# Inga and plot dimensions There is more than one way to lay out an Inga or Guamo plot. The right plot architecture should be chosen for the

Two Savimbo team members laying out alley-cropping spacing with a stake and string line in a Putumayo agroforestry plot, with a single emergent tree on the horizon and freshly cut brush in the foreground. Field measurement step from Savimbo's SexyTrees reforestation protocol — payment-on-survival methodology for grassroots tropical reforestation in the Colombian Amazon. — Jhony and Paulita on the Selva team planting *Inga* in hedgerow conformation.

Two Savimbo team members laying out planting grid spacing with a stake and string line in a Putumayo agroforestry plot, with a single emergent tree on the horizon and freshly cut brush in the foreground. Field measurement step from Savimbo's SexyTrees reforestation protocol — payment-on-survival methodology for grassroots tropical reforestation in the Colombian Amazon.

### Alley or hedgerow architecture The TL:DR version is 5k trees/ha = 4m alleys × 0.5m within-row spacing. The optimal recommended spacing/planting density for our sites at this time is four-meter alleys with a half-meter plant spacing within rows, which calculates to five thousand *Inga* trees per hectare. This assumes 100% survivability, and in practice, most sites plant more densely, then weed to achieve the desired spacing (see [Operational calendar](/practice-guide/inga-alley-cropping/inga-and-pruning-schedules.md) below). There has been some debate in the field as to the optimal spacing, with competing farmer groups in Honduras and Ecuador, and iterative real-world testing over time in Hands published \~37-year series (Hands. We included the historical variance and who promoted it below (see [Table A](#table-a.-historical-variance-in-inga-alley-cropping-density-with-current-recommended-density-of-5k-h)), but we're planting the density from Hands 2021 in the alley-cropping parcels. * *"4.0 m alley width × 0.5 m (5,000 trees/ha)." (*Hands 1998) * *"at 50 cm between trees, within the hedgerows; and at 4 m spacing between rows… tree density is thus 5000 ha⁻¹."* Hands 2021 )
#### **Table A. Historical v**ariance in *Inga* alley cropping density, with the current recommended alley or hedgerow density of 5k/ha

Density	Source	Status
10,000/ha	Hands 1995, 1998 papers	Experimental variation, not for farmers
5,000/ha	Hands' 2021 paper, 2026 pers. comm. recommendation	What actually works, currently reccomended
~2,500/ha	Valle's promotion, Rainforest Saver, Ecuador	Reportedly poor results

**Matrix or nurse species architecture** Got it — that resolves what Jeidy means by *corto* vs *largo plazo*, but it doesn't resolve the Hands discrepancy. If anything, it sharpens it. | Alley width | Crops | Cycle | | ----------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------- | | **3 m** | yuca, maíz, frijol, alverja | annual/short | | 2.5m | failed **"too narrow for maize" but highest bean yeields perha**Hands 1998 | **"too narrow for maize"** | | **4 m** | cacao, chontaduro, banano, plátano, maize (Hands 2021) | perennial/long | **Hands' position on each of these:** **Notes:** * Hands documents that the 2.5 m alleys at La Conquista produced **the highest bean yields** in his trials but were "too narrow for maize". Perhaps because beans tolerate shade better than maize. * **Cassava (yuca) and peas at 3 m:** Hands didn't test these. No data either way. * **Cacao, chontaduro, banano, plátano at 4 m alleys:** Here Jeidy's framing diverges from Hands' framework, not from his numbers. Hands **does not use alley cropping for these crops at all** — he uses *Inga* as a **matrix or nurse species**, planted at 4 m × 4 m grid with the crop species interplanted (2:2 row configurations for cacao + *Inga*, 'tresbolillo' crowsfoot for timber). The 4 m spacing is the same, but the geometry isn't "alley." It's a fundamentally different system: alley cropping = annual grain crops between hedgerow *Inga* that gets pruned for mulch; matrix planting = perennial crops grown alongside *Inga* that's lopped sporadically for shade management. So the actual situation is: 1. **For maize specifically, Jeidy is varying from Hands.** 3 m is below his validated width and close to his documented failure width. 2. **For beans, Jeidy's 3 m is defensible** within Hands' broader observations. 3. **For cacao/banano/plátano/chontaduro, the FAQ is calling something an "alley" that Hands wouldn't call an alley** — but the 4 m spacing happens to match Hands' matrix spacing for perennials. Different name, same number. 4. **For cassava and peas, no Hands data exists** — Selva is operating in untested territory either way. Net: your earlier instruction was "we're not varying from Hands." If that holds, **Jeidy's 3 m for maize needs to come up to 4 m** in the FAQ. The beans-at-3 m case is genuinely supportable from Hands' bean yield data, but it's a separate row in a more detailed table, not a single "3 m for all short-cycle crops" rule. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://sexytrees.savimbo.com/practice-guide/inga-alley-cropping/inga-and-plot-dimensions.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.