# Vegetable crop yields per person & spacing



## crabapple (Jan 1, 2012)

Not sure I agree with how for some crops are spaced.
They can be closer in rich well keep gardens.

Vegetable Crop Yields, Plants per Person, and Crop Spacing:
Artichoke. Grow 1 to 2 plants per person. Yield 12 buds per plant after the first year. Space plants 4 to 6 feet apart.

Arugula. Grow 5 plants per person. Space plants 6 inches apart.

Asparagus. Grow 30 to 50 roots for a household of 2 to 4 people. Yield 3 to 4 pounds of spears per 10-foot row. Space plants 12 inches apart.

Bean, Dried. Grow 4 to 8 plants per person. Yield in pounds varies per variety. Space plants 1 to 3 inches apart in rows 2 to 3 feet apart.

Bean, Fava. Grow 4 to 8 plants per person. Space plants 4 to 5 inches apart in rows 18 to 30 inches apart.

Bean, Garbanzo, Chickpea. Grow 4 to 8 plants per person. Yield 4 to 6 pounds per 10-foot row. Space plants 3 to 6 inches apart in rows 24 to 30 inches apart.

Bean, Lima. Grow 4 to 8 per person. Yield 4 to 6 pounds per 10-foot row. Space bush lima beans 3 to 6 inches apart in rows 24 to 30 inches apart; increase distance for pole limas.

Beans, Snap. Grow 4 to 8 plants total of each variety or several varieties per person. Yield 3 to 5 pounds per 10-foot row. Space plants 1 to 3 inches apart in rows 2 to 3 feet apart.

Beans, Soy. Grow 4 to 8 plants per person. Yield 4 to 6 pounds per 10-foot row. Space plants 2 inches apart in rows 2 to 3 feet apart.

Beets. Grow 5 to 10 mature plants per person. Yield 8 to 10 pounds per 10-foot row. Space plants 3 inches apart for roots–1 inch apart for greens.

Broccoli. Grow 2 to 4 plants per person. Yield 4 to 6 pounds per 10-foot row. Space plants 18 to 24 inches apart in rows 3 feet apart.

Brussels sprouts. Grow 1 to 2 plants per person. Yield 3 to 5 pounds per 10-foot row. Space plants 18 to 24 inches apart in rows 36 inches apart.

Cabbage. Grow 4 to 8 plants per person. Yield 10 to 25 pounds per 10-foot row. Space plants 24 to 30 inches apart.

Carrots. Grow 30 plants per person. Yield 7 to 10 pounds per 10-foot row. Thin plants to 1½ to 2 inches apart in rows 12 inches apart.

Cauliflower. Grow 1 to 2 plants per person. Yield 8 to 10 pounds per 10-foot row. Space plants 18 to 24 inches apart in rows 3 feet apart.

Celery. Grow 5 plants per person. Yield 6 to 8 stalks per plant. Space plants 6 inches apart in rows 2 feet apart.

Chayote. Grow 1 vine for 1 to 4 people. Set vining plants 10 feet apart and train to a sturdy trellis or wire support.

Chicory. Grow 1 to 2 plants per person. Space plants 6 to 12 inches apart in rows 2 to 3 feet apart.

Chinese Cabbage. Grow 6 to 8 heads per person. Space plants 4 inches apart in rows 24 to 30 inches apart.

Collards. Grow 2 to 3 plants per person. Yield 4 to 8 pounds per 10-foot row. Space plants 15 to 18 inches apart in rows 3 feet apart.

Corn. Grow 12 to 20 plants per person. Yield 1 to 2 ears per plants, 10 to 12 ears per 10-foot row. Space plant 4 to 6 inches apart in rows2 to 3 feet apart.

Cucumber. Grow 6 plants per person. Grow 3 to 4 plants per quart for pickling. Yield 8 to 10 pounds per 10-foot row. Space plants 1 to 3 feet apart in rows 3 to 6 feet apart.

Eggplant. Grow 1 to 2 plants per person. Yield 8 fruits per Italian oval varieties; yield 10 to 15 fruits per Asian varieties. Space plants 24 to 30 inches apart in rows 3 feet apart.

Endive and Escarole. Grow 2 to 3 plants per person. Yield 3 to 6 pounds per 10-foot row. Space plants 6 to 12 inches apart in rows 2 to 3 feet apart.

