I did tomatoes 1/sq ft this year and I wouldn't do it that way again. I'm going to grow five tomatoes in swc's and two in my 2x4 box this year. My zucchini was 1/3 sq ft and did fine. Don't plant your peppers where they can get shaded or they'll just take up space and not ripen. That's all the wisdom I have for you. I just tell my hubby that I haven't decided what to put in the xtra space. He knows I'll fill it.

Whatever it says on the seed packet, but in every direction. If it says broccoli should be spaced 18" apart, that's what I do. Each plant is 18" from the next, and anything planted in the same area of said broccoli would also be 18" from it, with the exception of radishes or lettuce, which could be harvested before the broccoli needed the extra space. Tell the man he has to imagine how big the full grown plant will be and give it that much space. I also find it better to do my squares in rows, and leave about 1/2 square between the different crops. It just seems to give them a bit more breathing room and I find it makes watering and harvesting much easier. That's why I'm a "semi-square-footer".

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden

ribbit - I will give you my input on okra, tomatoes, and peppers. If you want the spacings for the rest of my stuff, i'll gladly tell you, but you probably won't like them! :)

Okra - I did 1/sqft, and they were no problem at all. I can't think of one single complaint I had with this spacing.

Peppers - I grew cubanelle, cayenne, and bell - all with a spacing of 1/sqft. Again...no complaints from me on it....

Tomatoes - I grew 5 better boy, against trellises - and they were spaced 1 per 2 sqft. These were the best plants i've ever grown, and the spacing was perfect. No pruning was done, except for removing the "suckers".

EG

Carolynp, were those tomatoes bush or vine? I've only got one small trellis and it's reserved for peas, beans and cukes.

EG, gimme whateva ya got.

Did you find that the okra/peppers shadded out anything? My light is low and I have my trellised box in the back with the hopes that nothing in the other two boxes in front of that shade out what's back there. I'm a bit worried about growing tall okra and tall peppers infront of a box that's got bush beans and trellised beans, cukes etc. Shade will be my biggest enemy whether it's from the other veggies, house or wooded land behind the garden but it's what I've got so I have to work with it.

ribbit - in one section, I had (from southeast to northwest)okra, hot peppers, and tomatoes. The peppers were pretty much shaded by everything, and only received probably 4 hours of good sunlight. They did just fine. Here's a picture, look at the right side of the post.

EG

Here is a link that might be useful:

I have come to the conclusion that what is planted around a square has a huge affect on the spacing of the plants and how well they do.

I made a point of planting squares willy nilly through out the boxes and I will not do that again.

For example look at the roots on this Brussels Sprout plant compared to the size of the square.

It is very obvious that is going to suck all the nutrients from the squares around it.

Next year all the cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, broccoli are going to be planted together in sections as opposed to scattered around like I did this year.

This picture is a good example. The cabbage did well but the stuff planted in the squares between the cabbage did very poorly.

I too did vine tomatoes in SWCs and will continue next year (2 per bin, caged and trellised). I will use the same 2 ft bins for my bush tomatoes if I go that route.

I must say I'm having spacing trouble with my leaf veggies. They overgrow the squares so I can't use the ones next to them. Not sure the answer for that.

Oh yeah, tell DH that the empty squares are for succession planting or a late season crop. Very important is you don't want to rip out productive plants to plant for the next season.

OOOOHHH, Sinfonian. You've got an idea there. That should at least get me to mid summer where hopefully those blank squares will be too shaded out to be seen!

I worked out another plan where I put the taller items, Okra, pepper and eggplant back where the trellis is and move the bush beans to the box in front of that. This could help. If I do the 1/sqft I'd double my production of those items....that is if I don't stunt their growth by doing 1/sqft like what happened this fall.