• If you need help identifying a pepper, disease, or plant issue, please post in Identification.

Square Foot Gardening

TexomaHeat

TexomaHeat

Hey group, been a while since I've been here. Last summer sucked in my area (see below).

Anyways, what do you folks know about square foot gardening and peppers? Here's what I'm considering doing and I'd love to know anyone else's experiences with anything similar...

I live in USDA Zone 7B, just for the record. Wichita Falls, TX. Home of the Worst Summer Weather of 2011, according to weather.com.

Over the weekend I built a 4'x8' wooden planter. Planning on putting cardboard on the bottom and filling with dirt. So this is enough for 32 one-square-foot spaces to grow all my stuff. Here's how I hope to lay it out.

SquareFoot.jpg


Any thoughts? My biggest concern is whether or not there is enough spacing between plants. The guides I've read insist that this is fine, but I just wanted to get some thoughts of more experienced growers.
 
I like square foot gardening. How can a cayenne bush fit in a 12"x12" area though? Or even tomato, that is what I could never get. You would never be able to fit that many plants in a 4x8 unless you grew NFT or really small plants, but in ground no way.
 
That's what I was wondering-- the stuff I've read insists it will be fine, but I'm just a bit more than skeptical on it.
 
That tomato is going to crowd the stuff around it. Same with most of the peppers. It will probably be fine, but you'll get reduced production from each individual plant. I would also be concerned about disease - especially with the tomato. They like to breath - too much crowding can cause lots of foliage disease issues. Just a thought. I like the variety, however. Post some pictures as the season progresses.
 
Gotcha. I might forgo the tomatoes just to help give everything some space. Tomatoes rarely do well here anyways unless I go for a heatwave or some variety of cherry.

I haven't planted anything yet, or even dumped soil into the planter, so it's all still up in the air right now anyway,
 
any thoughts?

please tell what you are using the cardboard on top of?

how deep is your planter? (you listed as ± 96" x 48" x ?")

are you using a special soil for these?( i think if you use a special mix you will do lots better than putting 'dirt' into the raised bed)

to find out if this (or that or something else) will work for you; you have to give it a go

the spacing can work out as i have grown chilis "clumped together" in nursery #5 buckets
that is as close as the plot plan shows

again your results can (and probably will) vary
 
My jalapeno plants get 2 feet wide grown in small 2 gal pots, just to give you an idea of how much room they need.
 
I tried the square foot thing when I lived in Houston one year. IMO it works best for SMALL gardens, where you're not going to want to get between the plants to water/feed/harvest. Think about the physical activities you're going to engage in during the season, and plan your space accordingly. Yes, you can water that amount of space with a sprinkler, and can even use a type of sprayer to fertilize. But what if one somewhere in the middle becomes diseased? And how are you going to physically harvest?

Also, I'm wondering if you're doing the marigolds for the purposes stated in the original square-foot book. IMO - Don't bother. Someone could say they had a different result, but meh for me.
 
I'm doing marigolds to try to help with pest control. If it's not worth trying, I can forego them for some extra space as well.

The cardboard will just be atop the grass in my back yard. The ground there is pretty much entirely clay, so there's no way I'm putting my stuff in the ground directly.

As for planter depth, it's 10 inches.

In terms of soil, I'm not sure yet. Unfortunately, the key word for me right now is cheap, but effective. A local Master Gardener told me to layer the bottom with some DE, then go 1/3 compost, 1/3 vermiculite, and 1/3 coconut fiber. I can get the compost free from the city, but the vermiculite will be far too expensive for the space I'm dealing with.
 
I did a square foot garden 4x8 last year. I had each square with varying types of peppers. I wish i didn't. Things got too crowded. The slower growing plants got overwhelmed by the bigger ones and did not grow to their potential. Going back, i would have spaced the plants 1.5 to 2 feet from each other rather than 1 foot.

This year i'm moving almost exclusively to 5, 7, and 10 gallon containers (plastic and fabric). That way they can be spaced easily when they get bigger. I'll have a few in the raised bed just for kicks :)

Here's a link to my glog last year

http://www.thehotpep...d-2011-growlog/
 
I like the bioinetnsive/biodynamic gardening companion planting theories. They plant stuff close together, too, but only things that compliment the plants around it, both size-wise and biochemistry-wise. They plant with spacings based on an isometric grid based on equilateral triangles rather than a square one, so they gain some space there. I have tried this with mixed success, but when it clicks it's awesome.




geeme said:
Think about the physical activities you're going to engage in during the season, and plan your space accordingly. Yes, you can water that amount of space with a sprinkler, and can even use a type of sprayer to fertilize. But what if one somewhere in the middle becomes diseased? And how are you going to physically harvest?
Click to expand...

