# Highest Producing Garden Food



## Redneck

Before drifting off to sleep last night, I was contemplating survival gardening. Seems after reading One Second After, I have been bothered as to why these folks starved & why they couldn't do a better job of producing food, especially considering the event occurred in early May meaning they had the whole growing season ahead of them. I personally prepare as much to grow food during/after a crisis as to store food to eat... and I store a LOT of food. For me, stores are the short term solution to a long term problem. I store hundreds of pounds of seed with most being locally purchased (grows well here) and stored in sealed mylar bags inside sealed 6 gallon plastic pails. Also store seed in a chest freezer. My primary plants, with the most volume of seed, are the three sisters... field corn, pole beans & squash/melons. I of course store lots of other seed, including several commercial products such as Heirloom Organics Homestead seed vaults.

So my question is, what can you plant and in return, get the most food back? That is what I was considering last night. Now my three sisters plants do rather well but per plant, they are not huge producers. I would make up for that by planting lots of seed. Sweet potatoes would be high on the list, as one slip can make many pounds of potatoes. Problem with them is, would I have any sweet potatoes to make slips & if I did, I wouldn't have enough in the short term to grow massive numbers of plants. Tomatoes would be another good choice, as they set fruit over a long period and again, an individual plant can produce many pounds of food. Issue I have with tomatoes is, they are very susceptible to disease, especially here in the warm, humid south. 

Upon thinking, I came up with three plants which would produce massive amounts of food in a crisis and could do so with minimal chemicals & fertilizer. For me, yellow squash is the king for quickly growing massive amounts of food. One seed produces a huge plant that needs to be picked every few days. Biggest issue with them is the damned squash bugs that eventually kill my plants. I figure in a crisis however, that I would have extra time (wouldn't be going to work) and extra folks on the farm, so we should be able to patrol the plants daily to pick off the bugs & remove the eggs from the leaves. I also store many gallons of Spinosad if needed. Second plant I like is amaranth. The seeds are tiny yet produce a huge plant which is basically 100% edible at certain stages of its life. It loves warm weather & like the weed it is, doesn't need much water or fertilizer to grow. Many grow it for the seed to make flour but I'd grow it for the leaves... as a super nutritious green that would grow all year, long past after the cool weather greens played out. A single pound of amaranth seed can plant over an acre. Nothing else I know of comes close to that type of food production. My third plant is eggplant. Once again, a single seed grows a large plant that produces all season long and puts out pounds & pounds of eggplants. What I love about eggplant, besides eating it with tomato & mozzarella, is that in my garden, nothing bothers it. Bugs don't attack it and no diseases strike it. It is the most carefree producer in my garden. Now that I think about it, I guess I should include okra for the same reason.

So to me, if one is facing a crisis, there are things to grow that can put food on the table. Might not be your normal diet but anything is better than starvation. Curious what other here think & what they experience from their gardens.


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## Robie

From what I've read/heard...dandelions might be a good thing to nurture instead of killing....if we are talking in survival terms.


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## TG

Love your post, @******* !

I love growing potatoes, they don't seem to need much and I can easily eat them raw, they're also very filling and are a great source of vitamin C, B6 and fiber (will make you go  ).


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## sideKahr

Your choices are good ones. Beans, pole or bush, are prolific producers. Green peppers too.


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## sideKahr

@TG Eating raw potatoes is not recommended. Potato starch is not digestible unless the cell walls have been broken down by cooking. If you've been eating them without getting gas bloat, etc then I guess you're immune.

http://www.nutritionmyths.com/can-raw-potatoes-make-me-sick/


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## Knotacare

I think squash, zucchini & cucumbers are all high producers. Sweet 100's or millions also produce fast & take up little space. When you plant your squash or zucchini seeds take a 6" round PVC pipe cut to around 6" push it in the ground so only 1" is showing & plant your seeds inside. This will stop the border bugs for awhile until the plants re-root. I also let 2 -3 plants grow from that container so you get a very large yield fast. Showed some Amish farmers this trick several yrs ago & they got the biggest smiles on there faces I ever saw. Teaching them anything about farming is not an easy thing to do.


