row spacing for vegetables....

14 years ago

I am debating making a small plot size in my backyard

to grow some vegetables. It would be roughly 6' x 5' with the dimensions of it; this is about 30 square feet, as a guesstimate.

Now I have some seed packets and they specify how far apart you're supposed to space each plant with the vegetable. Unfortunately with some of these vegetables the seed packet fails to specify what the row spacing is.

The vegetable seed packets I have that specify the plant spacing but there is no information with the recommended

row spacing are as follows:

Carrot, little finger; seed packet says "ideal variety for

container gardening" so I am assuming this means you can put the rows closer together than you typically would compared to a variety of carrot that isn't suitable and/or recomended for container gardening.

Cabbage, Early Jersey Wakefield; again the seed packet specifies the plant spacing but there is no information that specifies the row spacing. This variety of cabbage also says in the description on the seed packet that

"The Early Jersey is compact and robust, ideal for small gardens or containers". I am assuming that once again given that the seed packet specifies it's ideal for container gardening, that you could space the rows closer together than you normally would for a variety of cabbage that isn't suitable and/or recommended for container gardening.

Bean, Top Crop bush (this is a bush variety of green bean).

I am going to assume again that because this is a bush variety as oppposed to a pole bean, that you can

space the rows closer together compared to a pole bean variety of green bean. I say this because it's a bush

variety of green bean, it's growth pattern is more compact

than that of a pole green bean.

Essentially what I need is a guideline of what the row spacing should be for each type of the vegetable I listed.

I can't space them apart with rows if I don't have any recommended guidelines with how far apart to space the rows

for each vegetable described above. Unfortunately the seed packet is supposed to tell you this information with how far apart to space the rows. However this information, to my knowledge is nowhere to be found

on the seed packet.

I could use recommendations and help regarding this.

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Comments (5)

iam3killerbs
14 years ago
I suggest that you look up the square foot gardening concept.

As for beans, pole varieties actually yield more for the amount of space because you grow them on a trellis so they go up instead of taking up a lot of area.
cyrus_gardner
14 years ago
Row spacing is a luxury, just for you to walk, weed, harvest. With a 6x5 plot, you will just need one walk way, about 3ft long from side, startinging from the middle of and extendin 2-3 ft into center.This way you can reach all the plot, i.e. from aroun an this walk way. Actually , you can get by by few stepping bricks or stones.
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I haven't tried multiple plants in the same container yet. Will be giving it a try this yr. with a pole bean tree in a container and bunching onions etc.. But I would think one would want to stick to the spacing suggestions.... For example.. last yr I had two extra bell pepper plants I started that someone never came and got. So I put both in a 5 gal. bucket! As the plants didn't get as big as the ones in individual containers.. they still produced useable fruit, just not as big and as fast as with the ones in individual containers. Still not sure if it was because I potted them up late an or cuz they both were in the same container. That has been my experience to date..
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With all the good information here I can't really add anthing new but I can echo several good points. I only grow pole beans and pole limas and occasionally yardlongs or another vining pea, so I have a lot of poles. I have 1800 7ft fiberglass rods and 1000 8ft bamboo poles. I use all the rods and about 1/3 to 1/2 of the bamboo a season. My rows are 4ft apart. I have a 42inch tiller attachment for my tractor that I can till down between the rows once before everything gets mulched with straw, making most everthing I plant 48inches apart. I plant my rows running east to west even though my garden slopes down from west to east as much as 15ft on the south end and 3ft on the north end. My gardening practices prevent any errosion and the benefit of having the sun shine between the rows is why I plant east to west. I have tried to plant a short season crop between the rows but it is not practical when they are side by side. The beans grow too quickly and even though side by side rows do fine the middles get too little sun to do anything, even weeds are spindly and I just mow them once or twice in the season. Another benefit is deer protection as Zeedman mentioned. My main garden plot is 145x300 with 125ft rows and room at the top and bottom to manuver around. I also have another 50x50 plot and a 25x30 plot. I grow alot of tall crops sorghum, old dent corns heirloom tomatoes the beans and peas. The long rows of poles or tomato cages make a fence barrier preventing deer from moving across the garden from north to south which is their normal path. Again the long high rows creat narrow tunnels that the deer will not go through, preventing movement from east to west. There is some benefit of the tall rows I found this year. I have a row of everbearing strawberries I planted two years ago. This year they are sandwiched between the corn and a row of sorghum both topping out at over 12ft. I thought it would shade out the strawberries but this year I am still picking berries because they get some sun but are keep cool therefore the relentless heat we have has been sheilded from them and they are still producing berries and look better than ever. I don't always plant side by side rows. I actually prefer to skip two to four rows and plant melons or winter squash between and let the vines cover the area. I also start late field peas in the path next to a row of spring planted pole beans because shortly after the peas are up the beans are finished and the poles will be coming down so I wouldn't recommend side by side plantings. Again on the deer control I have a row of pole beans then say 8 rows of peanuts spaced three ft apart then a row of pole limas, then three rows of peas three foot apart then another row of poles then a 10ft wide watermelon patch another row of poles etc. all this creates tunnels that deter the deer and everthing gets good light. Right now the I have 7 rows of tomatoes with a row of cucumbers between each row. The cucumbers are finished and I will till it under and plant collards, cabbage, kale, etc inbetween the rowsin the next couple of weeks. By the time these are big enough to make it difficult to walk between the tomatoes are done and their cages are removed and that area is now the path and I will also plant narrow 2ft wide rows of lettuce turnips spinach etc. where the tomatoes were or oats or barley for grain or clover for covercrop Conclusion if practical run rows east to west don't plant side by side poles, but can be done, and then can plant area between poles more effectively, take advantage of natural deer repelants. Why I plant pole varieties? more productive less bending over and I like heirloom varieties which are mostly pole and I like the look of long rows of poles. This turned out long but I hope I added something.
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Looks like a lot of thinning to me. Kale should be somewhere between 6-12 inches between plants. It might bolt quickly though going into the warm season. Broccoli will get to be a large plant and I would allow at least 18 inches between plants. Carrots should be thinned to about 3-4 inches between plants.
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angela12345
14 years ago
If you are building a garden roughly 6 foot x 5 foot, you may have a hard time reaching into the center of the bed without walking on it. You may want to decrease the width of your garden especially if you plan to have a trellis up one side of it at any time in the future. It is hard to reach though a trellis to reach plants growing low on the ground on the other side. Most people can reach about 2 feet in with their arms, so 6 foot x 4 foot would maybe be a better garden size. Or, as cyprusgardner suggests, you can have a walkway in the center which would leave you with a garden basically in the shape of a U.
x x x x x x x x x x x x
x x x x x x
x x : Â : x x
x x : Â : x x
^
5 feet

