4 steps to maximizing your food production : A.P. Guest Writer H.P.
4 steps to maximizing your food production
No matter what stage of preparedness you are in, there are some basic principles that will help you maximize your food production. Finding success growing your own food takes years of failure. Everyone has a unique set of circumstances that will require continuous failure and adaptation. These guidelines are geared towards the produce gardener at any level of production or experience looking to bolster a sustainable lifestyle.
- Prep – If you want to grow food at a level of production to sustain your family or community – start preparing on a multi-year basis.
Trying to build beds in the springtime isn’t fun so plan ahead. If your land needs any improvements like drainage or irrigation, it needs to be done a year ahead before you can really start utilizing it. What you do this year dictates your crop next year. Same goes for soil improvements. There are all kinds of ways to improve your soil, but they all take time and planning. Don’t feel pressured to haphazardly throw some plant in the ground just to do it. Instead, use that effort to plan ahead for next year.
A good fix for heavy clay soil is silica sand. Silica sand will annihilate clay, but it takes years. With rocky or sandy soil, you will be continuously adding organic material. In swampy areas you need loads of gravel and rolls of pipe. Or maybe just a fishing pole. If you do your own composting, expect to wait a few years before that pile will yield anything usable for your garden. Don’t count on compost alone to provide enough material to sustain your food production long term. You’ll want to establish a reliable source of manure preferably onsite.
Gaining yields from certain plants will take years as well. Fruit and nut tree production is generally a 10 year startup process. Be careful to choose only trees that do well in your area and do not cheap out on the cultivation side. Give your $10 sapling a $100 hole. Test your soil and consider your climate before planting. Most berries will take at least a year to see any real results. Asparagus takes years to get regular production as well. Study permaculture and see how it can benefit you. Only grow food that you actually eat and grows well locally. Don’t waste time on fancy things that aren’t hardy or are labor intensive. Name of the game is reducing the amount of time and labor so do it right from the start.
There’s no substitute for good data, so start a garden journal and log everything. Chart out seed germination rates, last frost, first frost, transplant dates, harvest dates, daily temps, rainfall, cure time, storage results, sales/prices, and any other pertinent details you can log. Look for trends and leverage this data to plan for the coming years.
- Starting – Once you have a solid baseline of data, you can start planning your seed starting. When you start your seeds is entirely dependent on your local climate and growing conditions and what you are growing.
The best way to find success growing food is to start it from seed. It’s tempting to buy a potted plant at the big box store in the spring, but your results will suffer. To start from seed you need 5 things – good soil, heat, light, water, and air movement. It gets much easier once you figure out a system to utilize all of those elements together. A cheap fan, fluorescent light, and a heat mat will go a long way in this area. Also remember to inventory and rotate your seed stock every year. Germination rates drop over time so start with high quality seed and store it in a cool, dark, dry space. Its kind of like garden ammunition.
Be aware of germination periods – don’t start seeds too early or late. Plants started too early will get leggy and weak leading to disease, susceptibility to pests, and poor performance. Plants started too late will not have enough time to mature resulting in poor or no yield. You need to know when you can transplant each type of plant into the field or greenhouse and minimize risk of loss. Start thinking about succession planting and which crops will give you multiple harvests throughout the season. If you plan your intervals right, you’ll be eating fresh for most of the year. Getting this part right is entirely dependent on your historical data and local conditions.
Consider whether you want to save any seed from your crop when selecting your seed stock. Hybrid varieties tend to produce stronger yields but you can’t use the seeds for replanting. Heirloom varieties will produce viable seeds if you are able to successfully save them. Once perfected, you could possibly have an unlimited supply of seed. While this is good long term, heirlooms are generally lower yield and more prone to disease. Over time your heirlooms may start to naturally hybridize through cross pollination with other plants in your area. Local climate can affect this too. Its probably good to be growing both hybrid and heirloom.
- Maintenance – Probably the most critical part of the food production process is the growing phase. Getting a live plant into the ground is easy – will you be able to make it to harvest?