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## TG

sideKahr said:


> @TG Eating raw potatoes is not recommended. Potato starch is not digestible unless the cell walls have been broken down by cooking. If you've been eating them without getting gas bloat, etc then I guess you're immune.
> 
> Can raw potatoes make me sick?


How do you think my people survived through several famines? Raw potatoes.

Edited to add.. The reason many had to eat potatoes raw is because communists took all of the firewood and coal, they had nothing to burn.


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## 8301

I grew up in the town (Black Mountain and Montreat) where the book happens. The ground is fairly steep and rocky so somewhat limited sunshine and growing space. 100 years ago the primary food crop was potatoes, turnips, and some cabbage. I met a woman who farmed a few fairly flat acres by the creek. She said "give me 2 acres by the creek and I'd never starve". Now Swannanoa, the next town over in the book, has much more open land to grow in and has a lot of cattle pasture.


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## Redneck

Knotacare said:


> I think squash, zucchini & cucumbers are all high producers. Sweet 100's or millions also produce fast & take up little space. When you plant your squash or zucchini seeds take a 6" round PVC pipe cut to around 6" push it in the ground so only 1" is showing & plant your seeds inside. This will stop the border bugs for awhile until the plants re-root. I also let 2 -3 plants grow from that container so you get a very large yield fast. Showed some Amish farmers this trick several yrs ago & they got the biggest smiles on there faces I ever saw. Teaching them anything about farming is not an easy thing to do.


My problem with squash bugs is not while the plants are young, but after they are big & mature. That is when those damned bugs hit.

Yep, cucumbers are another huge producer. I didn't include them as I don't grow them anymore & really don't like them. One plant WAY outproduced what we would eat. But since we are talking survival, you are 100% correct in including them. Thanks! I do have those seeds in my seed vaults.


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## TG

Just wanted to add to my previous comment.
Please consider training your stomach to eating raw veggies that you wouldn't normally eat raw. I know that most people are grossed out by raw potatoes, squash, yams or whatever else but when the time comes when all you have in front of you are horrid quality raw root veggies (because you didn't have a lot of water to care for them) and no firewood, you want to make sure you can eat and not feel sick afterwards. Learn to eat this way a little amount at a time and develop a palate & stomach for it, you won't regret this.


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## Smitty901

Potatoes done right you have so many you will give them away and you can store them.


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## Redneck

Smitty901 said:


> Potatoes done right you have so many you will give them away and you can store them.


Agree, but like in the book, if the crisis hit unexpectedly and shut down all transportation, who would have enough seed potatoes to grow that much food in the first year? If you note in my original post, that is why I didn't include sweet potatoes in my list. Seed can be stored for years & can be stored in vast quantities. Not so with potatoes.

So if an event happened today, would you have enough seed potatoes to grow more food than you could eat? If not, what prepper would be able to keep that volume on hand just for the possibility of a crisis? Can't store potatoes for years.


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## RJAMES

Radishes are a quick grow as is most of the lettuces. You do not need big fields rather lots of small spots or containers will do fine just need sunlight and water. Think about starting plants indoors or in a hoop house then moving out side to get an early start , hoop house to make your season longer. Many could grow slowly some greens cabbage, kale thru winter in much of the country. 

With out covering I was picking tomatoes and still had plants blooming in mid November this year in mid Missouri. We did have a cold spell and more on the way but it was in the 60's yesterday during the day. 

I have carried over potatoes - cobbler, yukon gold and sweet for years planting in the spring what I grew the year before. I have had a lot of luck with Jerusalem artichoke that I planted about 7 years ago . It is a tuber that you can use like a potato, wife is not fond so I feed to cattle. Thing is you plant them once , dig in the fall or anytime till spring that the ground is not to hard. They will com up and grow more plants in spring just thin so you get some size to the tuber. When I thin I feed the tops / stocks to the cattle , then dig usually very early spring and feed the tubers. First time was hard getting them to eat them but after I hand fed one to a horse and got her to eat more from the ground they were like what is this. Now they see me digging and come running. Get just a few and plant where you really really want them. Just leave some in the ground and the will stay permanently. Mow the edges or your patch will keep getting bigger and bigger. If you want a bigger patch then let them spread or plant some tuber that you grew. 