I agree with geeme, you have to be able to get at the middle of your bed w/o trampling everything on the way.

I also think you might want to rethink the cardboard on grass thing. Eventually the grass will penetrate and grow up here and there, and it consumes quantities of nitrogen as it decomposes. Also, 10" doesn't seem very deep. I'd go for at least 12" and loft the soil 6" above the sides, so you can at least have an 18" depth. It's a real pain in the back, literally, but if this is a permanant installation, it will be well worth it to peel off the sod, and break up the clay a bit so you get a decent interface with your soil and the substrate. This way worms can migrate up and down in your bed and do their magic. Double-digging would ensure years of successful gardening. There are no quick fixes in gardening - I know this from painful experience :doh: At the same time you might consider two 2'x8' beds to make getting at things easier.

For more info than you need, read John Jevons' How to grow More Vegetables Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine

PepperJam said:
This year i'm moving almost exclusively to 5, 7, and 10 gallon containers (plastic and fabric). I'll have a few in the raised bed just for kicks :)
Click to expand...

+1
 
"I also think you might want to rethink the cardboard on grass thing. Eventually the grass will penetrate a d grow up here and there. Also, 10" doesn't seem very deep"

I have set up a few raised bed using carboard, it is a wide practice.
 
Capsicum said:
"I also think you might want to rethink the cardboard on grass thing. Eventually the grass will penetrate a d grow up here and there. Also, 10" doesn't seem very deep"

I have set up a few raised bed using carboard, it is a wide practice.
Click to expand...

10 inches is fine. I grew my peppers in prob 7-8 inches in the raised bed. The plant's roots will have more space to grow laterally. I used weed cloth under my raised bed with no problems. I just staple gunned the weed cloth to the underside of the wood frame.
 
Given your blistering hot summers, tight spacing might be beneficial--but not that tight. I like the 'square foot' concept, but adjust for the plants. One tomato or a habanero might be alotted 3 or 4 square feet.

Place your biggest potential plants on the corners, so they have more room over the edge of the box. A staked cherry tomato going vertical in the corner would work well.

+1 ditch the marigolds.

What's the reason behind the layer of DE at the bottom? Termite or fire ant control? It could wipe out a lot of good creatures in transit.
 
I would put the tomatoes elsewhere, especially if you're doing any indeterminate varieties. I had great success last year using the Florida weave for tomatoes. They were planted about a foot and a half apart (which is still very close for tomatoes). Most Florida weave techniques have one planting in rows, but I decided to go with an X-shape to give it some added stability against the wind in our area. I have nine tomatoes plants in a 5' x 5' growing area, which is very dense for tomatoes, and admittedly I did have some foliar disease problems towards the end of the season.

IMGP1088.jpg
 
TexomaHeat said:
Gotcha. I might forgo the tomatoes just to help give everything some space. Tomatoes rarely do well here anyways unless I go for a heatwave or some variety of cherry.

I haven't planted anything yet, or even dumped soil into the planter, so it's all still up in the air right now anyway,
Click to expand...
Put the tomato on a corner?
 
Capsicum said:
"I also think you might want to rethink the cardboard on grass thing. Eventually the grass will penetrate a d grow up here and there. Also, 10" doesn't seem very deep"

I have set up a few raised bed using carboard, it is a wide practice.
Click to expand...

I built several 2'x3'x1' raised beds several years ago. The first few I stripped the sod
and made an interface for the dirt. I ran out of steam so just left the sod on the last few.
The difference in the beds is evident now. In my mind, the layer of green decomposing
sod was not healthy for the soil. As I researched this a bit, I ran across several refs to
anerobic conditions leading to rot rather than decomposition. Perhaps that was the case here.
In any case, the 'dug' beds have simply produced better than the others. In my opinion, if
you are not going to remove the grass, then skip the cardboard. The soil will smother it just
as well and you're not adding whatever chemicals process the cardboard into the root zone.
Composting cardboard might be different, maybe. Roots will penetrate very deep, in any case.

When I saw this thread, I went on google and saw that there are a wide variety of opinions
on this. It comes down to your own personal gardening philosophy, so do what you are comfy
with and have at it and have fun. Don't let curmudgeons like me get in the way.
 
I just bought the original Gardening by the square foot book last week from a local thrift store. I skimmed it but barely. After a minute or two I decided that I didn't like the idea. I might look through it again for other types of information. If you want to confine a plant to a space that most plants will easily out grow, you need to control them to fit in that predetermined space. Otherwise it's survival of the fittest.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top