Planting onions/garlic

[manny]

I planted a row of garlic next to mi onions about 18" away. Is this too close?

[jal_ut]

No. They will do fine.

[2cents]

Good question, I'm interested since I use a food amount of onions & garlic in my small gardens.
Luckily, jal_ut came to the rescue.
You can always rely on his counsel.

Jal_ut
For us City/Suburban gardeners space is an issue.
Can you Please fill us in? Is there a spacing issue between onions & garlic or anything else we should stay away from?
Especially garlic & onions since that's 2 of my 5 main plants (Tomatoes, peppers, potatoes)

[gixxerific]

16" is a rule of thumb, but you could go less if need too. 18" is just fine.

For future reference garlic does better planted in fall usualy around mid Oct

[jal_ut]

Can you Please fill us in? Is there a spacing issue between onions & garlic or anything else we should stay away from?

Onions and garlic have similar space needs. Plants in a bed on a six inch grid both ways will do well. This year I have plants on 6 inch spacings and rows 12 inches apart. We will see how it goes. I am crowding them up a bit more than I have in the past because I have commited to two markets this year. I need a few more rows. (I know, I've lost it......)

All plants will do better if they have good elbow room so they do not have to compete with other plants for sunshine, soil for the roots to grow in, water and nutrients. If you are interested in growing really large onion or garlic bulbs give them 6 inches in rows spaced 16 inches. If size is not so important, you can probably make a bed and put them on a grid 5 inches both ways and do fine. With close plantings, it is of utmost importance to have good fertile soil and feed the plants more often and water often, as they will deplete the soil faster because of the crowding.

Take cabbage, the plants put a grand show of leaves that is 3 feet or more in diameter, so to give them their own space, you have to space them 3 feet in the row and have rows 3 feet or more apart. You can get some giant heads doing this. I have had good luck with closer spacings (16 inches apart, rows 32 inches) on cabbage, but I don't get as large of heads. I don't need large heads for market though. People will admire a 12 pound head, but buy the 5 pound one.

So it is with anything we plant. Suggested plant spacings come to be because growers have found that at certain spacings plants will mature and produce a good harvest. Many seed packs have suggestions written on them. This is a good place to start, but bear in mind that if you give the plants even more space you will get larger more vigorous plants.

Once you have grown a variety and see how large the plant gets, you can have a better feel for how much room it needs. Some things like peas and bush beans can stand to be pretty close together and do just fine.

[GardenGnome]

The good thing about garlic, onions or potatoes is they can been used at any time in there growth. So if you mess up its not a all loss.