Hi Again
I am in SE FL and our growing season is upon us. I have to raised beds. 8 X 4 and 9 X 3.
For example in box I planted tomatoes but it didn't take up the entire box so I have section and I put some lettuce and carrots in. I know carrots can have challenges with tomatoes nearby. Not sure what is up with the lettuce. By the way tomatoes are doing fine. I planted marigolds near them (my sense for companion) and both are very happy it appears.
The general question is how close is close for the companion planting? Meaning my lettuce isn't sprouting and my carrots are few and far between. Is being in the box to close? I assumed companion planting was closer to one another.
Calvey, my climate couldn't be much different from yours. However, I raise what I think of as "salad beds" as companions.
Spacing? I just use a knowledge of the size of the mature plants - or, as mature as they will be at harvest. It shouldn't hurt if they are touching. You can look at "square foot gardening" spacing to have an idea of how close some gardeners are willing to put their plants. Here is something from Purdue on Intensive Gardening (link).
I am of the school of thought that with companions, one plant may benefit while the other isn't too badly inhibited. Plants compete with each other. Especially, there's a good deal of pushing & shoving when plants of the same variety are left too close together. How about those companions
? Concerns with allelopathy aside, those are the most common problems with spacing.
Concern about sunlight and soil moisture is well placed. I don't believe that there is too much else involved with most garden vegetables.
Steve
Spacing? I just use a knowledge of the size of the mature plants - or, as mature as they will be at harvest. It shouldn't hurt if they are touching. You can look at "square foot gardening" spacing to have an idea of how close some gardeners are willing to put their plants. Here is something from Purdue on Intensive Gardening (link).
I am of the school of thought that with companions, one plant may benefit while the other isn't too badly inhibited. Plants compete with each other. Especially, there's a good deal of pushing & shoving when plants of the same variety are left too close together. How about those companions
? Concerns with allelopathy aside, those are the most common problems with spacing.I believe the title of the book is "Carrots love Tomatoes." You might be interested in the controversy on that entire idea behind the book. Some professional horticulturalists point out that the idea comes from lab analysis during the 1930's that had little to do with actually growing plants.calvey wrote: I know carrots can have challenges with tomatoes nearby.
Concern about sunlight and soil moisture is well placed. I don't believe that there is too much else involved with most garden vegetables.
Steve
Companion planting is about putting plants that like similar soil and water conditions or have some other benefit together. It is not about planting closer. Every plant still needs to have their own space.
Companion planting developed based on observations that people made on what grew well together and what did not. Some people believe in it and others think it is just folklore.
https://www.almanac.com/content/plant-co ... vegetables
Plant spacing is determined by the needs of the plant at maturity and how you grow them. According to the square foot garden plan, you can plant one tomato in 1 square foot, but that only works if they are trellised and pruned weekly. I have 3 tomatoes in a 3x10 foot space. I have 1 tomato in a 3ft diameter cage that is 5 ft tall. and I only prune or turn tomato suckers to keep them inside the cage. I can plant lettuce between the tomatoes when they are young but they need the entire space when they matured. Tomatoes allowed to sprawl need even more space.
Carrots need 1-2 inches (I give mine 2-3 inches), Lettuce needs about 6 inches between plants on center.
Offset planting(diamond shape) uses less space than planting with square spacing.
Carrots like a deep rich moist but well-drained loam with good organic matter and free of nematodes and rocks. They require even moisture and not too much nitrogen or the carrots will fork or produce top growth at the expense of the roots. I finally figured it out, but it is cheaper for me to buy them than to grow them. Carrots are one of the hardest plants for a beginner to grow. They need to be planted where they are to grow and they have to keep growing unchecked. Some people are frugal and plant one seed every inch or so apart. About 80% should germinate. I don't have such luck so I plant more seeds and thin them out 2-3 inches apart in offset rows.
https://www.landscapecalculator.com/calculators/plant
https://journeytoforever.org/garden_space.html
Lettuce seeds are small and since they mature in 50 days or so, they can be planted between the tomato seedlings when the tomato is still very young. I plant a few lettuce seeds in community pots or trays (about 10) and transplant the seedling out to the garden when they are an inch tall. They are planted 6 inches apart in offset rows or inter planted between the carrots (carrot rows will be 6 inches apart) when the carrots are small. The lettuce will be harvested before the carrot tops take over the space. Lettuce has shallow roots so don't compete with the carrots and lettuce needs more nitrogen and carrots more phosphorus and potassium and so they complement each other. When I transplant the lettuce to the garden, I plant another 10 seeds in pots. If you have only lettuce in rows. plant the first row of lettuce, and plant enough seed for another row, and every two to three weeks plant another row of lettuce(offset) for a continuous harvest. Sometimes I just get tired of lettuce and I substitute spinach or tatsoi instead they have similar spacing and soil requirements.
Succession planting is how you fill the garden at the start, but at full maturity the tomatoes will need to have the space to themselves. In the beginning when a new garden is planted there is a rush to fill every space, but you need to resist the urge and give it time to grow. It is often really hard for gardeners
new and old to pull out perfectly good plants because they over planted.
