For the February issue of Growing for Market, I’ve written an article about crop spacing. Because there wasn’t space to print it in the magazine, I’m posting the resource list here. The magazine will be out in mid-February.
The Southwest Florida Research and Education Center did a lot of work on growing transplants, but it is closing as a research establishment, and I am still seeking the web location of their wonderful resource covering age of transplants, container size, biological control for pests, diseases, hardening off, plant size, planting depth and temperature. Charles S. Vavrina wrote several of the articles, including
Bigger Is Actually Better:A Study of Transplant Container Cell Size edis.ifas.ufl.edu/hs107
An Introduction to the Production of Containerized Vegetable Transplants edis.ifas.ufl.edu/hs126
Chapter 5 Transplant production from the 2011 Vegetable Production Handbook for Florida, by Bielinski M. Santos is at edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/CV/CV10400.pdf
ATTRA has a good 2005 publication on Plugs and Transplant Production for Organic Systems: attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/summaries/summary.php?pub=55
John Jeavons How to Grow More Vegetables
Steve Solomon Gardening When it Counts. Steve lists his preferred “semi-intensive raised bed”spacings, those of John Jeavons, and adaptations for areas with little irrigation or rainfall (on the flat, no raised beds) and extensive cultivation with adequate water.