Thank you
@plasko20
With a diameter of 23 inches (radius of 11.5 inches) the surface area is approximately 415 square inches. For five or six seedlings that is approximately 70 to 80 square inches per seedling or a circle of radius approximately 5 inches. That would mean planting seeds (or seedlings) every 10 inches in all directions in a bed.
I think that for seedlings that will only stay in a bed for three years that they could be planted closer than every ten inches.
The maximum competition is when there is a clump and then each fan is competing with every other fan in the clump. Old enough clumps that have never been divided can die out in the centre due to the self competition. Fans towards the outside edge of large clumps have the least competition and on average, although they are likely to be younger than more central fans, they should have more buds and be taller, etc.. So it should be possible to estimate how close fans can be and not have visible effects. Munson considered that clumps had to be divided every year in September to not show the detrimental effects. If he divided down to two fans and had a five times increase per year then the average size (diameter) of a ten fan clump is the minimum distance that fans can have between them to not show obviously visible effects of competition.
