60cm x 60cm plant spacing Do you know that hybrid seeds are relatively expensive compare to their local or improved open pollinated ...
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| 60cm x 60cm plant spacing |
Do you know that hybrid seeds are relatively expensive
compare to their local or improved open pollinated counterparts? Even at this,
many farmers end up wasting these already expensive seeds. Why? They don’t
really understand the quantity of seeds they need to plant a specific area of
land in the first place. Do you know that all the improved seeds are well
packaged in sealed tin or sachet, once you open them, the germination rate
(potential) starts depreciating. This is the reason why you shouldn’t store an
opened seeds’ package for long otherwise you would lose certain percentage of
the seeds viability. You might then think; what is the way out? Buy only what
you need at a time or open only seed package you need at a time.
During the
course of my consultancy business and farm visits, I have come across not a few
farmers who are into vegetable production or about to start vegetable
cultivation but they lack one essential ingredient of success; ability to
calculate plant population. This can be liken to a building engineer or the
likes professionals who gives quotation to a land owner that is interested in
building a duplex but the engineer does not have an idea of average number of
blocks required to complete the building. I wonder what the quotation is made
up of!
The first
thing you must know is the area of your field. Then, you can now proceed to
calculate plant population according to the spacing you want. It is upon this
knowledge you will base a lot of planning and estimation among which are the
quantity of seeds require, the quantity/type of irrigation materials needed,
the strength of workforce you might require, the quantity of inputs like
agrochemicals, fertilizer etc. needed.
Farming
fields basically come in two shapes; rectangular/square; in which case it is
easier to measure or shapeless field; in which case you might need to
understand the technique requires to measuring the area. A field may not always
be a rectangular shape but all the same, find a way of measuring the area. As
for a rectangular shaped field, you measure the length and the breadth and
multiply both to get the field area.
- Measuring a shapeless field
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| Image 1.0 |
You would
understand better by studying image 1.0 below. In summary, you would measure
the presumable length then measure the breadth in 4 to 5 places, find the
average and multiply with the length.After coming
up with the area, you can now decide on your spacing method. There are many
conditions that dictate the kind of spacing method you would use: time of the
year, crop type, irrigation method/type, method of field preparation, expected
yield, farm practice etc. I would look at these conditions in-toto in another
of our articles. There are many advantages to having a well-designed and
aligned planting pattern. Some of them are increase in yield, ease of diseases
and pest management, ease of walking through/working the farm to carry out
routine activities, aesthetic value etc. The common spacing methods are outline
below.
- Side by side spacing method (60cm x 60cm or 30cm x 30cm):
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| Image 1.1 |
let assume you want to use 60cm x 60cm x 100cm spacing. What this
means is that the distance between one
plant stand and the other is 60cm while space between one bed and another is
100cm. There are two rows of plant stands side by side on each bed. Note that
in most places where plant spacing recommendation is given, they don’t give the
spacing between beds (walk way), that is usually personal decision.
(See Image 1.1)
- Side by side spacing method (60cm x 45cm or 60cm x 30cm)
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| Image 1.3 |
This is similar
to the 60cm x 60cm except that this house more plant population per area of
land. I did mention above that there are factors that govern spacing methods
you wish to use. There are methods that fit in for wet season as well as methods
that fit dry season. (See image 1.3).
- One row spacing method
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| Image 1.4 |
One would have taught this spacing method would
house more plant stands per certain area of land compare to others above but
let me give you a shocker, there is little difference in plant population but subjects
to space of the walk way. If the spacing of the walk way is the same as that
use in the above methods, then there is little difference in plant population. (See Image 1.4).
- Zig-Zag spacing method
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| Image 1.5 |
This method is often use to minimize competition
for nutrients, light and water within plant stands. It must be noted that it is
the same as 60cm x 60cm or 30cm x 30cm depending. (Image 1.5),
Conclusion on plant spacing and plant
population
Having a good
understanding of plant spacing is an essential ingredient to success in
farming. Upon this, you can plan a whole lot and do accurate budget. In
addition, it should be noted that plant spacing calculation is not with the
intention of getting exactly accurate figures but an idea of the average number
of stands you are working at. Upon this, buying of seeds, chemicals,
fertilizers and others would be based.
(Excerpt from
our E-book: Farm Management Workbook on Commercial Tomato Cultivation. Click the link to
learn more about our unique offers and make yourself a successful veggies
farmer or watch the video on https://youtu.be/Xa6Bwyhu-M0
I hope you gain something from
this article. If you do, please leave a comment behind. You may also read
another of our article ( Click link ) that explain
how to understand the amount of seeds per gram for every common vegetables.
Combining the knowledge from the two articles would surely make you a
professional.
In addition, you could read
this academic paper to deepen your understanding of plant population calculation. ( Click this link )
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