I also like asparagus as you do not have to do a lot of there than mulch it and harvest just leave it alone that first year . This is not something to do after the shtf rather something to do now. It is something that at a BOL that you only visit a couple times a yer you could plant and let grow. Run the gutter pipe to the bed If you are there to harvest great no harm. Same for starting fruit trees this spring if you live where there is adequate rain. Johnny Apple seed was real and he went trough the Ohio Valley planting apple trees in patches where he thought settlers would be coming in a couple years.


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## RJAMES

Years that I have had way to many potatoes I sold at a farmers market or given to a food pantry. Same as I do with anything . Sometimes trade - last year my water melons did not do so I traded blackberries for water melons. 

With sweet potatoes you can also eat the stems and leaves. I harvest a bunch for a Korean woman I know she uses them to make a type of kimchi.


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## agmccall

I have been doing a lot of reading lately and mushrooms seem to be a good crop. Once you plug some logs and they start fruiting you can harvest right through the summer and they will continue to produce for years. Once harvested just dry them and you are good to go. Other crops would be Jerusalem artichokes and asparagus, plant them out of the way because they spread, but they keep coming back year after year.

al


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## Smitty901

******* said:


> Agree, but like in the book, if the crisis hit unexpectedly and shut down all transportation, who would have enough seed potatoes to grow that much food in the first year? If you note in my original post, that is why I didn't include sweet potatoes in my list. Seed can be stored for years & can be stored in vast quantities. Not so with potatoes.
> 
> So if an event happened today, would you have enough seed potatoes to grow more food than you could eat? If not, what prepper would be able to keep that volume on hand just for the possibility of a crisis? Can't store potatoes for years.


 Potatoes can be stored for a long time if done right . The potatoes is it's own seed. We store potatoes in this part of the country every year


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## Redneck

RJAMES said:


> Same for starting fruit trees this spring if you live where there is adequate rain. Johnny Apple seed was real and he went trough the Ohio Valley planting apple trees in patches where he thought settlers would be coming in a couple years.


Yep, I have around 150 apple trees, plus peaches & oriental persimmons. Yes, Johnny Appleseed was real but what most people don't realize was that the trees he grew were not for eating... but for making cider. Back then apple cider was drunk by all and was the primary use for the apple. Thing is, if you plant an apple seed, what grows is not that same variety but normally reverts to a mostly inedible crab apple variety... which is used in cider making. These apples are normally small & tart & back then were called "spitters". Only way to ensure you grow the same, edible variety is by grafting, which every tree you buy today will be. Many settlers would bring scions of their eating apples & graft those onto the "wild" apples... even those planted by John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed).

There was a method to his "madness". Frontier law allowed people to lay claim to land through development of a permanent homestead. Such a claim could be made by planting 50 apple trees. So in his travels through Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois, Chapman would plant swaths of seeds to begin an orchard, then sell them to settlers once the land had grown bountiful. This made him quite the land baron.


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## TG

Smitty901 said:


> Potatoes can be stored for a long time if done right . The potatoes is it's own seed. We store potatoes in this part of the country every year


I keep some potatoes in a hole I dug under my basement. It's dark, cool and dry in there, potatoes store up to two years without rotting if you spread them out.


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## Redneck

Smitty901 said:


> Potatoes can be stored for a long time if done right . The potatoes is it's own seed. We store potatoes in this part of the country every year


Yes, I understand that but this is a prepper forum and the discussion involves growing massive amounts of food very quickly... with no time to prepare. So even though you or I may have some potatoes in storage for our use next year, my point is really no one would have enough to immediately increase the crop say 100 fold... or more. I can do so economically with seed but not with potatoes. It would take successive years of crops to greatly ramp up potato production. Of course I would be doing so but I would never consider the potato for rapid, massive food production. For example, from one potato you can grow maybe 10 new plants, where one plant can produce maybe 10 potatoes. Compare that to amaranth, where one plant can produce enough seed for an entire acre of future crop... plus you get to eat the leaves from the plant while it is growing the seed.


