Estimate harvest from bed area, plant spacing, and average yield per plant — with risk buffer.
Conservative yield
After 15% buffer
224.4 lb
Plants fitted
132
Gross yield
264.0 lb
Yield per sq ft
1.12 lb
Row spacing sets how many rows fit along the bed length; in-row plant spacing sets how many plants go down each row. A risk buffer accounts for germination loss, pest pressure, and weather damage — 15% is a reasonable default for healthy outdoor beds.
This estimator assumes a simple grid. Intensive spacing or staggered plantings pack more in; see the Planting Density calculator.
plants = floor(length ÷ row_spacing) × floor(width ÷ plant_spacing)
gross = plants × yield_per_plant
conservative = gross × (1 − buffer)
Planting Density
How many plants fit a row or bed? Enter spacing and area; get plant count and seed order quantity.
Seed Starting Calendar
Work back from your last frost date to the right day to sow indoors, transplant, and direct-seed.
CSA Share Pricing
Set a fair, profitable CSA price — enter weeks, members, and per-share production cost; get the share price that covers overhead and margin.
Enter the dimensions of a bed or field, your row and in-row spacing, and the average yield per plant for the crop you are growing. The calculator floors the plant count to whole plants (you cannot grow 0.7 of a tomato plant) and multiplies by per-plant yield to give a season harvest in pounds. A risk buffer slider knocks the number down by a percentage to model bad weather, pest pressure, or transplant loss — most growers should run a 70-85% case as their planning number, not the optimistic 100%.
Yield drives everything downstream: how many CSA shares you can sell, how many market trips you can stock, how much wholesale you can commit to a chef. Overcommitting at the start of the season because you priced from optimistic yield is the most common way a small farm runs out of product in August. This calculator forces you to write down the assumption.
Per-plant yield ranges trace to extension-service crop guides (Cornell, NC State, UMass) and Johnny’s Selected Seeds reference data. Numbers vary widely by variety, soil, and management — your second season on the same plot is your real benchmark, not the published average. Spacing assumes single-row beds; intensive bio-spacing methods can pack 1.3-1.5x more plants but reduce per-plant yield. The risk buffer is a season-end estimate, not a per-week reduction — apply it to total harvest, not weekly delivery target. Greenhouse and hoophouse yields can run 1.5-2x field yields for the same crop; pick the source of your reference number deliberately.