Crop Calculators
Plant population, spacing, yield estimates and the land you need to hit a production target.
Planning a crop with numbers
A good harvest starts with the right number of plants in the field. Too few and you leave yield on the table; too many and plants compete for light, water and nutrients. The crop calculators here help at three points in the season:
- Before sowing – use the Plant Population Calculator to see how many plants a spacing gives you, or the Plant Spacing Calculator to work backwards from a target population.
- When planning land use – the Crop Area Calculator tells you how many acres you need to grow a given quantity, for example to meet a buyer contract.
- Before harvest – the Crop Yield Calculator uses the crop-cutting method to estimate your total production from a small sample.
All of them accept Indian units – acres, hectares, guntha, quintals – and show you the working so you can check it against your own notes.
Frequently asked questions
Which spacing layout gives the most plants?
For the same plant-to-plant distance, a triangular (hexagonal) layout fits about 15.5% more plants than a square layout, because each plant occupies a smaller hexagon of ground. It is commonly used for orchards and some plantation crops.
How accurate is a crop-cutting yield estimate?
It is as good as your sample. Take several random samples from different parts of the field, avoid the borders, and weigh the produce at the moisture level you will sell it at. Government crop-cutting experiments follow the same idea.