Garlic. Grow 12 to 16 plants per person. Yield 10 to 30 bulbs per 10-foot row. Space cloves 3 to 6 inches apart in rows 15 inches apart.

Horseradish. Grow 1 plant per person. Space plants 30 to 36 inches apart.

Jicama. Grow 1 to 2 plants per person. Yield 1 to 6 pound tuber per plant. Space plants 8 to 12 inches apart.

Kale. Grow 4 to 5 plants per person. Yield 4 to 8 pounds per 10-foot row. Space plants 12 inches apart in rows 12 inches apart.

Kohlrabi. Grow 4 to 5 plants per person. Yield 4 to 8 pounds per 10-foot row. Space plants 4 to 6 inches apart in rows 30 inches apart.

Leeks. Grow 12 to 15 plants per person. Yield 4 to 6 pounds per 10-foot row. Space plants 2 to 4 inches apart in rows 6 to 10 inches apart.

Lettuce. Grow 6 to 10 plants per person; plant succession crops with each harvest. Yield 4 to 10 pounds per 10-foot row. Space looseleaf lettuce 4 inches apart and all other types 12 inches apart in rows 16 to 24 inches apart.

Melon. Grow 2 to plants per person. Yield 2 to 3 melons per vine. Space plants 3 to 4 feet apart in rows 3 feet wide.

Mustard. Grow 6 to 10 plants per person. Yield 3 to 6 pounds per 10-foot row. Space plant 6 to 12 inches apart in rows 15 to 30 inches apart.

Okra. Grow 6 plants per person. Yield 5 to 10 pounds per 10-foot row. Space plants 12 to 18 inches apart in rows 2½ to 4 feet apart.

Onion, Bulb. Yield 7 to 10 pounds of bulbs per 10-foot row. Space onion sets or transplants 4 to 5 inches apart in rows 18 inches apart.

Parsnip. Grow 10 plants per person. Yield 10 pounds per 10-foot row. Space plants 3 to 4 inches apart in rows 24 inches apart.

Peas. Grow 30 plants per person. Yield 2 to 6 pounds per 10-foot row. Space plants 2 to 4 inches apart in rows2 feet apart for bush peas, 5 feet apart for vining peas.

Pepper. Grow 2 to 3 plants per person. Yield 5 to 18 pounds per 10-foot row. Space plants 18 to 24 inches apart in rows 28 to 36 inches apart.

Potato. Grow 1 plant to yield 5 to 10 potatoes. Yield 10 to 20 pounds per 10-foot row. Space seed potatoes 10 to 14 inches apart in trenches 24 to 34 inches apart.

Pumpkin. Grow 1 to 2 plants per person. Yield 10 to 20 pounds per 10-foot row. Space bush pumpkins 24 inches apart in rows 3 feet apart. Set 2 to 3 vining pumpkins on hills spaced 6 to 8 feet apart.

Radicchio. Grow 5 to 6 plants per person. Space plants 6 inches apart in rows 18 inches apart.

Radish. Grow 15 plants per person. Yield 2 to 5 pounds per 10-foot row. Space plants 1 inch apart in rows 12 to 18 inches apart.

Rhubarb. Grow 2 to 3 plants per person. Yield 1 to 5 pounds per plant. Set plants 3 to 6 feet apart.

Rutabaga. Grow 5 to 10 plants per person. Yield 8 to 30 pounds per 10-foot row. Space plants 4 to 6 inches apart in rows 15 to 36 inches apart.

Salsify. Grow 10 plants per person. Space plants 3 to 4 inches apart in rows 20 to 30 inches apart.

Scallions. Yield 1½ pounds per 10-foot row. Spaces onion sets or plants 2 inches apart for scallions or green onions.

Shallot. Yield 2 to 12 cloves per plant. Space plants 5 to 8 inches apart in rows 2 to 4 feet apart.

Sorrel. Grow 3 plants per person. Space plants 12 inches apart in rows 18 inches apart.

Spinach. Grow 15 plants per person. Yield 4 to 7 pounds per 10-foot row. Space plants 3 to 4 inches apart in rows 1 to 2 feet apart.

Squash, Summer. Grow 1 to 2 plants per person. Yield 10 to 80 pounds per 10-foot row. Space plants 2 to 4 feet apart in rows 5 feet apart.

