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markmein

early/mid-season SFG observations - going very well

markmein
14 years ago

SFG is working very well for me and most of my veggies. We eaten through most of our initial spring plantings of greens.

2x2 Lettuce works well. They are crowded as they mature, but with each head we ate the others filled in the newly-freed space. As a comparison lettuce planted 1 to a square got huge, too, but I think the 2x2 resulted in more food (and variety) for a square.

Indeterminate toms 1 to a square are doing very well. They are trellised up a string and are 5' tall so far, which is pretty good for our cool, grey Portland spring.

Vining winter squash (delicata and butternut) are doing well 1 to a square. Like the toms they are along 1 side of a bed. The vines are trained down onto the path and, with a little guidance, are headed where I want them. The on hitch in the toms & squash is that they seriously crowd adjacent squares I planted with other stuff. I put up barriers (wire half-circle hoops with reemay-type stuff). That has helped alot, but the peppers & eggplants being hemmed in by the squash & toms are a bit stunted by the crowding.

Lacinato kale is amazingly hearty & beautiful and fully deserves and uses 1 full square each. Chard is also on a 1 square each spacing which, with leaf miners and adjacent spinach (4x4) and beets (3x3) seemed like a very rich environment for leaf miners. Maybe early season crop covers for next time.

Broccoli at 1 per square doesn't seem to produce much food for the time and space it takes.

There are others, but that's the initial report. SGF has me producing ALOT of food in my 125 square feet of mixed veggie beds. I also have asparagus and strawberries in some other beds, as well as bulb onions and garlic in the 3-foot wide parking strip.

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