What direction do you plant?

[nilly71]

But the top of the box get equal amount of light what ever way you face it. So  the top of the plants should get the same unless there are higher plants shading it. Only the plants at the end of the E,S,W rows will benifit from the whole plant getting the sun at different parts of the day.
Unless all the plants have about 4' clear space around them so they can not shade the next plant or they are cramed into an area surrounded by a high brick wall(your box), I can't see how it makes a difference.


Neil

[nilly71]

[tonybloke]

which plants have leaves only at the top (apart from water-lily)?

[antipodes]

blimey I have never asked myself that question! I don't really have any shade, except for the herbs just next to the shed so maybe it doesn't make any difference?

[Unwashed]

When there's significant space between rows I can see that there's a difference.  So with potatoes, sweetcorn, broad beans, etc where you'd expect the rows to close up and the plants to form a complete canopy then I don't believe there's any difference E-W or N-S.  But when there's a significant gap between rows and the plants of the rows merge like with carrots then if you look down the rows you'll see quite a bit of soil, but when you look accross the rows you won't - and sun landing on soil is not landing on plants where it's needed so orientation makes a difference.  So planted E-W it's only at the ends of the day when the sun is weak that the plants aren't receiving all the available sunlight, but N-S the plants will be missing out on the strong mid-day sun.  So plant your carrots E-W.

Someone's going to have to do an experiment.

[grawrc]

Mostly I plant in multiples of square metres with the plants equidistant each way!!! If I start by sowing seed it's usually in rows N-S except for runners which I do E-W. My beds are about 1m20 wide on the n-s axis so there wouldn't be enough room for the runners unless I did wigwams instead of rows. They all seem to thrive no matter what direction they're planted in.

[tonybloke]

want to guess which way these rows are orientated?
[attachment=1]

[landimad]

North/ South to get the most out of the days light me tinks.

[nilly71]

  So with potatoes, sweetcorn, broad beans, etc where you'd expect the rows to close up and the plants to form a complete canopy then I don't believe there's any difference E-W or N-S. 

That's what i meant when i said

'But the top of the box get equal amount of light what ever way you face it. So  the top of the plants should get the same unless there are higher plants shading it.

I'm not very good with words :P

To make things a little bit more complicated but maybe someone can advise:
The west side of my plot is surrounded by tree's so by approx 3pm-4pm half my plot is in shade, so i have placed my compost/manure bins and path down this side.
If i plant N-S then only half of the plot will get full sun, which is ok for crops that don't mind shade but what happens when i rotate the crop next year ???
If i plant E-W, half a row of crops will be in full sun the other will be in some shade.
Do you think it would make much difference what way i have it now?

Neil