Squash, Winter. Grow 1 plant per person. Space plants feet apart.

Sunchokes. Grow 5 to 10 plants per person. Space plants 24 inches apart in rows 36 to 40 inches apart.

Sunflower. Grow 1 plant per person. Yield 1 to 2½ pounds of seed per flower. Space plants 8 to 12 inches apart in rows 30to 36 inches apart.

Sweet Potato. Grow 5 plants per person. Yield 8 to 12 pounds per 10-foot row. Space plants 12 inches apart in rows 3 feet apart.

Swiss Chard. Grow 2 to 3 plants per person. Yield 8 to 12 pounds per 10-foot row. Space plants 12 inches apart in rows 18 to 30 inches apart.

Tomatillo. Grow 1 to 2 plants per person. Yield 1 to 2 pounds per plant. Space plants 10 inches apart in rows 2 feet apart.

Tomato, Cherry. Grow 1 to 4 plants per person. Space plants 3 feet apart in rows 35 to 45 inches apart.

Tomato, Cooking. Grow 3 to 6 plants of each variety; this will yield 8 to 10 quarts. Space plants 42 inches apart in rows 40 to 50 inches apart.

Tomato, Slicing. Grow 1 to 4 plants per person. Space plants 42 inches apart in rows 40 to 50 inches apart.

Turnip. Grow 5 to 10 plants per person. Yield 8 to 12 pounds per 10-foot row. Space plants 5 to 8 inches apart in rows in rows 15 to 24 inches apart.

Watermelon. Grow 2 plants per person. Yield 8 to 40 pounds per 10-foot row. Space plants 4 feet apart in rows 4 feet wide and 8 feet apart.


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## AmmoSgt (Apr 13, 2014)

Yeah mostly crazy stuff.. I mean it is fine for a cottage garden .. but for survival purposes .. you are brushing up against one of my pet peeves .. those survivalist seed vaults loaded with thousands of veggie seeds .. arrrragh ..

and here is why .. look at Kale , but you can do this with any veggie, 4 to 8 pounds per 10 foot row... you need 2000 calories per day for a desk job, the military issues 4500 calories a day in three MRE meals. Kale is 223 calories a pound even at max yield a 10 foot row is only a days calories .. you need to think more strategic ..The rule that wildcrafters / foragers use is only harvest stuff that gives you more calories than it takes to harvest it. Corn https://www.verywell.com/corn-facts-content-calories-and-health-benefits-4116932 80 to 120 calories per ear, the pat of butter alone has 36 calories .
Then you got the soil issues .. not everything does well in the same kind of soil .. as survival strategy how many types of soil can you manage to create in consistency/ drainage and Ph in a survival situation . Spinach is 7 calories per cup chopped .. you can make a days proper ration using just 300 cups of spinach

You got to look at what you have for soil, and do what you can to improve it http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/8-steps-to-make-better-garden-soil-zmaz07jjzsel but with an eye to what you want to grow.. and that can take years, it is definitely a prep to start on now, even if you just grow flowers in it, but experience in growing food plants also make a difference in yields, sometimes if the weather goes weird on you one year , it could be the difference between bringing in a crop at all. Rotate crops if you have a long enough season grow beans that fix nitrogen and then corn.. or companion plant do the three sisters http://www.almanac.com/content/three-sisters-corn-bean-and-squash or do the four sisters http://rodaleinstitute.org/the-three-sistersand-that-fourth-sister-no-one-really-talks-about/ and here is the thing I grow Black Russian oil type sunflower seeds and I have this https://www.amazon.com/Piteba-Nut-Seed-Expeller-press/dp/B004H2SDTM

https://www.piteba.com/eng/index_eng.asp

have you thought about where you are going to get cooking oil that isn't rancid? .. you need fats and cooking oil.. and not just for food , oil lamps .. soap If you have pigs okay you are covered .. and you need to render everything you can for the fats you cannot afford to throw away fats or oils. Oils and fats are 9 calories per gram, protein and carbs are only 4 calories per gram. And each of them have a purpose and a down side https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_poisoning

So you really should focus one what grows well in the soil you have to get the maximum calories for your effort and the work to improve the yield by improving the soil over the long term .. you almost have to think organically simply because you might not be able to get inputs .. and you almost have to focus on what you can get that is open pollinated so you can save seed for next year because you might not be able to buy seed for next year.

