Row Spacing

[veggiechicken]

That's it exactly Martin Glad someone understands me

[Martin H]

It's a pleasure. Nice to find a practical application for Pythagoras Theorem as well!

[Kristen]

I am currently making a vegetable plan and reading the packets of seed some say leave 18 inches between rows and some say leave 24 inches between rows. My Question is that say I have a row of Cabbages and then a Row of Cauliflowers Would I leave 2ft one side of the Cauliflowers and 2ft the other side before planting another crop or would I leave 1ft either side and that would then count as 2ft? I have a feeling I may have been wasting space all this time and want to hear other opinions

If, say, Cauliflower needs 2' spacing and a Cabbage needs 18" spacing then:

Each Cauliflower needs 1' (half of 2') all around it. So it grows 1' to its right, and the next Cauliflower in the row grows 1' to its left, and thus you need 2' between the plants.

Similar the Cabbage needs 18" between plants - so it grows 9" in each direction.

If you plant a Cauliflower next to a Cabbage the Cauliflower needs 1' and the Cabbage 9", so the spacing between the two is 1' + 9" = 21"

Thus the row spacing would be 21"

Keep notes though, you may find that you can plant them closer in subsequent years, or that you need some additional space to get between them

Also, beware of planting a whole row of Cauliflowers, particularly Summer cropping ones. Once the first Cauliflower is ready for picking you only have about 2 weeks before the rest will go over. We only eat about 2 Cauli's a week, so I grow 4 Cauli's in each "batch", and I start a new batch every two weeks (during the season)

Something like Runner Beans or Courgettes goes on cropping throughout the whole season, so the number of plants you need is dependant on how big a "picking" you need at each harvest. If you only have one courgette plant you'll get one, maybe two, courgettes at each picking (twice, maybe three times, a week). Its not enough for a meal! We grow 6 courgette plants, always enough when we have friends round for a BBQ at the weekend, but far too much mid-week!

Again, keeping notes will let you adjust Qty, as well as spacing, in future years.

[Penellype]

The other thing you need to remember is that at some point you need to get at your plants, so you will have to have paths. How far apart they are depends a bit on how far you can easily stretch - I find stretching over large plants to the centre of a 4ft wide bed to weed is really difficult, so my beds are max 3ft wide.

[Chippy Minton]

Sorry to join the party late but can I throw a potential spanner in the works? Most packets / books have a distance between plants and a distance between rows. I've always taken the distance between plants to be the amount of space needed for the plant (and hence the spacing discussion above). The distance between rows is always larger and therefore, I've always assumed, the space a plant needs plus a bit to allow access for tending, harvesting, etc. As I grow in raised beds with full access around (6' x 4') I've always planted in blocks at the "distance between plants" spacing (using the fine theorem from Mr Pythagoras).

Complicated this growing plants lark isn't it