I'm not a farmer, nor do I currently have the money I would need to invest to become one. But it can't hurt to have knowledge, so I have a few questions for anyone with the answers.

First of all, what are some crops that are highly productive and provide the full range of vitamins and minerals we need to stay alive? I'm looking for high-output crops that will keep me going all year, and can be grown in limited space.

Second question, how much land, using those suggested crops, would be required to sustain just one person indefinitely? I would also like to know how much of that land should go to each of my crops.

I'm sure somebody is rolling their eyes at the newbishness of my question, but planning has to start somewhere. For climate considerations, keep in mind that I live in Northwestern Pennsylvania where we have blistering cold winters, hot summers, and a ton of rain in between.

Thanks in advance to anyone that can help me out or point me in the right direction!

I am so confused about how people think that with HAARP controling the weather, and nuclear fallout particles coating the sky, and the energy needed to create a garden and maintain a garden, and the fact that it is not growing season all year long, think that a garden is a viable option verses storing canned goods.

however. Provided that
1) It rains
2) It doesn't flood
3) There are no tornados/fires to destroy the crop
4) IT's not too hot/cold
5) There is no nuclear fallout in your area
6) Animals don't destroy the crop
7) A person doesn't have the flu and has the energy to weed/water the garden
8) etcetera

A garden may be a cheaper form of canned goods, as well as being tastier in most cases.



[edit on 17-2-2008 by aaaauroraaaaa]

The bigger the better I would say for viabilty.

Canned goods are cheap, and since I can't afford property (period) right now, that's already my plan. Unfortunately canned goods run out eventually, so I'm looking for something that will help me further down the road.

Getting into gardening is extremely easy. Last year I started to really get interested in growing plants for some reason, and it is very easy to pick up on. You'll be successful the first time unless you do something really dumb. Last year I had a couple of nice crops of radishes, some bush beans, and a few pepper plants. This spring I plan on growing pumpkins and I don't know what else yet. Currently I am growing 2 orange trees from seed in my room right now, in the Canadian winter when it's -8 C outside . They're growing slow... I planted them in December and they're only now getting their 4th leaf and maybe 2" tall, but they look very healthy. So anything is possible... plants are a lot more hardy than you give them credit for.

To truely get all of your nutrients from plants alone, you will need to be growing some form of beans (unless you plan on growing nuts,) because they're the only vegetables I know of that have protein and possibly B12 that is otherwise only found in meat.

An acre should be plenty of land for one person if you are using it efficiently. If you wanted to convert your entire backyard into a garden, that would probably be enough by itself.

I'd start small and work your way up. You don't need to go out and buy a huge farm or anything... just buy a few packets of seeds of the vegetables you enjoy eating and make yourself a little 5'x10' garden, and see if you can successfully grow something to start.

You don't need anything fancy like hydroponics, aeroponics, etc. Dirt works just fine... that is how plants are naturally meant to grow.


[edit on 2/17/2008 by Yarcofin]

This year I am going to have at least 2 if not 3 plots scattered about my neighborhood. One 4x8 one will be at the local community garden and another of uncertain size will be in an aquaintance's back yard and if I can arrange it with someone, I will have a plot in my backyard as well.

For the past 7 or 8 years I have done very well with 5 gallon bucket gardening and have managed to grow eggplants, pole beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, both hot and sweet and various other crops out of containers... with 8 foot tomato plants as a rule, no miniture container plants these.

I have moved and don't have the space or exposure for that type of gardening this year so I am going to experiment with square foot gardening and according to the books I am reading I should be able to get 32 plants in my 4x8 spot at the community garden with little fuss. It should be interesting.

I highly recommend Barbara Kingsolver's new book "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" in which she recounts her family of four's attempt to go a whole year eating only locally grown produce. It is very informative and educational.

Also stay away from GMC. I suggest www.rareseeds.com as a great source for heirloom crops.

A further note: When I was container gardening I was doing it off the south facing front porch of my apartment. Of course it helped that I didn't share that porch with anyone but still. I had usually about 9 hanging baskets of various herbs, 3 window boxes of lettuces on the east. about 24 5 gallon buckets of tomato plants going up both sides of the concrete steps and barristers, 2 10 gallon on one side of the steps with pole beans growing up over a garden arch. The same on the other side with cucumbers growing up a garden arch and about another 20 buckets in a small plot in front of the porch with more tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. I had it worked out to a science and bought my own mixes to build my soil. The hardest part was getting everything in each year but once it was done, weeding was minimal, though I had to water every day at the peak of the season but my yeilds were excellent.

