How many plants in a 4x16 raised bed?

[jenn_sc]

I think 16 would really be pushing it, especially if you don't intend to prune. I would probably go with about 10, max. Just my 2cents!

[dice]

I would say 9 max: one of row of 5 plants, 3 feet apart, with
the end plants set in about 6 inches from the end and a
foot in from the side, and one of row of 4 plants along the
other side in the spaces between the first 5, also set in a
foot from the side.

My honest opinion: this is still going to be too crowded
if you don't prune. By midsummer you won't even be
able to see into the middle of it, and you won't be sure
which plant a branch with a fruit on it is from unless it
happens to be on the outside or have a distinctive shape
or color, different leaf type, etc.

I wish I had taken a picture last August of this one bed
I had with unpruned plants 2' apart in rows 2' apart. It was
a jungle. The plants were all shading each other. Some
of the semi-determinates that only get 4-5' tall were
completely buried under the branches of true indeterminates
around them.

If I were growing indeterminates and not pruning, I would
grow 5 right down the middle of a 4' x 16', and put basil,
parsley, etc out near the edges in the middle of the gaps
between them.

I would try to keep all of the determinates together in the
same bed, too (less shading by taller plants).

If you have too many plants, but you can't see yourself building
that many raised beds, using containers of some kind instead
of crowding them together will probably be less painful. You
have to do a lot of watering that way, but you can move them
to give them as much room as they need.

(Quick, fast, cheap container: laundry basket from a dollar
store with doubled garbage bags in it, with holes poked
around the bottom of the garbage bags for drainage. Others
use grow bags with handles, those big plastic nursery
containers for small trees and shrubs, styrofoam coolers,
homemade Earthboxes, etc.)

[gardengalrn]

I grew in a raised bed about 8 years ago and I would agree that 16 is too many for that sized bed. Despite my best intentions, I always cram too many in and it becomes a jungle. I swear each and every time as I'm crawling and maneuvering through the jungle, whether in raised beds or not. Disease and pests were a big problem for me as well. Dice brings up a good alternative if you are set on having 16; I've always grown quite a few in 5 gal buckets at my other place where garden space was limited.

[Hilde]

I guess I could test out what works the best for my location this year by varying the number of plants that I put in each bed.

Perhaps I should give in and make an extra bed so I still can grow all the varieties. Although I am kind of spooked after having my face only a foot away from a garden snake today!

It was resting on the other side of the bed frame that I attached, and fled when I started drilling. I broke the drill bit when I saw it too... Ugh, I hate snakes! They totally creep me out. Then it disappeared under the blueberry bed, and I ran for the Snake-Away.


I do have some rather large self watering containers that I have used for tomatoes in the past, but I was hoping that I wouldn't have to use containers anymore, although I might make an exception in the fall, I would like to try growing a small crop for November/December in the green house.

[dice]

If you have sufficient compost or manure or even just
leaves and grass clippings plus some dirt, or enough
topsoil, you could make a raised bed without building
the sides. Then you could decide over the winter
whether to build walls around it and keep it for another
raised bed.

To do it, you make a raised mound of soil with a flat top,
and then you heap up extra dirt along the edges to hold
water in. You know those raised little round berms about
2-3' in diameter around the plant that you see people on
garden shows suggest for freshly transplanted roses, shrubs,
and trees? Same idea, but you run it down the sides of the
raised mound of soil and along the ends. You can have
children run up and down along the edge and make a packed
down border all around the edge about 8 inches wide, then
build up the raised lip to hold water on top of that. It will
still subside a little from rain, but most of the dirt will stay
in the mound, and water will soak in rather than run off of
it.

If it is on top of lawn, one can put some layers of newspaper
down and then build the bed on top of that to keep turf
and weeds from growing right up through the soil in the
raised bed.

One good thing about building raised beds now: with
home construction slacking off nationwide, there should
be bargains on materials at suppliers if you watch for
them, scour Craig's List, etc.