How much of each veggie should I plant?

[BlueRose]

I'm going to be planting tomatoes, yellow squash, cucumbers, and the long green onions. I'm in a family of three, and I have a few relatives I could give produce to. So I'm wondering how many seeds of each I should plant? I already picked out 5 squash since they produce a lot!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm writing from my experience and with the general mindset of the way things grow here and how I grow them. Someone on here has a table that tells you how much to plant. Maybe they will see this and kick in.

What is your intended use of the tomatoes and cucumbers? Are you planning on just enough for fresh eating or do you plan to make and preserve a few batches of pickles, cucumber relish, tomato sauce, tomato puree, canned tomatoes, pizza sauce, spaghetti sause, and maybe dehydrate some tomatoes? If it is for fresh eating only, how often do you eat them?

If it is for fresh eating and a few to give away, three cucumber plants will probably give you plenty. If you don't want them every meal and they do well, one might be enough for you to have a few extra to give away. Those things can produce well when they do well. If you are going to make pickles (and I recommend a pickling cucumber for that instead of a field cucumber) you need to plant enough plants to pick enough for a worth while batch at one time. They do not store well. I'd probably go with 12 to 15 plants for that, maybe a few more if I had extra space.

Tomatoes are a little harder. There are so many different varieties and potential uses. I don't know which varieties you started from seed. Probably wouldn't help much if I did know. They produce differently in different areas. For fresh eating and some to give away, three plants is probably plenty, maybe more than plenty. I usualy plant eight or ten different varieties with one to four plants of each, but I use them in all the ways listed at the top plus give some away. I'd like to grow more but there is only so much space I can allocate to tomatoes in my garden.

I don't do green onions from seed, so I cannot comment on those.

Good luck!!!

 

[lesa]

I would think a lot depends on how much room you have in your garden...This is your first garden, right? Try not to worry too much, maybe you could consider this year a kind of experiment. Plant what you have and see how it goes. See what your family enjoys, what does well in your soil, etc. Nature is always full of surprises, no matter how much planning you do, there is still going to be a learning curve. Good luck!

 

[ducks4you]

It's a learning curve. Regarding tomatoes: Plant more seeds that you think you need, then you will have enough in the ground. (OR, buy some seedlings from a fundraiser or garden center to replace any that die.) IF too many grow, put them in ANYTHING that resembles a pot, and grow them on your porch. If you plant too many, and don't clean up any that fall they will drop seeds that will come up next year as "volunteers." ( I forgot about a couple of tomatoes that I left by the corner of my garage, and I had 7-10 volunteers there for YEARS.) Tomatoes are pretty tough. I dug up and replanted many of these vounteers and most of them survived and bore fruit. Volunteers come up really late, so you can't count on THEM for your crop.
When I lived in town and only had 1/4 acre (with less than 1/8 of an acre back yard, fenced in, facing North), I still grew up to about 15 tomato plants, and I'd let them climb my neighbors fence for support. I also grew about 5 cucumbers then, and I had enough tomatoes and cucumbers to do some canning.
Enjoy your gardening!!

 

[lupinfarm]

I *always* buy my tomatoes in store because I don't have the money for a nice big light or the space to keep lots of seedlings started indoors. Much easier, and I usually buy them as soon as they're available in store. Last year I bought from Home Depot and they had these ones with nifty biodegradable pots and those tomatoes turned out enormous, especially after being started under my polytunnel.

This year I'm starting 9 Pumpkin (the kind you plant for eating/pie making), 9 Pickling cukes, and some peas ahead of time. I might start another 9 cukes next week.

I buy about 5 pre-started big cuke plants when they're available instore, and all the beans and peas get started from seed, lettuces, etc.

Ie, plant as much as you can! As much as you have space for.

 

[BlueRose]

Thenk you so much everyone for all of your answers! I hope you guys look back here because, as mentioned, I didn't really say how big my garden was, or what I had planned to do with the vegetables.

The cucumbers, and tomatoes we will use in salads, randomly snack on, and give away to people.
The onions my dad loves, and we'll give some of those away to people too.
The yellow squash we will eat for dinner, and give some away.

I was planning on planting the cucumber and onions in an hour or so. Technically I guess I could say this is my first garden, although I used to plant ALL THE TIME with my grandfather before he passed away. I grew up planting with him. And I chose these vegetables to plant because he and I would plant them...well, not sure about the green onions...I mainly chose those because of my dad.

 

[lesa]

Well, this will be a garden that grows all kinds of sweet memories, I am sure... Since you are not planning on storing or canning, I would not think you would need very many plants, at all. As you say, you can always share your bounty, if you end up with more than you can use. Enjoy!

 

[ducks4you]

Read about the squash that you plant. Zuccini and Acorn Squash don't take up much space because they turn into a big bushes. Other squashes spread their vines all over the place and require lots more room.

 

[BlueRose]

Thank you Lesa, I liked what you said about memories. ducks4you, good idea about planting more. I actually planted more tomatoes and yellow squash then I'm going to keep into the pots here in the house. I plan on taking the biggest ones that sprout to plant out in the garden.

After saying about what I'm going to do with the vegetables, do you think this amount of plants sounds good?:

3-4 squash
3-4 cucumber
5- tomatoes

Green onions I'm still not sure about... Is it one onion per seed or do they produce more per seed? I always just saw one shoot of onions sticking out of the ground and thought that was all to them.

 

[ducks4you]

One onion seed produces one onion bulb. Write down when they sprout so you don't leave them in the ground too long--they get tough.