Abstract
THAT close spacing restricts the growth of most plants is so obvious as not to require experimental proof. Horticulturally, this is a problem of considerable interest because it means that attempts to increase yields by increasing the plant density are not successful. With some crops ‘yield’ may bear no close relation to total growth, but this is not so for most root vegetables. Further, with these crops, it is possible to determine for any locality the population-range which can be depended on to give the maximum yield of salable roots. Thus on a fertile loam in Cheshire maximum yields of long beet are assured if the plant population lies between 70,000 and 135,000 per acre. Corresponding figures for globe beet are 110,000 and 150,000 with a possible extension of the latter figure. Within these population-ranges total yields may change slightly; but the yields of salable roots (after rejection of small ones) remain constant. There is almost and sometimes quite complete dependence of root size on available space. Thus in one experiment on globe beet, plants allotted 90 sq. in. each had a mean root weight of 10.88 oz. A reduction in the space available per plant by 60 per cent reduced the mean root weight by 58.4 per cent. Why the closely spaced plants should be so small is not clear. In our experiments, even at the closest spacings employed, adjacent plants do not suffer deformation by mutual pressure. Neither have we evidence that it would be harmful if they did. Clearly, the restriction in size which results from close spacing is not due simply to lack of ‘room’. Three factors of the environment, competition for which may occur with closely spaced plants, are light, water and mineral nutrients (including nitrogen).
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WARNE, L. Effects of Close Spacing on the Growth of Garden Beet. Nature 172, 506 (1953). https://doi.org/10.1038/172506a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/172506a0
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