2 months later…
If you are growing above 35 degrees North or in a high elevation, you would probably benefit from some type of greenhouse or indoor growing setup. Many variables are involved in local and microclimate conditions, but it’s safe to say that most folks would benefit from indoor growing. Indoor growing will extend your growing season and help prevent your crop from being damaged by wind, rain, cold, animals, and other elements. You can also protect from excessive heat and sun by incorporating shade material into your setup. Most plants which produce a high nutritional yield can be grown in a greenhouse, and it can be done year round. Doing this does not need to be expensive. You can find pipe benders and other greenhouse supplies locally that will help you achieve your goals without breaking the bank.
Avoid gimmicks.
Anyone growing to sustain a family or community should be looking to reduce labor while increasing output. Plasticulture can be big labor gamechanger at a homestead. Using ag plastics for ground cover and row cover can change everything. All of the challenges of growing become much more manageable with ag plastics. Weeding is no longer a chore with most crops. Disease and pest damage is reduced, and soil holds its moisture much better when covered. Your plants will stay cleaner which reduces disease and cuts processing labor. Ag plastics are great for erosion control as well. There’s no doubt that you will see immediate results if you start using ag plastics in your gardening practices.
You’ll need to learn how and when to prune every type of plant you grow. Another important part of maintenance is fertilization and pest control. Many variables will affect your fertilization needs and timing. Try to find a reliable local source for organic liquid fertilizer and learn how to use it. In a long term approach you need to be thinking about how to get manure if you don’t have a source onsite. Also consider what types of pest control elements you might need such as diatomaceous earth, neem oil, or coon traps for example. Most of these items are shelf stable and readily available. It’s crucial that you identify what you need and learn how to use it. Don’t just stockpile stuff without testing it.
- Processing – You’ve managed to defend your crop from all that mother nature has thrown at it. Now what?
There’s nothing more crushing than spending a season caring for your crops only to lose them before harvest. How do you know when to harvest? Refer to your garden journal and see what’s worked for you in the past. Analyze your historical data and make an informed decision. Is that watermelon ready to pick? How disappointing would it be to pick it and find out it needed a few more weeks on the vine? Have you ever eaten lettuce that has bolted? Its gross and totally avoidable, but bolting can happen overnight and ruin your whole crop. Now all you have is some expensive chicken feed. Could you imagine waiting for 6 months to harvest your apples only to lose them to an early hard frost or even worse Bambi? Don’t forget – those raccoons know when the sweet corn is ready for harvest too. Everyone’s mileage will vary when it comes to properly harvesting your crop, but it all starts with documenting your work.
Once you’ve successfully harvested your crop, its time to prepare it to either sell, store, or eat. Each area has specific requirements with eating fresh being the simplest. Prepping your food for market can be quite a challenge depending on what type of crop you are selling. Leafy greens take the most labor to bring to market. As soon as you cut any of your food off the plant, it begins to deteriorate immediately. You will need to be set up to properly wash, pack, and temporarily store your market crops. There needs to be a sense of urgency when processing your food for market. Only sell your best-looking food. Anything with a blemish or deformity becomes “farmer food” and does not get sold.
Prepping your food for storage is similar to prepping for market, again, depending on types and varieties. If you are growing to store, look for varieties that store well. You’ll need drying racks in your barn or shed to cure things like garlic, potatoes, and onions before they can be stored. Use the cleanest and best looking pieces of food for putting into storage. When freezing, canning, or dehydrating your food, think about how you’ll be cooking with it and process it accordingly. With dry storage keep your food in ventilated bins in a cool, dark, dry place. Moisture and stagnant air are an enemy, so don’t pack the bins too tight.
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Hopefully you can utilize some of these ideas to help build food resilience for you, your family, and your community. In desperate times, our communities will be better off with less desperate hungry people. Find a local farmer that can mentor you. Start a business to help subsidize your costs. Locally sourced produce is becoming commercially chic. You can also barter with your produce. Find a niche that you can manage and build on. At the very least, you’ll get to eat healthy and marvel at God’s creation in the great outdoors.
