How much to plant per person for a years worth of food

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JustMe

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I try to share this everywhere for gardeners to know how much to plant, to feed you for a year. This is just a guideline and can be adjusted to fit your needs. If you don't like or eat something, then don't plant any. If you only eat it once in awhile, then plant a smaller number, or if it's something you eat often and go thru alot of it, then plant more. Especially things like tomatoes, if you make your own sauce, diced, salsa, marinara, ketchup, bbq sauce, etc. But this list is a good starting point.

I had originally gotten the list from a website Well Fed Homestead, that I had trouble accessing now. Good thing I had it saved.


Artichokes
1-4 plants per person

Asparagus
10-12 plants per person

Beans, Bush
10-20 plants per person

Beans, Lima
10-20 plants per person

Beans, Pole
10-20 plants per person

Beets
10-20 plants per person

Broccoli
5-10 plants per person

Brussels Sprouts
2-8 plants per person

Cabbage
3-10 plants per person

Carrots
10-40 plants per person

Cauliflower
3-5 plants per person

Celeriac
1-5 plants per person

Celery
3-8 plants per person

Corn
12-40 plants per person

Cucumbers
3-5 plants per person

Eggplant
1 plant per person, plus 2-3 extra per family

Kale
1 5’ row per person

Lettuce
10-12 plants per person

Melons
2-6 plants per person

Onions
40-80 plants per person

Peas
25-60 plants per person

Peppers
5-6 plants per person

Potatoes
10-30 plants per person

Pumpkins
1 plant per person

Rhubarb
2-3 crowns per person

Spinach
10-20 plants per person

Summer Squash
2-4 plants per person

Winter Squash
2 plants per person

Sweet Potatoes
5 plants per person

Tomatoes
2-5 plants per person
 
I try to share this everywhere for gardeners to know how much to plant, to feed you for a year. This is just a guideline and can be adjusted to fit your needs. If you don't like or eat something, then don't plant any. If you only eat it once in awhile, then plant a smaller number, or if it's something you eat often and go thru alot of it, then plant more. Especially things like tomatoes, if you make your own sauce, diced, salsa, marinara, ketchup, bbq sauce, etc. But this list is a good starting point.

I had originally gotten the list from a website Well Fed Homestead, that I had trouble accessing now. Good thing I had it saved.


Artichokes
1-4 plants per person

Asparagus
10-12 plants per person

Beans, Bush
10-20 plants per person

Beans, Lima
10-20 plants per person

Beans, Pole
10-20 plants per person

Beets
10-20 plants per person

Broccoli
5-10 plants per person

Brussels Sprouts
2-8 plants per person

Cabbage
3-10 plants per person

Carrots
10-40 plants per person

Cauliflower
3-5 plants per person

Celeriac
1-5 plants per person

Celery
3-8 plants per person

Corn
12-40 plants per person

Cucumbers
3-5 plants per person

Eggplant
1 plant per person, plus 2-3 extra per family

Kale
1 5’ row per person

Lettuce
10-12 plants per person

Melons
2-6 plants per person

Onions
40-80 plants per person

Peas
25-60 plants per person

Peppers
5-6 plants per person

Potatoes
10-30 plants per person

Pumpkins
1 plant per person

Rhubarb
2-3 crowns per person

Spinach
10-20 plants per person

Summer Squash
2-4 plants per person

Winter Squash
2 plants per person

Sweet Potatoes
5 plants per person

Tomatoes
2-5 plants per person
There is a Granny Miller (Katherine Grossman) book that has a lot of such info you might like also. There is one little morsel on your list I have to laugh at - not you or incorrect, but summer squash. I have joked in the past that they should sell zuke seeds individually wrapped, because who needs more than one? Last summer I planted 1 plant and fed 4 families zukes all summer 😂 There is also a joke that we live in a pretty sketchy area, especially in summer months. You have to make sure your car doors are locked. . . . or you will go to get in your car and find it full of zukes. 😂 I like lists like this though - super helpful in planning.
 
I think that the list would have a lot of variation depending on how well your plants produced and how many harvests you can get off them. For example one year I got 800 pounds of tomatoes out of a 10'X10' patch, the following year almost nothing (lucky to have been 200#s). Soil quality, water supply, insects, and weather can all help or hurt your garden's effectiveness...

But I do like your list because it is a place to start from and it gives us all something to think about.
 
I think that the list would have a lot of variation depending on how well your plants produced and how many harvests you can get off them. For example one year I got 800 pounds of tomatoes out of a 10'X10' patch, the following year almost nothing (lucky to have been 200#s). Soil quality, water supply, insects, and weather can all help or hurt your garden's effectiveness...

But I do like your list because it is a place to start from and it gives us all something to think about.
Slightly off track but sorta not really 😂 I think I've mentioned it in other threads, but have you ever read "My Handkerchief Garden"? I think it's a free read on Gutenberg.org. It's about growing a lot in a small space, written over a hundred years ago.
 
You can preserve most plants in one way or another and there is always the food bank and the church where you can donate excess food.
 
Much of that can also depend on planting methods.....some things can be planted in succession so you get 2 or even 3 harvests over the whole growing season, and space saving methods like intensive and/or companion planting.. It would take alot of pre-planning and for mother nature to cooperate, to achieve growing all your veggies for a year supply. Every year there is always something that refuses to grow, or produce.....no matter what you do. And then the next year goes bonkers and you have it coming out your ears. I think mother nature is fickle to say the least.