Spacing is more about what you are trying to grow.. max potato pounds per plant need more room that growing baby potatoes or baby carrots same thing just like culling fruit .. you want lots of strawberries or big sweet strawberries .. either way you get close to the same weight of strawberries by limiting how many strawberries you let the plant grow by plucking runners. You want bigger sweeter apples take off half the blossoms or baby fruits, the tree will still put the same energy into the remaining apples.

this is that taken to the extreme http://www.tokyotimes.com/expensive-fruit-parlor-japan-crazy/

most of us want both quantity and quality .. somewhere there is a balance the good news is unless you go to crazy extremes, if you stay somewhere in the middle , you get roughly the same weight overall and the same calories off a plant/tree

in a survival situation anybody have those teeny tiny wild strawberries in their lawn? Now, you will never make a super delicious strawberry.. but if you pluck all but one runner and let that one teeny tiny berry get all the plants energy you will get a bigger sweeter berry than otherwise.. maybe half inch plus and not unsweet.. hey the variety matters, these are weeds and you are making an edible berry out of a weed, be thankful you have anything to eat at all , pour some milk on them and add a spoon of sugar ... dang, what do you want for free?


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## crabapple (Jan 1, 2012)

My survival strategy is to build up the soil & try different crops now. As for calorie count that why you grow 20-30 different crops & all year a round.
Perennials that are already planted are almost calorie free, you just have to spread a little compost & pick the fruits & vegetables.
This is why homesteading is so much more important then a pure survival forging skill.
Knowing wild plants is good, but planting any plants, wild or 500 years in the garden is the best way to have what a community needs to live though the poor years.
We have water collection knowledge that many have never had before.
This will go a long way in keeping us feed in the future.
We can harvest so much more then just 150 year ago, with today skill & knowledge.
Duckweed is just one example I never knew as a child.


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## AmmoSgt (Apr 13, 2014)

Yeah duckweed is like free chicken feed, I had a friend a while back that was raising coturnix quail and they liked duck weed http://www.motherearthnews.com/home...rnix-quail-zmaz81sozraw?pageid=1#PageContent1

amazing little birds mature at 8 weeks lay eggs like crazy , no free lunch eat a lot 
Yeah anyway permaculture yeah definitely I have apple pears figs pecan hazel nuts almonds blue berries and blackberries fruit is all bearing well at 4 years, nut trees take longer figure 5 to 7 years for a crop that will look like a enough to make a pie  
but permaculture is not a guarantee .. I have lost a Pecan to a storm and an almond to I don't know what the others next to it are fine .. it just dried up and turned brown and all the leaves were still firmly attached that was about 3 years old for each I had blueberry that just wouldn't grow or produce with all the others making gallons of berries . and you got to really tend grapes .. my muscadines one year discovered there were trees nearby.. just one little tendril and bang next year all the muscadines disappeared , the plant was still there you could follow the vine to the trees and if you climbed the trees and got out ladders you could follow the vine.. but all the fruit was 25 feet off the ground in the sunshine on top of the trees .. ungrateful grapes ..that whole fox and the grape story is true, turn your back for one freaking season and just because they had a little shade for a couple hours in the morning they try to leave the planet .






my theory of food supply is wildcrafting, trapping, and hunting, along with gardening, both permaculture and annuals with a emphasis on potatoes .. potatoes are another stealth plant.. if you don't know what the plant looks like because you are an evil citified cheese stealing marauder or war and dystopia come thru your neighborhood and do a scorched earth thing.. the food is safe underground.. you would lose a wheat crop or worse... the barley, and then a world with no beer.. you would have to live off vodka..

The mountain house and canned cheese ( stored in a secret location safe from marauders, not the mountain house, just the canned cheese.. dang cheese thieves) are a back up to the secret garden and landscaping which is a back up to Krogers

By the way.. if you are into gardening I recently ran into this outfit https://www.hamiltonbook.com/Gardening love the prices

Previously I was building a library from http://www.daedalusbooks.com/Products/CategoryMain.asp?MajorCategoryID=14&Media=Book&Special= the thing to remember here is if it says " see more" after the category title you need to click on it.

