, between slower growing ones, say chard. The radishes will be ready for harvest before the chard begins to mature and requires more space to spread out. This way of interplanting borders on succession cropping–bringing one crop to harvest after another keeping the planting bed productive all season.

You can also interplant crops with different growing habits, tall crops near short ones, or deep-rooted with shallow-rooted. Crops interplanted by growing habit can be set equidistant according to their size (height and breadth or root depth) at maturity; or they can be planted in their own alternate rows in a wide bed.

Interplanting requires planning. You need to know the days to maturity for each crop and its height and breadth at maturity or its root depth at maturity. Do some planning on paper once you have decided on the crops you will be growing this season.

To assist your planning here are two charts that might help: one for plant height at maturity, one for rooting depth (For additional information on vegetable crop root development, see the 1927 book “Root Development of Vegetable Crops” by John Weaver of the University of Nebraska.):

Root Depth

Shallow Rooting (18 to 36 inches)
Medium Rooting (36 to 48 inches) Deep Rooting (more than 48 inches) Broccoli  Beans, snap  Artichokes  Brussels sprouts  Beets  Asparagus  Cabbage  Carrots  Beans, lima  Cauliflower  Chard  Parsnips  Celery  Cucumbers  Pumpkins  Chinese cabbage  Eggplant  Squash, winter  Corn  Peas  Sweet potatoes  Endive  Peppers  Tomatoes  Garlic  Rutabagas  Leeks  Squash, summer  Lettuce  Turnips  Onions  Potatoes  Radishes  Spinach

Plant Height

Tall Medium Short  Beans, pole  Anise  Basil  Broccoli  Artichokes  Beets  Corn, sweet  Broccoli  Borage  Fennel  Brussels sprouts  Cabbage  Mustard  Lemon balm  Caraway  Okra  Beans, bush  Carrots  Peas  Broccoli  Cauliflower  Sunchokes  Brussels sprouts  Celery  Tomatoes  Cardoon  Chervil  Chard  Chives  Chinese cabbage  Corn salad  Collards  Dandelion  Coriander  Endive  Cucumber  Garlic  Dill  Kale, dwarf  Eggplant  Kohlrabi  Hyssop  Leeks  Kale, curled  Lettuce  Lavender  Onions  Marjoram  Parsley  Peas, dwarf  Parsnips  Peppers  Radishes  Potatoes  Rutabaga  Pumpkins  Savory  Rhubarb  Thyme  Sage  Turnips  Spinach  Squash  Sweet potatoes
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