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## Smitty901

TG said:


> I keep some potatoes in a hole I dug under my basement. It's dark, cool and dry in there, potatoes store up to two years without rotting if you spread them out.


 Many here still have root cellars. Also our asparagus patch has been going non stop for 35 years now.


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## Redneck

Smitty901 said:


> Also our asparagus patch has been going non stop for 35 years now.


Gonna add an additional patch this spring. It is just so danged easy to grow.


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## sideKahr

@******* You bring up an interesting point. Most farming is monoculture today. A nationwide disaster will probably put pressure on food production to become much more local. How will a farmer with 160 acres of potatoes begin growing 12 different types of crop? How will he get seed, etc? Interesting.


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## Redneck

sideKahr said:


> @******* You bring up an interesting point. Most farming is monoculture today. A nationwide disaster will probably put pressure on food production to become much more local. How will a farmer with 160 acres of potatoes begin growing 12 different types of crop? How will he get seed, etc? Interesting.


Exactly. Sure farmers can transition back to the old way of food production, but as you say, it will take years. The point of this discussion is to think about the short term... getting something to eat quickly. It might not be as balanced as to what we are today accustomed but it would be better than the alternative... death by starvation. If I had to pick one survival plant, it would be amaranth. Funny thing is, most people don't have a clue about it. But me, I like to eat so I have lots of variety in my seed stores.


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## RJAMES

OK fair point to increase the potatoes I grow year to year in a huge way it would be hard. To continue to grow a couple hundred ponds more than I currently use myself I just keep doing what I do . To increase that takes 2 years I would have to insure after the first harvest after the shtf to make sure I saved a lot more 'seed' potatoes than I normally do so I can expand my planting even more. 

If you are not currently growing them buying and storing seed and planning to grow those plants is a better plan. What ever potatoes you just happen to have on hand should be saved if you can for planting in the spring or planted right away just depending on the time of year. 

I mentioned long term crops for those that have land so that they can start plantings now even if they are not now living there full time.


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## Redneck

I look at survival gardening in two ways. One, how would I survive after an EMP event (or similar) where, like in the book, machinery would mostly not be available. That is the hard one but I do plan for it. The other would be where your equipment works but society starts to fail. My primary plants going into the ground would differ, depending on the situation. Without farm equipment available, tilled garden space would be at a premium & I would certainly concentrate on getting the most bang for the buck. With equipment, even for the short term, I and my neighbors could quickly increase tilled land greatly and could then plant a more normal food plot and enough to feed the neighborhood.


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## LunaticFringeInc

The problem I see with Cucumbers is they are not overly rich in nutrition. But they are heavy producers and can be pickled with I think could make them of value especially through the winter when many things dont grow so well or your at least limited.

One thing thats not mentioned especially since you seem to be in the south is Okra! Once its mature and producing it doesnt take much of a row to produce buckets of pods weekly! Its also something that is drought and deer resistent as well. Leave a few plants to go to seed at the end of the season and harvesting a gang of seeds for the next couple years worth of crops is easy....too easy!

Another thing I like is Honey Dew Melons, more specifically the smaller size fruit producing varieties. These seem to produce more but smaller fruits with a shorter turn around time till harvest. The smaller varieties are more conducive to being grown on a trellis and the fruits are put in some panty hose which is then tied to the trellis and allows you to grow the fruits in a more compact area and still get a great harvest with less rotting from being on the ground or being pilfered by varmints who discover them.

Im in North Texas and a couple of winter items that do very well here are Broccoli and Snow Peas! 10 Snow Peas can produce a hand full of pods for a stir fry on a near daily basis pretty easily. Broccoli is another great one that has done well for me. My issue with them is I havent been all that successful at sprouting them from seed and getting them to the transplant stage. The real trick here is staggered plantings of them so that only a few flowerettes(sp?) come due at any one time so you can have broccoli all through the cooler growing season.