Some people have despairingly comment on various forums in the past about my "walls of words" and many links in the text of my posts ..

there is somebody that is worse than me, and has even better links .. so this is a link to a page , nay, a treasury of links about plants http://www.swsbm.com/HOMEPAGE/HomePage.html read those links and if you ever get invited to a cocktail party , you will have hours of interesting and obscure facts and stories to dazzle the literati with. and some of it might save your life in a SHTF event.. who knows


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## tsrwivey (Dec 31, 2010)

Gotta love potatoes! They're easy to grow, easy to store, versatile, & nutritious. We grew sweet potatoes for the first time this year & I must say, if you live where you can grow them, plant them. They go in in the spring, spread like wildfire, are heat/drought tolerant, & you don't have to harvest them until after the cool weather comes. The greens are edible too, they taste like greens with a hint of sweet potato.


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

Here is a chart that I found. Draw your own conclusions from it.
For right now with food so cheap I just buy and stock pile (plus at my present location I can do little else). Wife and I have grown gardens for most of our lives and for the last several years I have built up quite a knowledge base on local wild plants that I have harvested and eaten (with mixed results).


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## AmmoSgt (Apr 13, 2014)

Now you are talking, you are looking at almost, just adding things up in my head, something around half a mile of row crops .. 10-12 rows three feet apart 200-220 feet long an acre is 220 x 220 so a quarter acre just for vegetables . Give us this day our daily bread a loaf a day a loaf is 1.25 pounds about 1800 calories a bushel is 60 pounds or 50 loaves of Bread 7 bushels a year ( I'm rounding here, not planning on living on bread and water.. actually half a loaf is probably enough if everything goes as planned, but this is where I deliberately over allocate figure in seed for next year and enough for a back up planting if something goes wrong and having to replant wheat is not a rare thing , wheat is funny stuff .. the whole years maximum best case harvest is totally dependent on the moisture content of the soil on the day you plant.. that determines everything, what kind of sprouting rate you get, from that day to harvest nothing can improve the harvest and anything can reduce the harvest.) so lets say 7 bushel per person 28 bushels .. back when hand and horse planted and harvested with minimal inputs 10 to 20 Bushel an acre https://www.reference.com/business-finance/average-wheat-yield-per-acre-1800s-2236c69dbfd107fa so say two acres of wheat potatoes do much better https://books.google.com/books?id=g...yield per acre 1900 to present chart&f=false closer to 5000 pounds per acre while wheat @ 15 bushels per acre is 900 pounds .. but here is the rub potatoes are 350 calories per pound wheat is 1500 calories per pound ... you get a 25% more calories per acre with potatoes. Potatoes are more filling. Don't forget we are assuming all this by hand or hand and horse One human can do about 3 or 4 acres by hand.. and 1 acre planted with some variety can feed one person. This is why turn of the 19th Century to the 20th about 1/3rd of the population was involved in agriculture and had the help of about 22 million draft horses and oxen which included hauling stuff to market .. today we have about 7 million horse of all types .

Another thing is the seed .. you need open pollinated like they had in 1900. Hybrid doesn't breed true, and hybrid is where the big yields come in... but only with high doses of nitrogen, Hybrid without heavy fertilizer , aside from not being able to save seed, actually yields less than open pollinated.

Store bought potatoes are sprayed with a retardant to stop and slow sprouting eyes you can make a crop with them once they are treated .. you got to buy seed potatoes. 
and then fruits and meats all these yield numbers are what skilled and experienced farmers can do hand and horse. There is a learning curve and bad technique can ruin a crop especially at harvest.. details matter.

The way to cut the labor factor if you aren't mechanized and have harvesting machinery even horse drawn little mini combines , yeah they made them, is as much permaculture as possible The old Homesteading laws said you had IIRC 5 years to "prove" the land/the homestead that meant a livable cabin and 20 fruit trees .. this is how Johnny Appleseed made his fortune. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-...-applesand-booze-american-frontier-180953263/

More on Apple breeding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple and just to give you a taste of how varied Roses are in the apple family and those Rose Hips are edible and full of vitamin C . edible does not mean taste good wht atses good to you might not to me.

Anyway tis all the physical labor that led me from the garden path to feast in the wildwood.


