תלמוד על שביעית 1:1

MISHNAH: A vineyard that is planted less that four cubits apart²⁶This violates standard agricultural practice., Rebbi Simeon says that it is no vineyard. But the Sages say that it is a vineyard and one disregards the ones in the middle as if nonexistent²⁷If every second vine is disregarded the remaining vines still are less than eight cubits apart and, hence, still form a vineyard. The argument of the Sages (made explicit in Babli Baba Batra 102b) is that vines planted too close to one another will not bear the best or the most fruit; hence, the vintner might plant too many vines at the start and then, when it becomes clear which vines grow best, he will take out the rest and use as wood and replant the best ones as a regular vineyard. Rebbi Simeon is of the opinion that a vineyard is planted for its yield, so he waits until the vineyard is thinned before he imposes the restrictions of a vineyard. (In the Babli, R. Simeon is interpreted to mean that nobody plants a vineyard with the intention of thinning.) The Sages think that planting for a vineyard makes a vineyard from the start.
It is not quite clear what the minimum distance is; cf. Chapter 4, Note 2. The cubit of 52.6 cm would give 210.4 cm as minimal distance of two vines. R. A. H. Nach defines the hand-breadth as 8.5 cm, which implies that 4 cubits of five hand-breadths each are 170 cm. Modern viticulture works with distances of 135 to 150 cm; one is best off by adopting the minimal interpretation of cubits..

“⁶¹A similar text in Tosephta 3:14. There, it reads” One does not harvest reeds from a thicket. One does not start a fire in reed thickets⁶²In the Tosephta: .בחישת because that is [agricultural] work. Rabban Simeon ben Gamliel permits it. Similarly, Rabban Simeon ben Gamliel said, one may plant a useless tree⁶³Cf. Chapter 1, Note 12. in the Sabbatical year. One teaches a cow to plough only in dunes; Rabban Simeon ben Gamliel says, it is permitted also in somebody else’s field on condition that one not make parallel furrows.⁶⁴It should not look like professional work.”