Plant Spacing
Here is a chart of plants and how many to plant per square. See below for explanations on how to calculate and sample pictures.
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To calculate how many plants per square, look on the back of the seed packet–ignore the row spacing, just look at the plant spacing:
3″ plant spacing = 16 per square
4″ plant spacing = 9 per square
6″ plant spacing = 4 per square
12″ plant spacing = 1 per square
3″ plant spacing with trellis = 8 per square
Some plants require more than one square.

18″ plant spacing = 4 in 9 squares

24″ plant spacing with trellis = 2 squares












This will be my first attempt at Square Foot gardening…I have many years of growing experience though I had used the ‘traditional’ planting technique in the past but have been slowly moving towards a more non-traditional concept in the past few years (I would ‘bunch’ plants)…I am looking forward to this new experience…Wish me luck…This website has been very useful…
Thank You
Virgil
I have grown broccoli with one per square and I was not satisfied. You can try it–especially if you grew a smaller variety.
I’m curious about the broccoli spacing. I understand that is what is on the package but even Mel’s book states it can be grown one plant per square. What are your thoughts on this? Has the plant suffered with the smaller spacing after trimming off some leaves?
Love the site, great information!
Tim
The square with 9 bush beans does sort of expand into neighboring squares, but when that happens I tie a string around the whole lot to keep it tame. It’s plenty of space so the plants aren’t competing with one another.
How big do Bush Beans get? Nine plants per square foot seems unrealistic.
Thanks so much for this easy to understand very descriptive website. I am a first time gardener and my daughter and I look forward to using all of your tips! I have searched many other sites but this one is the best yet!!!
Thanks so much! This was exactly what I was looking for straight forward and easy.
Wonderfully SIMPLE to follow instructions. I’m a visual learner and the diagrams make it so easy to follow. Thanks!!
I so appreciate the layout information, complete with pictures and schematics. Wonderful labor of love you have designed here!
Sorry diagram didn’t show the correct location of rows 2 &4 they should be shifted to the right so that the first plant is midway between the first and second plant of rows 1, 3, &5
Actually my plants are in a line which runs diagonally to maintain the correct spacing. 3″
spacing looks like this
x x x x
x x x
x x x x
x x x
x x x x
In my garden I get 25 plants with 3″ spacing per square foot, 13 plants with 4″ spacing and 5 plants with 6″ spacing by staggering the plants so they are not all in a line
Yes!
“per square” means per 12″ square, correct? This chart is really helpful and I appreciate the effort to post it.
Curt
Wonderfully simplistic. Thank you!
LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE you for this! Thank you!