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## AmmoSgt (Apr 13, 2014)

Speaking of calories .. anybody ever added up the calories in a #10 can of mountain house or similar most folks are surprised to find average a wild variety o #10 cans a good working number is about 2 day of calories for one person per can. Wise Food are worse a 30 day supply is closer to 11 days @ 2000 calories per day.

I cannot stress enough that you need to get paper and pencil and actually add up the calories you have stockpiled .. most folks, when they do this, have only about half the number of days food they thought they had.


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## AmmoSgt (Apr 13, 2014)

Just want to drop some stats on you about dairy and what has been done to cows thru breeding and antibiotics and hormones ..

Think about this when you or somebody else gets all organic about GMO, which not only gives better yields than hybrid with less fertilizer but also breeds true like open pollinated .. about the best choice for survival but realy does need some fertilizer no free lunch.

Okay Dairy, once upon a time in Huntsville Alabama there was a magical cow named Lily Flagg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lily_Flagg she has streets named after her and a whole housing development neighborhood ..in 1892 she made more butter than any cow in the world in history. 1043 pounds which using this table of facts http://www.americasdairyland.com/dairy/milk/milk-facts implies she gave just over 20,000 pounds of milk which is roughly in round numbers 2500 gallons of milk and very fine high butter fat milk at that.. a 940 pound cow gave 20,000 pounds of milk in a year.

Flash forward to present day .. the average cows now gives 21,000 pounds of milk and the champion gave 72,000 pounds of milk http://www.dairymoos.com/how-much-milk-do-cows-give/ and they do it on less feed..

You don't want to know about turkeys .. wild ones are so different from what most people eat.. wild ones can fly average weigh of a male is 17 pounds live weight including feathers and females under 10 pounds.. there are some wild giants record is 30 pounds , but that just means more under 17 pound turkeys to make the average 17 pounds live weight with head feet and feathers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_turkey


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## AmmoSgt (Apr 13, 2014)

Okay I'm a nerd .. and if you don't already know, this is my favorite song


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## crabapple (Jan 1, 2012)

*Purple Sweet potatoes*



tsrwivey said:


> Gotta love potatoes! They're easy to grow, easy to store, versatile, & nutritious. We grew sweet potatoes for the first time this year & I must say, if you live where you can grow them, plant them. They go in in the spring, spread like wildfire, are heat/drought tolerant, & you don't have to harvest them until after the cool weather comes. The greens are edible too, they taste like greens with a hint of sweet potato.


My DW got 25 pounds of PURPLE Sweet Potatoes FREE.
She made a PURPLE Sweet potato pie, Grannies every where are spinning in their graves.
A Chinese girl (about twenty, but a child to me) told me her mother wilted the tender leaves with salt & pepper to taste.


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## crabapple (Jan 1, 2012)

hiwall said:


> Here is a chart that I found. Draw your own conclusions from it.
> For right now with food so cheap I just buy and stock pile (plus at my present location I can do little else). Wife and I have grown gardens for most of our lives and for the last several years I have built up quite a knowledge base on local wild plants that I have harvested and eaten (with mixed results).


I knew my dad was good, but he raised 6 kids/8 mouths on a 1 acre garden & 4 acres of field corn for animals every year.
We had pear tree,musadine vine, 3 fig trees, a peach tree, walnuts & hickory trees.
Well there was that one year the lady preacher prayed for the crops & he planted a 3 acre garden. Had so many butter beans that my brother & I was task with picking off only the dry beans. The field looked like a family reunion, because 20 kinfolk were picking the free BB before they dried out.
And that one time dad & a friend planted 2 acres of okra to sale to the market.
They made money & we had more okra then we could eat & 20 pounds of dry seeds, that lasted for many years.
But most of the time it was a one acre garden, a pig,a bull & 35 chickens or so.
Rabbits & wild game, never eat the ducks for some reason.


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## tsrwivey (Dec 31, 2010)

This is another interesting chart from Mother Earth News. http://http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/~/media/295A54F778854C39B455F7B7DB4F4C82.ashx. I don't know how to post an image from a website, can someone post this for me?


