Spacing of vegetables

[Nancy Walsworth]

I'm new to aquaponics and now ready to plant all 4 beds with various vegetables.  My question is: is the spacing for various vegetables the same as it says it is on the seed envelope?  Is there a "rule of thumb" for planting transplants started earlier vs planting the seed right into the hydroton?  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Very cool Chelsea :) Yeah, your choices aren't too big when wanting to fit more holes on the raft hehe...

I'm not sure what size system/number of plants your dealing with...but I can tell you re-claiming hydroton and net pots (and being 'proper' about it...gets to be one of those 'pain in the ass' type chores pretty quickly. Makes you kinda wish you had kids...or interns :)

When I was out at Jon Parr's place helping him teach this past Feb. I got to see these in action...http://www.ihort.com/index.cfm/category/64/hydroponics-raft.cfm

which are made to be used in conjunction with these...http://www.ihort.com/index.cfm/category/1/qplugs.cfm

Transportation costs, customs duties, VAT taxes and all are kinda prohibitive for me, where I'm at...but boy 'oh boy they sure seems like a time/labour saver...

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Hey Chelsea...Here are some pics I just now took. These are some Red Summer Crisp lettuces that are about ready. They are on 8" centers and you can see there is still a bit of crowding. Don't be tempted to use 6" spacings for stuff like this...Any tighter and heads dont form quite right and your more prone to be inviting problems with pathogens (pretty much always the case when you overcrowd any plants)...

 Starting seeds or seedlings off in 8" (or even 6")  spacings is a phenomenal waste of space and money, and makes no sense...I start them off pretty tightly...These are some new RSC lettuce seedlings...

Then move them into 'nursery rafts' which are about 22" square and 41 holes...before moving them out (when they get big enough) to the 4'x2' 8" (OC) DWC rafts...

 Pretty standard fare for DWC raft production.....

[Tom Dumas]

Wonderful photos of large healthy plants. What were your fish water nitrate readings at the time and fish density?  Tom

Vlad Jovanovic said:

Hey Chelsea...Here are some pics I just now took. These are some Red Summer Crisp lettuces that are about ready. They are on 8" centers and you can see there is still a bit of crowding. Don't be tempted to use 6" spacings for stuff like this...Any tighter and heads dont form quite right and your more prone to be inviting problems with pathogens (pretty much always the case when you overcrowd any plants)...

 Starting seeds or seedlings off in 8" (or even 6")  spacings is a phenomenal waste of space and money, and makes no sense...I start them off pretty tightly...These are some new RSC lettuce seedlings...

Then move them into 'nursery rafts' which are about 22" square and 41 holes...before moving them out (when they get big enough) to the 4'x2' 8" (OC) DWC rafts...

 Pretty standard fare for DWC raft production.....

[Vlad Jovanovic]

Hi Tom, and thanks ...Using a nitrate reading alone is a really poor way to gauge how well a particular cultivar will do. I've gotten this kind of growth using nitrates systems that had readings in the 10-20ppm range, and other systems that were well over a hundred. So using a nitrate readings alone as a type of  'over all system health' parameter can pretty meaningless. Besides, aren't the 'ultimate perfect' readings of NH4, NO2, NO3 all zero?     :)

As far as "...fish density at the time..."  That was Zero. These (and many more things) were all grown using worm castings and a bit of humonia...and 3 kilos of sea salt that had dried upon the rocks at a stretch of pristine coastline. No MaxiCrop, Seasol, Kelpak, Charelie Carp etc...or any type of hydro store bought nutrients.

The weather is supposed to break soon, (though we are still having nights at or below freezing) so my fish are on order for the 'big-ish' system, and I've acquired a line on a good quality feed made by Skretting. Much less ash content (fillers like ground up chicken feathers) than some other commonly used fish feeds...So less muck in the growbeds for the worms and everything else to break down (since I'm trying to avoid having to take any fish effluent out of the system...like with swirl filters or settling tanks...and will be using a much lower stocking density than what many folks use. Apparently, it doesn't really take that many fish to grow some plants well...and I don't eat them (fish), my wife is a vegan, and I don't really care to get into selling lots of them...or any of them (for now). It's entirely a 'plant' based operation. So, I'm looking to find an ultra low density guideline for myself...and still have the plants do well. It's been fun stuff. I'm done cycling the 'big-ish' system, done 'torture testing' it, and am waiting now for my fish to take their place at the base at the base of the 'input pyramid'...

Again, isolated nitrate readings taken out of context are meaningless. i.e...someone towards the end of cycling using Ace Hardware's Janitorial Ammonia can have some very high nitrate readings and the plants growth is really gonna suck and be full of deficiencies....

[Jonathan Kadish NYC AA Chair]

Vlad I have just two five inch goldfish in a 26 gallon tank with a 4 cubic foot grow bed. Low density has worked to grow basil, tomatoes, bok choy & lettuce successfully. I also only feed my fish about 1-2 grams once each day. Trying carrots next.

Vlad Jovanovic said:

Hi Tom, and thanks ...Using a nitrate reading alone is a really poor way to gauge how well a particular cultivar will do. I've gotten this kind of growth using nitrates systems that had readings in the 10-20ppm range, and other systems that were well over a hundred. So using a nitrate readings alone as a type of  'over all system health' parameter can pretty meaningless. Besides, aren't the 'ultimate perfect' readings of NH4, NO2, NO3 all zero?    

As far as "...fish density at the time..."  That was Zero. These (and many more things) were all grown using worm castings and a bit of humonia...and 3 kilos of sea salt that had dried upon the rocks at a stretch of pristine coastline. No MaxiCrop, Seasol, Kelpak, Charelie Carp etc...or any type of hydro store bought nutrients.

The weather is supposed to break soon, (though we are still having nights at or below freezing) so my fish are on order for the 'big-ish' system, and I've acquired a line on a good quality feed made by Skretting. Much less ash content (fillers like ground up chicken feathers) than some other commonly used fish feeds...So less muck in the growbeds for the worms and everything else to break down (since I'm trying to avoid having to take any fish effluent out of the system...like with swirl filters or settling tanks...and will be using a much lower stocking density than what many folks use. Apparently, it doesn't really take that many fish to grow some plants well...and I don't eat them (fish), my wife is a vegan, and I don't really care to get into selling lots of them...or any of them (for now). It's entirely a 'plant' based operation. So, I'm looking to find an ultra low density guideline for myself...and still have the plants do well. It's been fun stuff. I'm done cycling the 'big-ish' system, done 'torture testing' it, and am waiting now for my fish to take their place at the base at the base of the 'input pyramid'...

Again, isolated nitrate readings taken out of context are meaningless. i.e...someone towards the end of cycling using Ace Hardware's Janitorial Ammonia can have some very high nitrate readings and the plants growth is really gonna suck and be full of deficiencies....