[edit on 17-2-2008 by grover]

many garden magazines have suggestions for zone ratings for their seeds/trees. Pennslyvania may be a zone 3 or 4 about the same as here in MN. Plant seeds according to your growing season and climate. Potatoes do well and provide a lot of food.

I just want to say thanks to everyone for the advice. :-)

Can you get herb seeds and from where?
And do they sell them in variety packs? (ie rosemary, oregano, parsley, cummin etc)

Go information in this thread.

40 lbs composted cow manure
2 gallons peat moss
1 gallon pro mix
1 gallon vermiculate
to which I added
calcium
10 10 10
clay
gypsum

and a few other supplements I forget at this hour of the morning.

Such a blend would fill almost 3 5 gallon buckets and produced extremely happy full and productive plants.

excellent idea here.. you may consider tree bark, mulch and river sand in small quantity as well. You have to be pretty careful with peat moss. Every body I know that uses peat moss uses too much of it! You can easily make too moist of an environemnt rhis way. IF you need a source of heavy metals for your plants when tSHTF, you can use fecal matter.. including human(which is super high in trace elements!) A recommendation is to bleach it first though, because this is how ecoli and salmonella outbreaks can occur. (think city leech tank) (not liable for any illness when doing this!!!)

Some of the above designs of gardening are excellent. If you have the time and space, long rows work the best!!! The spiral garden for herbs works well. I built a raised herb garden last year for a friends, it ended up being 3ft X 10ft. They actually grew 2 large tomato plants in it as well.

I think the moral of these threads is.. practice now... because you will have a crappy time when tSHTF making food by the sweat of your brow... it will simply be to hard.

I thank my dad for making me prep, plant, weed and harvest from the .5 acre garden growing up. Hated it then because nobody else did it, and we always had to get out in the 'hot muggy weather (life is hard when you are 10!)'. I enjoy gardenening in generall as a pasttime, but I also recognize the importance that it hold for us. Practice now. For everyone that can, try to live this summer off of food you produce (as much as you can!!)

idigmygarden.com/forums .. related to heirloom seed company... good place to get more specific advice... the point is you have to be willing to do anything (a guy there mentions to avoid his tomatoes drying up he uses a diaper wet with water and manure and plants it 14 inches deep. A little excessive? yes, but it works..)

you may consider stocking up on shorter growing time seeds to try to get 2 growing seasons in.

o yeah and practice cooking with your new found vegetables beforehand.

Great info and links on this thread!

I myself am researching an idea along the same lines, but in a completely self-contained environment, so that the plants provide not only food, but the oxygen needed to survive.

MY QUESTION:
What kind and how many edible/sustainable plants would it take to provide enough food and oxygen production/carbon dioxide ingestion to sustain one adult human in a self-contained environment?

Area_X, I don't know the exact answer to your question but I do know that there are some complexities involved in your proposal. For example: if you have a certain amount of oxygen while your plants are growing, you're going to have less oxygen after your harvest. If you design this system so that remaining plants produce enough oxygen after your harvest, then you won't be producing enough CO2 for the plants while they're all growing. You'd have to design the system so that the harvest times and growing times are staggered.

There are also other toxic waste gases that need to be taken into consideration, such as methane. These wastes would need to be removed from the system... BUT... every time you remove any matter whatsoever from the system, without bringing something else in, you decrease the total resources available until you have no resources left.

I'm not shooting your idea down though, I'm just helping you find the path.

We only have 1 acre, and our ground isnt that good. But I grow, Wax beans, string beans, and tomatoes. Then I also have my herbs and in my herb garden I have usually about 100 onions growing. As well as about 5 garlic plants. they dry good and you can keep them for about 6 months. Onions are about one of the easiest things there is to grow. That is why I enjoy growing them.

This year I am adding pepper plants, and winter squash in my garden. Winter squash will last about 6 months if you keep it dry and cool. And it also is easy to grow.

Hilda