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About the Author: Johnny Paratrooper
Born and Raised in Baltimore City, Maryland. History Degree. 8 Years Airborne Infantry and Scouts Platoon. Iraq Veteran. 4-5 Years as a doorman, bar back, and bouncer in Baltimore. Worked in Construction, Heavy Equipment Demolition, Corporate Security, Sales, Forest Service contractor, and the Hospitality Industry. Raised Catholic. Hobbies are race cars and sport bikes. Side projects are HAM radio credentials and long range shooting. MY EMAIL IS [email protected].
Founder of Green Dragon Academy https://www.patreon.com/GreenDragonAcademy
12 Comments
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GUNS N GEAR
My current track is to plant heirlooms _only_. Why?
Because this is the quickest way to stabilize the best genetics in and for _your_ garden. True, they may not be as stellar in some respects as hybrids. But hybrids require constant supply line access – which is exactly the condition we are preparing for it to fail.
Also, within the heirloom genes that come to you, nuance specific to your unique growing conditions can be adjusted to by planting only the seeds that thrived the most.
As far as cross-pollination and blurring species within the same families, engage the neighborhood food growing group to concentrate on different things, sharing the harvest later – the natural separation between your plots aiding in keeping genes in their own original design. Yellow onions here, red onions way over there. Acorn squash here, butternut squash way over there.
And yes, pre-planning is huge, being already ready for Spring a winner.
I planted a garden plot once and everything was on top of each other.
Terrible results.
The learning curve is steep. 2 summers into it and I’m jut getting the basics down. Cross pollination issues and finicky seedlings can cost you a crop easily. Time and labor required for soil prep always seem to be underestimated. There are a thousand little details required to get it all right and you ignore them at your peril. The farmer needs to have a reference library specific to his craft on hand and use it. If you take it all as a learning process, you get better at it. It takes a lot of effort, but growing your own food is a crucial and rewarding skill.
when you find a niche keep doing it. my brother is very good at starting sweet potato plants. he has been producing the same starts year after year on produce he saved. we have pretty heavy clay ground and the key to mellowing it. is add lots and lots of composted manures and working it in deep. some things like sweet potatoes , do better in a raised furrow.. the easiest way ive found in digging a raised furrow, is run the tiller, then use a hard landscaping rake. to pull the dirt up. if we can get it 12-14 inches high. (Address never made public)
that makes a great potato furrow
I have seen this method work.
H.P. is going to do a follow on about his green houses.
His green houses are a work of economy and function.
H.P. would seem to have his act together. I look forward to it.
Might I suggest a couple of titles that may be of general interest?
*Will Bonsall’s Essential Guide to Radical, Self-Reliant Gardening
Innovative Techniques for Growing Vegetables, Grains, and Perennial Food Crops with Minimal Fossil Fuel and Animal Inputs Will Bonsall
*The Winter Harvest Handbook
By Eliot Coleman
Both of these guys make a go of it in central Maine. Coleman’s book deals extensively with growing over winter in unheated greenhouses.
Excellent post. The more knowledge you have, the better. You don’t need much acreage.
Learn from people who do this for a living:
1) The Market Gardner, Jean-Martin Fortier
2) The Urban Farmer, Curtis Stone
3) The New Organic Grower, Eliot Coleman
Eliot Coleman has been a big help for us. Also check with your seed supplier. Most of the suppliers have tons of useful data that is specific to each variety they sell. https://www.johnnyseeds.com/ has an excellent grower’s library.
Potatoes can be grown on top of the ground with straw if you can provide plenty of water. The green houses are very impressive.
In my AO, potatoes grow themselves.
Potatoes are gonna be one of my first crops at my new house.
If I could harvest 150 lbs of potato, plus 10-20% extra for potato seed I would be set for a year by myself.
And that’s my goal.
JP try to harvest the potato berries. You can truly grow from potato seed that is naturally hybridized to your area though it takes 2 years.
Nice write-up, HP. Much appreciated.