The other thing I have done is plant some fruit trees especially the dwarf and semi dwarf varieties. I had this light bulb moment as a result of the pear tree in the back yard. That thing produces a pick up bed (6ft short bed) of fruit every season. Thats a lot of produce from just one plant! We ususally make wine from our fruit off this tree. But it got me thinking that if I got a few Peach, Plum, Fig etc especially if I could get things like Peaches that come ripe at different times of the growing season, I could do a lot of canning and dehydrating several times in the summer instead of being slammed and over whelmed all at once which would allow me to better use what was produced. This has been working well the last 5 years. Cobblers, Pies, Jellies and dried fruit for trail mix is a staple around here these days. When I was younger the blemished fruit from our Pear tree in the back yard which is now about 30 years old was always used to slop the hogs and they went crazy and got fat on it and reduced the amount of commercial rations significantly, required to get them to butchering weight. Just another angle to look at.

I think one of the biggest problems with most people is that they dont currently garden much if at all and are planning to "suddenly become farmers" when the SHTF. I see several problems with that mentality or train of thought. 1st, it aint as easy as going out and throwing some seeds in the ground and eating in a couple of weeks. In my raised beds I started out with all organic soil from compost and I will be the first to tell you that my beds didnt really start producing well until about 3-4 years into it. Now my neighbors think I add steroids or something to my gardens and are praying to God they Legalize Marijuana in Texas, lol. While a moderate sized "victory garden" can defray the cost of eating on your grocery bill, it takes a lot of produce on a daily basis to really eat well and still have enough to can and put away for winter, even more if you have a late freeze and have to start over at the begining of next season a second time! It can take 2 months to go from seed to starting to produce on a lot of things and a lot of others take a good 85-100 days! Thats a long time to wait when your hungry now! Then there is the learning curve...it takes a while to get good at it and find what techniques work well for you and in your area. Yeah I have herd of Square Foot Gardening where a 4ft x 4ft plot can feed a person. I havent found it to be all that, two bags of chips and a large Dr Pepper. It has some merits for sure and I do utilize that technique in several instances but for the most part it doesnt work that well for me and the things I grow. If gardening is part of your game plan and I certianly think it should be to one extent or another I would recommend to those who arent doing it now to get cracking and start growing something even if just on a small scale. This is not a skill you want to have to learn while you burn!!!


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## dwight55

Potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, and squash are pretty easy stuff to grow. Plus if you don't have any other place to store em, . . . dig a hole, . . . line it with straw, . . . put in the stuff, cabbage will go in there too, . . . cover it back with straw, . . . then about a foot of dirt, . . . they will last through the winter with no problems. 

My father in law used to do this every fall, . . . hilling them in was the term, . . . made 6 or 8 of them, . . . when the supply from the one ran out, . . . boys went out and dug up another of them. Raised 3 boys and 6 girls on taters, cabbage, hog fat and other canned goods.

Yeah, . . . bugs can be a problem, but like mentioned earlier, . . . if we are in SHTF mode, . . . maybe we'll have plenty of time to harvest even the bugs, . . . use em for fish bait or something.

And TG, . . . we must be some distant relation, . . . as I have eaten raw potatoes, raw yams, carrots, turnips, radishes, . . . all that stuff as far back as this old 72 yr old can recollect, . . . never had any problem at all with it. 

Fact is, . . . a slice of raw potato with salt and pepper is a great snack in my book.

May God bless,
Dwight


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## RJAMES

I have Amish neighbors that have green house / hoop houses that routinely have 5 to 6 wagon loads of produce to sell every week during the season April to early October. This is on top of what they grow and put up for themselves. Others grow acres of sweet corn and dent corn along with pumpkins and gords using their horses and horse equipment. The change they would make after an EMP no flowers grown or far fewer. They would no longer be able to travel by getting others to drive them long distances. They would eventually have some items - cooking oil that would run short. Some foods - peanuts they would no longer be able to get. They don't grow a lot of wheat but some large farmers do with modern tractors. They currently use a lot of propane, kerosene and gas in small engines. So that would change as supplies ran out. I know a few years back I pitched in a 55 gallons of kerosene when they ran short one winter waiting on a truck. 

