If you’re setting up an indoor garden, the spacing of plants can be a critical factor underlying how much your garden yields. We have prepared this article to outline some of the basic ways that plant spacing effects light absorption, and some tips to optimize your garden’s success.
When light shines on a garden, the leaves near the top of the plants get more intense light than the leaves at the bottom. The top leaves shade the bottom leaves and absorb energy, making less light available to lower leaves. If the lower leaves do not receive enough light, they will yellow and die. Tall six-foot plants take longer to grow and have higher overall yields than shorter four-foot plants, but the yield will be about the same.
Atleast 99 two-week-old seedlings or cuttings can be huddled directly under a singele 400-watt HID. The young plants will need more space as they grow. If packed too closely together, plants sense the shortage of space and do not grow to their maximum potential. Leaves from one plant shade another plant’s foliage and slow overall plant growth. it is very important to space young plants just far enough apart so their leaves do not touch or touch very litlle. This will keep the shading to a minimum and growth to a maximum. Check and alter the spacing every few days. Eight to sixteen mature tomato plants three to four months old will completely fill the space under one 1000-watt HID. Plants can absorb light only if it falls on their leaves. Plants must be spaced so their leaves do not overlap too much. Yield increases very little when plants are crowded. Plants also stretch for light which makes less efficient use of intense light.
Best number of plants per square foot is often a matter of experimenting to find the magic number for your garden. In general each 40-inch square of space will hold from 16 to 32 plants.