But also, dehydrating, canning, freezing, fermenting, salting or whatever method of preservation you use, would need to be done in order to continue to feed you long after the season is over.....unless you lived in a very temperate region that would allow year round gardening.. Also the artichokes, asparagus and rhubarb are all perennials.
 
Not on the list but certainly makes food more enjoyable are herbs. Many are perennials also which is nice. Even if they aren't, being able to preserve them during summer months for use through winter works - and tastes good.
(I hadn't really given thought to perennials vs. annuals when reading the list, but worth noting for sure.)
 
Great chart, but they are wrong about Asparagus 10-12 plants per person, if you want fresh Asparagus more than six weeks a year.
Clemson had an article on how to have Fall fresh asparagus, can not find it now, but here is another one.
https://laidbackgardener.blog/2018/08/05/asparagus-now-a-summer-crop-too/Regardless the chart is a good one & any perennial plant will last twenty or more years with out digging & replanting is a win win.
 
There is a Granny Miller (Katherine Grossman) book that has a lot of such info you might like also. There is one little morsel on your list I have to laugh at - not you or incorrect, but summer squash. I have joked in the past that they should sell zuke seeds individually wrapped, because who needs more than one? Last summer I planted 1 plant and fed 4 families zukes all summer 😂 There is also a joke that we live in a pretty sketchy area, especially in summer months. You have to make sure your car doors are locked. . . . or you will go to get in your car and find it full of zukes. 😂 I like lists like this though - super helpful in planning.
Square foot garden is a good one too. It tells you when to replant annuals, so to harvest all season. Season can be anywhere from 60 days to 220 days.
 
I don't know, but I should weigh it. He asked me tonight if I wanted another radish, and he laughed and said ok. Went outside and pulled it out of the ground. With the greens still on it, it lays out on my whole counter. It's a bit spicy, in the diakon radish family. White and huge. I'll grow a big patch of it next year for animal feed. And we'll eat a few slices in salad, too.
Just ordered some mammoth red mangel beet seeds from Baker Creek. Those get up to 40 lbs. Tossing one of these is a sport played in the UK, called mangold hurling. Will use it for animal food, and it says it can be grated for beet burgers.
 
shim.gif
Radish » Giant White Radish
Sakurajima Mammoth
Raphanus sativus
100sakur.jpg

Sakurajima Mammoth
Seed #100
This mammoth, round, white root has a mild, sweet flavor. Grown in Japan as the "Largest Radish in the World," it sometimes reaches 100 pounds. Used for pickling and cooking, this giant originated in the very southern tip of Japan Sakurajima region. Although it does not store well, the inner core remains crisp and juicy, even if the outer part becomes pithy.
https://www.kitazawaseed.com/seed_100-112.htmlThis is a catalog that I get, it has a lot of radishes that are 2.5 to 4" X 10 to 16" long, but the one above is the biggest.
There are five or so mammoth type radishes, but I have never grown them.
Amish Heart, this is not the one you have.
 
Horseradish is another perennial. The leaves are edible as greens when young. They are quite spicy so are good mixed with other greens. Nettles and dandelions are also useful perennials. I have small patches where I grow them. They need to be isolated and well tended so they don't become problematic.
 
I had horseradish & sunchoke, but the deer ate the plants in early spring & they were gone by third year.
I have a hunter harvest seven deer & he thinks there are at least five more deer that cross my land to the swamp.
So the war rages on.
 
I had horseradish & sunchoke, but the deer ate the plants in early spring & they were gone by third year.
I have a hunter harvest seven deer & he thinks there are at least five more deer that cross my land to the swamp.
So the war rages on.
I have an ongoing war on Bambi particularly with my strawberries. It is a wonder wild strawberries survive them but never in large groups...

Ben
 
We get rabbits eating everything green the minutes it's spring. By summer, they don't bother stuff. My horseradish is a first year plant, and the leaves have some bug damage. Now we have a herd of guineas running the farm, and another 26 babies that will be old enough to be herd number two in the spring, and they eat all kinds of bugs. So I'm reading that the horseradish leaves kinda die down in the winter, and a fourth to a half of the root can be harvested after the first solid freeze. So I'll try it. Not a huge horseradish fan, but husband is. I do use a little for a sour throat elixer I make. Lucky that nothing went after my strawberries.
 
That's a very small kid!!
That is a grown man, he stands 6'1"!................................................................................................................................................................. :rolleyes: ;)
 
Anyone else getting the itch to plan and get started on the garden already??? I sure am and can't wait to get out there. I am letting my regular garden space rest this coming year, but I also have 3 other areas to plant in.

With it raining, maybe that's what I'll do today......start the planning of what and how much I need and where to put it
 
It's a bit spicy, in the diakon radish family. White and huge. I'll grow a big patch of it next year for animal feed. And we'll eat a few slices in salad, too.
We once bought one of these large radishes at H Mart. Sliced it up and cooked it in butter. Cooking them removes the spiciness. I have read that some people cook them up, probably boiling them, and they are almost like potatoes, but without the carbs. I read about someone using them instead of potatoes in a potato like salad.
 
Yep, I bet you could. My cousin cut one and fried it up and his wife said he stunk up the kitchen, and not to do that again. We just tried it raw, and it wasn't bad. I chopped it in small pieces to see if it could be chicken and rabbit food, and it can.
 

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