Garden Seed Planting Guide
Do you like to garden?
The vegetable growing chart below is designed to help you calculate the seed spacing, row spacing, seed planting depth and soil temperature needed for successful garden planting. HILL indicates that vegetable seeds should be planted on a mounded pile of soil or hill.
Why use correct spacing?
You may wonder why spacing matters. Why not just cast the seeds willy nilly and let nature do the rest?
One good reason is that correct spacing normally uses less seeds. This can save you money.
Correct spacing also helps crops grow better. Plants can detect their close neighbors and modify their growth accordingly.
Some plants like to have their roots touching. Plants can influence their neighbors by sending out chemical growth signals from their roots (Elhakeem et al. 2018).
Interesting, plants can even tell if nearby plants are related to them or if they are strangers through root produced chemicals (Chen et al. 2012)! They use this information to adjust how they grow.
Using the correct spacing also improves plant health. If plants are too close they are more susceptible to fungus and other diseases. If plants are too far away weeds can thrive.
| Vegetables | Planting Depth (inches) |
Space in Rows (inches) |
Space Between Rows (inches) |
Soil Min Temp ºF | Soil Ideal Temp ºF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| arugula | 1/4 | 4 | 18 | 50 | 65-85 |
| bush bean | 1 | 3-4 | 24-36 | 60 | 60-80 |
| pole bean | 1 | 3-4 | 24-36 | 60 | 60-80 |
| beet | 1/2 | 2.5 | 12-18 | 40 | 60-85 |
| broccoli | 1/4 | 24-30 | 20 | 50 | 65-85 |
| cabbage | 1/2 | 24-30 | 24-36 | 40 | 55-95 |
| carrot | 1/2 | 1 | 12-18 | 40 | 60-85 |
| cauliflower | 1/4 | 30 | 24-36 | 40 | 55-80 |
| cantaloupe | 1 | 2 HILL | 6 feet | 60 | 75-95 |
| collards | 1/4 | 12 | 30-36 | 50 | 65-85 |
| sweet corn | 1 | 10-14 | 24-36 | 60 | 60-95 |
| cucumber | 1 | 4 | 4 | 60 | 65-95 |
| leaf lettuce | 1/8 | 3-6 | 12-18 | 35 | 40-80 |
| Romaine lettuce | 1/8 | 1 | 12-18 | 35 | 40-80 |
| onions | 1/2 | 2 | 12-18 | 40 | 50-95 |
| peas | 1-2 | 1-2 | 3 | 40 | 50-75 |
| peppers | 1/4 | 18 | 18-24 | 60 | 70-90 |
| pumpkins | 1 | 2-3 HILL | 3-6 | 60 | 70-90 |
| radish | 1/4 | 2 | 12-18 | 40 | 55-85 |
| radicchio | 1/8 | 8-10 | 12-18 | 50 | 60-85 |
| spinach | 1/2 | 2 | 12-18 | 35 | 45-65 |
| squash, summer | 1 | 2-3 HILL | 36-48 | 60 | 70-90 |
| squash, winter | 1 | 2-3 HILL | 36-48 | 60 | 70-90 |
| swiss chard | 1/2 | 3-6 | 12-18 | 40 | 50-85 |
| tomatoes | 1/4 | 2-3 | 24-36 | 50 | 60-85 |
| watermelon | 1 | 2-3 HILL | 6 feet | 60 | 75-95 |
References:
- Chen BJW, During HJ, Anten NPR. Detect thy neighbor: Identity recognition at the root level in plants. Plant Science 2012; 195: 157-167. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plantsci.2012.07.006 PMID: 22921010
- Elhakeem A, Markovic D, Broberg A, Anten NPR, Ninkovic V. Aboveground mechanical stimuli affect belowground plant-plant communication. PLOS ONE 2018:13(5): e0195646. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0195646 (full text)