Domino Planting

[Brenjon]

This is addressed to Johnboy
I realise that i have asked you this before
but as often happens wih me i have lost the thread, and you have probably answered my question before.

what do you mean by planting peas etc in the domino sequence method.
thankyou
Regards brenjon

[Johnboy]

Hi Brenjon,

As below:-

------*------*

----------*

------*------* = Domino Five along the row


----------*

------*-------*

----------* =Diamond Four along the row




------*------*------*-------*------*

----------*------*------*------*

------*------*-------*------*------*


Domino five,Diamond Four, Domino Five as planted down the row.

I now sow Peas into 7cm Sq pots in trays of Domino 5 and a trays of Diamond4 in 150 pots 5 x 30 which gives me a 32ft row planted out alternately and as soon as they are planted I repeat the process. I do two Hurst Greenshaft and I repeat the whole process with Alderman Peas.
As a retired Nursery owner you will appreciate that pots are not in short supply.
I do hope that this is what you were after.
I apologise for dotted lines in between stars but when I first posted the computer took my layout and put the stars all together destroying my patterns.

[Allan]

It's an interesting subject mathematically as on the face of it in the case of equal distance between plants and rows which gives a grid of squares it seems that you have increased the spacing between plants by a factor of the root of 2 i.e. 1.414 yet the total number and therefore the density of planting in a large area remains very nearly the same and for a theoretically infinite area it is the same. For myself I don't do this as it makes hoeing just that bit more tricky, you have to work at 45 degrees to the rows from either direction rather than straight across. You also have the complication that the root pattern will try to be the same in all directions i.e. circular rather than square.
In this world you don't get ought for nought.
Allan

[Chantal]

Blimey Allan, I don't think I could work that out later in the day let alone at this time of the morning! However, I do get the gist of what you're saying, I think.

I only plant my peas in this fashion, and I thought that's what JB was talking about, so why would you want to hoe them?

[Allan]

I was not following the specific argument as regards peas, but the general idea such as in a field of brassicas or a block of sweetcorn you can somehow increase the distance between plants merely by moving alternate plants by half a unit, it doesn't seem possible yet I cannot explain why it should work or not. I happen to be above average IQ at least in maths, my children always called maths 'easy-peasy', DW spends her relaxation time working through puzzle books, it's said to keep the brain in good condition in old age.
Why are you around at this unearthly hour?

[Chantal]

I would agree hoeing in staggered rows is difficult, I'll stick to staggering my peas.

I've always been crap at maths, I was at the mercy of a delightful teacher at my grammar school, who was a mathematical genius but if you didn't understand couldn't explain. He'd write some incredibly complicated stuff on the blackboard, tell us to work it out, stick some chalk in the one ear that worked and go to sleep for a bit. He finally retired at the age of 76 in my fourth year but it was a bit too late for me I fear. There's nothing wrong with my IQ though, I've always found IQ tests remarkably easy as they're all to do with logic and little to do with maths. Contrary to popular belief I am a very logical person. A specific maths IQ test would have me down as a moron though.

Nearly forgot, it's not that early, this poxy clock is still an hour out. I've only been up since 6am.

[Cider Boys]

I don't know about Maths and Grammar Schools, I went to Brymore Technical School of Agriculture (the same one as Tom Archer attended) where the nearest I got to Maths was Farm Accounts, still, I can drive a tractor.

However, I also plant peas in the domino 5 pattern although I always called it the 2 each side and 1 in the middle pattern. I also use it for broad beans and find it very successful.

Barney

[Chantal]

I wish we'd had a school like that around our way, I'd have been in there like a shot. My school treated us as cannon fodder for Oxbridge and as I had no wish to go to university they thought I was "strange".

[Tigger]

Dare I comment.....?

[Chantal]

I was waiting for the paw or the trotter to write a comment and you didn't disappoint me.

[Allan]

My error, I apologise. The apparent contradiction doesn't exist. The pattern is no longer squares, it is diamonds (hence the name) so the area calculations are more complex but simple logic says that if it is the same area and the same number of plants the density must be the same. I could bore you with it but I won't. Suffice it to say that the density of planting is exactly the same, if you want diamond patterns then go ahead, what matters to me is management which is easier with the square pattern.
Allan

[peter]

Cannon fodder, aah a casualty.

[Chantal]

By the time I got out of that place you bet I was a casualty. I've always found the five years of compulsary Religious Education (when I don't believe in any God) to be an absolute boon. I agree the Latin has helped... I'm such a practical person I'd have been much better off somewhere else, that's all.

[Johnboy]

Hi Brenjon,
Would you ever imagine the Kerfuffle over a very simple method of sowing.
There are always people will tell you how wrong you are but to ask them to be helpful then they remain silent.
I also plant out Broad Beans and Sweet Corn in that way and I find hoeing offset rows very very easy. It may not be what you do, but here, I feel it is a case of each to his own. I simply thought it was the easiest way to explain what I do to Brenjon, who asked the question, and still do.
What I have attempted to do is answer the question just plain and simple. It really doesnt warrant the use or mention of higher mathmatics its just a very simple method of sowing which is employed by thousands of gardeners.
For your information Allan I studied Godetics (now renamed) up to university standard and assisted my 5 children to, all but one, go to university and they have all thanked me.

[pigletwillie]

At least you used a capital G Chanters.