Plant Spacing Calculator

For broadcast-style beds of greens, onions, or carrots where every plant gets equal access to light and the 15% density gain matters. Avoid it for crops that need straight-row cultivation, trellising along a line, or mechanical harvest - the stagger makes those operations harder without meaningful yield benefit.

Up to a point. Total bed yield (weight per square foot) often rises as you pack more plants in, but per-plant size falls. For markets or home use where you want full-sized heads of lettuce or uniform tomatoes, space for the product size you want rather than maximum plants per bed.

Subtract walking aisles from the bed width before entering it here. A 6-ft bed with a 1.5-ft path on each long side has only 3 ft of productive width. If your bed is truly accessible from both sides (maximum 4 ft wide), you can use the full width. Paths that are omitted from the calculation will inflate your plant count and your transplant order.

The calculator iterates row by row, alternating the start offset, and counts exactly how many plants fit within the bed boundary at each row. The result is accurate to within one or two plants for most bed sizes. Always add 5-10% to your transplant order for losses and gaps.