I like to plant beneficial plants around the garden. Nectar plants can be tucked in corners or even in pots around the yard. I plant green onions and chives in the garden or in pots near the garden. I only need a few plants to provide all I need since they are cut and come again. Fennel, marigolds,onions, and nasturtiums, and basil are the main beneficial plants in my garden. Fennel and marigolds are trap plants that attract aphids to attack them instead of the other plants in the garden.
Because of that I plant them outside of the main garden. While they attract aphids they also provide food for ladybugs and their larvae (who eat a lot of aphids) Fennel blooms for a long time and the flower heads provide nectar and attract parasitic wasps, hover flies, and lacewings which will also protect your garden if you don't spray. But fennel likes to be by itself. Members of the parsley family in general do not like to be near each other.
Blue flowers, borage, Russian sage, verbena, and lavender as well as sunflowers, alyssum, and basil attract bees and some of the beneficial insects for nectar and in return they patrol the garden for pests and pollinate the flowers so I plant them all around the yard. The idea is to plant a habitat to sustain the whole ecosytem not just a small section of it. The relationships between plants, and animals are more complex than that if you want a healthy garden.
https://www.colostate.edu/Depts/CoopExt/ ... nefici.htm
Companion planting developed based on observations that people made on what grew well together and what did not. Some people believe in it and others think it is just folklore.
https://www.almanac.com/content/plant-co ... vegetables
Plant spacing is determined by the needs of the plant at maturity and how you grow them. According to the square foot garden plan, you can plant one tomato in 1 square foot, but that only works if they are trellised and pruned weekly. I have 3 tomatoes in a 3x10 foot space. I have 1 tomato in a 3ft diameter cage that is 5 ft tall. and I only prune or turn tomato suckers to keep them inside the cage. I can plant lettuce between the tomatoes when they are young but they need the entire space when they matured. Tomatoes allowed to sprawl need even more space.
Carrots need 1-2 inches (I give mine 2-3 inches), Lettuce needs about 6 inches between plants on center.
Offset planting(diamond shape) uses less space than planting with square spacing.
Carrots like a deep rich moist but well-drained loam with good organic matter and free of nematodes and rocks. They require even moisture and not too much nitrogen or the carrots will fork or produce top growth at the expense of the roots. I finally figured it out, but it is cheaper for me to buy them than to grow them. Carrots are one of the hardest plants for a beginner to grow. They need to be planted where they are to grow and they have to keep growing unchecked. Some people are frugal and plant one seed every inch or so apart. About 80% should germinate. I don't have such luck so I plant more seeds and thin them out 2-3 inches apart in offset rows.
https://www.landscapecalculator.com/calculators/plant
https://journeytoforever.org/garden_space.html
Lettuce seeds are small and since they mature in 50 days or so, they can be planted between the tomato seedlings when the tomato is still very young. I plant a few lettuce seeds in community pots or trays (about 10) and transplant the seedling out to the garden when they are an inch tall. They are planted 6 inches apart in offset rows or inter planted between the carrots (carrot rows will be 6 inches apart) when the carrots are small. The lettuce will be harvested before the carrot tops take over the space. Lettuce has shallow roots so don't compete with the carrots and lettuce needs more nitrogen and carrots more phosphorus and potassium and so they complement each other. When I transplant the lettuce to the garden, I plant another 10 seeds in pots. If you have only lettuce in rows. plant the first row of lettuce, and plant enough seed for another row, and every two to three weeks plant another row of lettuce(offset) for a continuous harvest. Sometimes I just get tired of lettuce and I substitute spinach or tatsoi instead they have similar spacing and soil requirements.
Succession planting is how you fill the garden at the start, but at full maturity the tomatoes will need to have the space to themselves. In the beginning when a new garden is planted there is a rush to fill every space, but you need to resist the urge and give it time to grow. It is often really hard for gardeners
new and old to pull out perfectly good plants because they over planted.
I like to plant beneficial plants around the garden. Nectar plants can be tucked in corners or even in pots around the yard. I plant green onions and chives in the garden or in pots near the garden. I only need a few plants to provide all I need since they are cut and come again. Fennel, marigolds,onions, and nasturtiums, and basil are the main beneficial plants in my garden. Fennel and marigolds are trap plants that attract aphids to attack them instead of the other plants in the garden.
Because of that I plant them outside of the main garden. While they attract aphids they also provide food for ladybugs and their larvae (who eat a lot of aphids) Fennel blooms for a long time and the flower heads provide nectar and attract parasitic wasps, hover flies, and lacewings which will also protect your garden if you don't spray. But fennel likes to be by itself. Members of the parsley family in general do not like to be near each other.
Blue flowers, borage, Russian sage, verbena, and lavender as well as sunflowers, alyssum, and basil attract bees and some of the beneficial insects for nectar and in return they patrol the garden for pests and pollinate the flowers so I plant them all around the yard. The idea is to plant a habitat to sustain the whole ecosytem not just a small section of it. The relationships between plants, and animals are more complex than that if you want a healthy garden.
https://www.colostate.edu/Depts/CoopExt/ ... nefici.htm