As far as row spacing goes, you can ignore row spacing in a small bed or in a raised bed. If the carrots say plant 3" spacing, you would plant a row with each carrot 3" away from each other. Then the next row would be 3" away from the first row, and the thrid row would be 3" away from the second row.

Even the packages that specify row spacing, you need to ignore the row spacing in a small bed. For example, my bush beans say to thin seedlings to 6" spacing with rows 18-30" apart. However, you would ignore the row spacing in a small bed ... just like the carrots. So, with my bush beans, I would plant a little row with each bean 6" away from each other. Then the next row would be 6" away from the first row, and the third row would be 6" away from the second row.

There are only 2 of us and we are not growing to can or freeze leftovers, we only want enough at a time for eating fresh. So I did not plant the entire packet of beans. I planted 12 plants in 2 short rows ... one row of 6 plants each spaced 6" apart and then the next row of 6 plants just 6" away from the first row.
This is how our beans are planted ...
x x x x x x
x x x x x x

Even though the packet said to plant them this way ...
x x x x x x

x x x x x x

Also, because I only wanted 12 plants of beans, I could have planted them in 3 rows of 4 plants instead of 2 rows of 6 ...
x x x x
x x x x
x x x x

Since bush beans harvest only lasts about 2+ weeks, I planted the first 12 plants at the beginning. Then about 3 weeks later another 12 plants, then another 3 weeks later I will plant the last 12 plants. This will give me fresh beans all through the season. If I had planted 36 plants all at the same time I would have more beans than we could eat for about 2+ weeks and then after that, I would have no more beans. Pole beans are different though, they continue to produce over a longer period and you grow them up a trellis. I could not plant pole beans because I did not have any space left on my trellis. My trellis was already completely taken up with other things.
digdirt2
14 years ago
they specify how far apart you're supposed to space each plant with the vegetable. Unfortunately with some of these vegetables the seed packet fails to specify what the row spacing is.

Assuming you don't need to walk between the rows (and in that small a space you don't except for maybe 1 narrow path down the middle) then your row spacing is exactly the same as your seed/plant spacing.

If the packet says "space/thin seeds/plants to 3" apart then that is how far apart your rows are too. If it says 12" then that is both the seed and the row spacing.

Dave
gardener1908
14 years ago
I concur with all above. You should check out the square foot method. Also I have read that most of the information on seeds packets as far as row spacing are based on being able to get large pieces of machinery between the rows and really doesn't apply to the home gardener. You won't have this problem you only need to be able to reach your veggies without trampling others. The spacing between plants is as stated above. You will be surprized how much you can put into a 12 inch square.

row spacing for vegetables....

Comments (5)

iam3killerbs

cyrus_gardner

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angela12345

digdirt2

gardener1908

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