Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I was googling planting and came across square foot gardening, and also 4 foot farmers.

I did search these forums and could only find a couple of vague references to square foot systems.

Does anybody use these techniques to plant their GB's?

This chart gives a planting planner for the 4ft Farmer and I was wondering if it would be worth combining it with the square foot grid on the GB, sort of looks like a very organised method for setting up the plants.

the 4ft system where the grid came from is allowing 2.5" for each grid and one plant. I would space the grid out to say 8" ie 200mm so my 1200x2400 bed would have 72 squares then plant several plants to suit the square foot system.

this is a part which I could fit onto my 1.2 X 2.4 GB



This the whole grid.



The square foot system gives plants per sq ft.

I have been wondering about square foot planting techniques for some time, but I am too cheap to buy the book. Perhaps it is time to check out the local library, see if the book is there. But if that is the gist of it, I am pretty sure I am going to go by it for my next planting.

Nope its rubbish.

Square meter farming is far superior and the way of the future.

it has to be better than my method, which is just chuck seeds all over the beds in a random manner.

I found a web site with a free planner, its an on line google log in?

http://www.sfgplanner.com/#design

personally I'd prefer a spread sheet to down load, but this works albeit in a clunky manner.

very funny Stuart, can you convert the spread sheet to metric for us?

Ehh...let me think about it.

So in an AP system is there any benefit planting in this type of grid?

Will it improve production or just make me look like I'm OCD?

OCD

All the way.

Slowboat, just a question here? A few have said you can plant more dense in aquaponics, but as my system is still new and I am planting the larger leafy veggies like lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower, with a few basil, do you recommend the spacing should be at estimated size off an adult plant? I haven’t made my channel system as yet so my plants are seedling brought from Bunning’s, and not from seeds I have grown in the system as its still new,

Any ideas would help?

Love to help Blizzard but I'm no expert, however I think plants need some space for ventilation etc.

the grid system staggers plants so young one grow between older larger ones. So when you harvest the younger ones have more room.

up till now I just planted seeds every where and thinned out as they grew.

Maybe a more expert gardener can help us out?

That could be why they put different dates for planting in your grid? Just a few of my plants look like they are double seeded? So not much room for them to move at full size, it was hard enough washing the roots out, I didn’t notice at the time of planting unfortunately, but they are all going gangbusters ATM, with a bit of help from the sea sol, its still a new system, the algae love it

that's great news

Just been out repairing the pea support frame. the easterly winds have been blowing like crazy lately.

Their not to bad here, the winds that is, a lot better than Forrestfield and High Wycombe! I’m about four km from the hills, so its not to bad, but the house faces south, two of my neighbours houses face west and they have both lost their garage door twice in two years?

The only issue I see is that everything is a leafy green. What about tomatoes and eggplant?

I know what you mean, one of our chooks laid the same egg twice the other morning...

It's interesting.. I would have thought Companion Planting would have been one of the main drawcards pushed with the square foot gardening method, but most of the websites promoting it talk more about the commercial vermiculite "Mel's Mix" used in the sfg's etc

And that the mix is weed free. To start off with at least (until a passing bird craps on it )

You'll also inevitably have weed seeds or unwanted vegie seeds coming through your compost (via kitchen scraps) unless you make the perfect hot compost everytime to cook them

Heavy mulching soil beds with wet newspaper/cardboard and straw or woodchips on top is the best weed combating method we've found..

SFG might be good for small areas though