Vegetables Gardening - Growing Organic Vegetables

A few questions:

1. If I wanted to do a full row of onions, how do I figure out how many that I'm supposed to put in the bed? (4" apart - JK)

2. Same questions for peppers as above. (12" apart in 2 rows - JK)

3. I've not grown potatoes before... can someone give me info on how to grow potatoes (like from the start -- is it seed or parts of the potato?). (parts of the "seed potato", including at least 1 eye per part - JK)

4. If I grow zucchini vertically, then can I grow more than 20 plants in a 30' row? I don't plan to do a whole bed, but I'm wondering because if I grow them vertically, they won't be taking up so much space, right?

(Zucchini should be planted no closer than 18" - and 21" is recommended - so you should have only about 20 plants in a 30' row, even when you ARE growing vertically, and FEWER than that if you're not growing vertically. Also, you need to make sure you take off a leaf or two each week or so and keep everything off the ground and away from their neighbors - JK)

5. What do you all use to get your seedlings going... dirt? Sawdust? Sand? (Yes - - - - Seedling production is best done in trays or "flats", on tables in a seedling greenhouse with full sunlight. And the soil medium should NOT be dirt, but rather a mixture of sand, sawdust, perlite, peat moss, etc. - JK)

6. If I use 36" wide rows not 18" do I just double the amount of plants? For instance, 1 bed of potatoes is 92 plants according to the book... would I double it to make it 184 plants?

(No. 36" is not wide enough for 4 rows of most plants. If you want to double your plants you need a 4'-wide Grow-Box. In a 36" bed much of the space is wasted, or the plants are too close together and all suffer. For most varieties of vegetable plants a 36" bed is not a good choice - JK).

Thanks for all your help :)

Tamara Slack
Seymour, MO

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