[Lenny59]

Hi everyone I am new on this forum and newish to veg growing.....I have built some raised beds in my garden and filled them with top soil westland multi compost with aded john innes and a few bags of farmyard manure.
My qyuestion is ........I have read on a couple of occasions that you can make spacings between plants a little closer in raised beds......If this is true then how much closer? E.G if it states on the seed packet 25cm apart then in a raised bed how much less could i go......BTW my beds are approx 12 inches deep..........Thanks in advance for any replies

[Ice]

If you can get hold of a copy of Dr. D. G. Hessayons book I would do so.  He has a section at the back which explains all this very well.  It's also an excellent book in it's own right.  If you have a particular plant in mind I don't mind letting you know what he says about planting them,

[John]

Some cultivars are more suitable for close spacing than others - for example, cabbage minicole or hispi work well whereas full size varieties won't do as well.

Onions spacing controls size - so going tight will produce smaller bulbs.

As a rule, if the packet says space at 6" in rows 12" apart, in a raised bed you can just space at 6" apart each way.

[Lenny59]

Thanks for the replies.....just ordered the books from amazon so again thanks for the info

[Bear]

Look up 'Square foot gardening' - I've been experimenting with it this year and had some good results, but as John says some things work better than others.

A couple of things - watch what goes next to what. a tall crop next to a short crop with almost smother it causing very poor cropping even if the short crop would normally produce well at small spacing.

[noshed]

Part of the rationale of planting closer together is that the veg shades out the weeds. This works to a certain extent but you still get some, so you have to weed by hand as generally the veg is too close to use a hoe.
So get a kneeler.

[Vegpot]

Hi

We did raised beds this year too, with mixed success (although I think it's been a difficult year).

I found that my early Nantes carrots grown from seed have been very successful without thinning, so you could try doing a section of carrots without spacing at all!

Often if things are planted closer together they just produce smaller plants but sometimes onions can get really big even just a few inches apart.

Good luck!

[John]

Often if things are planted closer together they just produce smaller plants but sometimes onions can get really big even just a few inches apart.

Good luck!

Not in my experience, but you might have had better luck than me.

With carrots, if you sow fairly thinly then you can just start thinning when they're big enough to eat. Take out alternates and leave the rest to grow on.