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Re: SqFt Planting Spaces

>Firstly,  I've always wondered about the planting spaces given in
>'conventional' gardening books.

Many of the instructions on seed packs come from a tradition of commercial
growing, where harvests are done by machine or by of people who need the
spaces between the rows. SF gardener's do not need the spaces between rows
because most people can reach into the center of a 4x4 garden plot from one
side or the other without stepping on and compacting the soil.

As Mel Bartholomew says in his book, he looked for a year to find out why
plant spacings were so large for small plants and was unable to "find any
explanation other than 'That's the way we've always done it.'" He goes on
to give some more explanations including pointing out that some of the
holdovers on seed packets and in "conventional" books are from the days
when people had a lot of land and could afford acre gardens.

>  I have trouble in believing some of the Sqft spacings.  Onions for
>example at 16/sqft,  the same as for radishes.  I can understand the
>radish spacing,  but how big would the onions grow?  Obviously not
>more than 3 inches wide.  My 'conventional' gardening book suggests 6
>x 12 inches,  or a mere 2 per sqft.  Can I expect good results
>planting at 8 times this rate?

Mel based his planting spaces on the actual size a plant reaches before a
home gardener harvests it. The reason the planting for radishes and onions
are the same is because he felt that anything over 16 in a space was too
hard to handle. Theoretically you could plant 25 radishes in a square, but
accurately spacing 5 rows of 5 seeds in a square is much more difficult
than accurately spacing 4 rows of 4 seeds in a square. Most onions don't
grow more than 3" wide and thus the spacing is almost perfect. In fact my
Territorial Seed Company book recommends that onions be thinned to 2-3"
apart, which corresponds to SF spacing 4 seeds x 3" = 12" For larger
growing sweet onions like Walla Walla or Maui or Vidalla I plant 9 to a
square.

As for leeks, how many do you see that are more than 2 1/2 inches wide? Why
would you want to waste all that extra space by planting them 2 feet apart.
And garlic may need more "root space" or they simply may not grow as well
close together. My Territorial book recommends 4" spacing, which again
equals the 9 per square spacing recommended in the book.

I can tell you with confidence that the program works. We have made some
modifications as such as spacing bush beans further apart and planting
squash and vining plants in mounds rather than on our square foot grid so
we have more space for certain veggies. We also have three parallel beds
that are 12' x 4' rather than 12 x6 as would be neccessary if we added
paths on all sides of a four foot section.

I was a bit skeptical at the beginning as well, but since we have a small
space and wanted to grow a lot, we went with it and it has worked well.
Weeding is very easy as the soil is never compacted and since the area is
small it is not a daunting task to go out and weed the whole garden in one
afternoon. We definitely use less water on our plot since our soil is so
nice and rich after a few years of doing this and constantly adding
nutrients. Rotation is fairly simple so  we have fewer insect pests than
some of our neighbors (plus we garden organically so we have a good balance
of beneficials and know what to do about each pest). Also, since each
square is in almost constant use, we have phenomenal harvests.

I hope this helps.

--Natalie



Natalie McNair-Huff
Happily Gardening in Tacoma, WA Sunset zone 5; USDA Zone 7/8
Publisher/Editor Mac Net Journal http://www.blol.com/web_mnj/
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