What a great way to get kids simultaneously into STEM and eating their vegetables!!!
What information is available about what sort of crops one might expect to successfully grow with this device? The whitepaper includes some pretty ambitious fun crops such as tomatoes, pumpkins, and raspberries; whereas the video shows crops which are harder for kids (my kids, anyway) to get excited about: primarily leaf vegetables, broccoli, beets and radishes.
Hey Michael, great question! As far as I can tell, FarmBot can really grow anything that is not taller than the gantry system. So things like corn and sunflowers are not possible. Our first bed was all Swiss Chard. The second bed (in the video) had 12 varieties in it, though like you said - mostly leafy greens. The next bed we plant will be for Summer, so we’ll be experimenting with squashes, tomatoes, potatoes, and others.
Things that require trellising will be tough (tomatoes). And so will things that spread out wide unpredictably (like pumpkins). But that’s not to say it can’t be done. Also, anything that is perennial (like a berry bush) would probably not be optimal for FarmBot. Instead I think those types of plants would be better off on a drip system with a heavy mulch to keep weeds down.