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## AmmoSgt (Apr 13, 2014)

http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/~/media/295A54F778854C39B455F7B7DB4F4C82.ashx

okay my link works tsrwivey you got an extra HTTP thingy in your link


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## crabapple (Jan 1, 2012)

AmmoSgt said:


> http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/~/media/295A54F778854C39B455F7B7DB4F4C82.ashx
> 
> okay my link works tsrwivey you got an extra HTTP thingy in your link


I am confused.
I had 48 collard plants, we eat collard one a week or more, fresh from the garden & freeze enough to have collards for all the next year,which was a waste of time because the plants lived four years. I also gave friend fresh greens at least once a month. People could not believe that collards would live though the summer.
The plants would have lived longer, but I got busy & did not water them the month of August. vract:


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## AmmoSgt (Apr 13, 2014)

crabapple said:


> I knew my dad was good, but he raised 6 kids/8 mouths on a 1 acre garden & 4 acres of field corn for animals every year.
> We had pear tree,musadine vine, 3 fig trees, a peach tree, walnuts & hickory trees.
> Well there was that one year the lady preacher prayed for the crops & he planted a 3 acre garden. Had so many butter beans that my brother & I was task with picking off only the dry beans. The field looked like a family reunion, because 20 kinfolk were picking the free BB before they dried out.
> And that one time dad & a friend planted 2 acres of okra to sale to the market.
> ...


Bet you Dad didn't waste food.. on average Americans throw away 40% of the food we grow .. almost everybody throws away trimmed fat instead of rendering it, and long bones even if they are just that little round eye in a steak .. cut out before grilling and saved in the freezer until you have enough for a great bone marrow soup... everybody here boils down the leftover roast chicken carcass for soup stock. Right? Same with the Thanksgiving Turkey ? Right?

Preppers are the worst they stockpile tons of food and let it expire.. that is not just wasteful it's bad survivalism ... having expired food on hand when the SHTF means lower quality and possibly risky nutrition .. it's just begging for self inflicted problems

It's Christmas think of the good that could be done if every year before thanksgiving preppers checked their stock and everything with less than 6 months left on it best by date or shelf life or had already expired went into the USE NOW shelf or got donated to a Church or food bank . You can't donate expired food so you would have to eat that first.. if you do it right and religiously use what has to be used and replace you shouldn't increase your food bill by all that much because everything you buy goes into the stack and everything you eat comes from the stack with the exception of what you donate and replace.

For folks who stockpile bulk staples like wheat .. you need to use it ..it's isn't prime survival food past 7 years I don't care how many viable seeds they found in a pyramid which was like 3 out of the entire grain reserves of a nation or something like that.

Using fresh ground whole wheat is very different from baking with fluffed and puffed whiter than white deconstructed and disassembled wheat flour that comes in a bag. The oatmeal in the mylar bag with the O2 absorber, assuming it isn't oat groats in the first place, cooks different than your average store bought oat meal, and oat groats aren't even from the same planet.

Need to practice grinding your own flour and baking with it if you don't already. I know.. it's hard work, and it takes time, and all you get for your efforts , if you do it right is this warm textured aromatic loaf of bread that brings home the unbridled joy and importance of just plain butter on bread.

France did a thing a year back https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/04/french-law-forbids-food-waste-by-supermarkets


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## crabapple (Jan 1, 2012)

I always believe the guy/gals with charts did the R&D, are smarter than me.
But some of the spacing is to far apart, the harvest is to low & the waste is to high.
We feed all non meat scraps to the pigs & meat fat not used to the hounds.
So maybe suburban life is were the chart are made & not in gardens where people save, share & reuse the these thing. If it dose not get flushed then it gets composted.
I wanted to compost everything, but DW said no way, no dry toilets until after the fall. I mean the daylillies got to eat too.


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## AmmoSgt (Apr 13, 2014)

I tend to overcrowd . not allow enough room and end up wishing I had spaced better/ more generously.. my gardens never looks well tended and I probably have more bugs because of it and nothing is quite a pretty as it should be including the crop itself.. it's just for me and the family.. every yearItell myself spacespace spaceand idon't and I don't get much "show off stuff" but lots of eats and lose squash to the beatles and tomatoes to the rolling stones 

This coming year.. this coming year I'm gonna let the p l a n t s b r e a t h 

There is a garden down the road that d o e s spacing and I swear I check every year trying to catch the guy putting out those silk replicas of perfect plants Cabbages so big they can't be real Broccoli so pretty even a kid would eat it without cheese sauce never a weed anywhere every single plant looks identical to the one next to it.. mine I can't tell where one starts and the nextonestops 

ARRRGHrugula


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