The immediate area by that I mean 10 mile radius ships out over a hundred head of cattle of cattle every week, at least 150 head of hogs, 80 dozen eggs, not sure on chickens but I know two men that butcher at least 5 thousand birds each a year. We ship at least three semi tractors of fruit and vegetables in season. Most cattle milk is consumed by who ever has the cow but the area ships a truck of goat milk out every week. Most of what I just mentioned was raised without the need for power. 

With cattle we are more of a cow calf operation selling young steers to large feed lots in Kansas . Our cattle are grass fed. Mostly small farms with a few couple thousand acre places with huge equipment that grow commodity grain such as dent corn, soy beans, wheat, millet, sorghum . 

This area as long as we do not have fall out, weather stays the same and we do not have huge numbers of metro people come in quickly should do well.


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## Redneck

LunaticFringeInc said:


> One thing thats not mentioned especially since you seem to be in the south is Okra! Once its mature and producing it doesnt take much of a row to produce buckets of pods weekly! Its also something that is drought and deer resistent as well. Leave a few plants to go to seed at the end of the season and harvesting a gang of seeds for the next couple years worth of crops is easy....too easy!


Actually I did mention it.



LunaticFringeInc said:


> Im in North Texas and a couple of winter items that do very well here are Broccoli and Snow Peas! 10 Snow Peas can produce a hand full of pods for a stir fry on a near daily basis pretty easily. Broccoli is another great one that has done well for me. My issue with them is I havent been all that successful at sprouting them from seed and getting them to the transplant stage. The real trick here is staggered plantings of them so that only a few flowerettes(sp?) come due at any one time so you can have broccoli all through the cooler growing season.


A rather large part of my seed stores are the cool weather plants, such as the different greens & peas... such as snow peas. To survive, and get off of food stores as soon as possible, I will get these in the ground at the first opportunity, both spring & fall. For me, collard greens do best & grow the longest. They can handle warm weather better than other cool weather crops. They also provide much more leaves than other greens I grow.


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## ND_ponyexpress_

I started with about 5 lbs of potatoes I was given by my uncle before he died 3 years ago... last year I planted 100 potatoes.. I could easily add 2x that amount because I wasn't frugal with my eyes. you could turn 1 fist sized potato into 4 plants.. that could yield 5-7 more fist sized potatoes/plant in 1 season.. of course if you are just going off of # seeds per plant you could use for the next season, corn, tomatoes, and pumpkins are good seed multipliers! as for starting with next to nothing and trying to plant a garden to survive? good luck. in an event like one second after, you have to consider the first crop as food and seed... if you don't save enough for future seed, it is a downward spiral. I have always told my Brother that the worst time for an EMP type event would be mid-late summer (aug-sep) here.. because you already missed the growing season and have to wait until may to plant your survival garden and until the next sep-oct to harvest it..


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## Redneck

ND_ponyexpress_ said:


> I have always told my Brother that the worst time for an EMP type event would be mid-late summer (aug-sep) here.. because you already missed the growing season and have to wait until may to plant your survival garden and until the next sep-oct to harvest it..


Yes, the late summer event would be the toughest. IMO, one's food stores should be based upon such an event. But as stated above, having plenty of the cool weather crops can extend your growing season considerably... even way up there where you live.

Austrian winter peas are another seed I store and what I have growing now in my garden. I use it now, as it naturally adds nitrogen back into the soil for next years crops to use. It also adds nutrition back into the soil as the plants die or are tilled (green manure). In a crisis, fertilizer probably will be non existent, so one has to plan accordingly. Since the winter peas stay green all winter here & then just explode with growth in the spring, they actually make a great survival crop too. The greenery is very nutritious and just tastes wonderful... like raw fresh peas. Coming out of winter, this would be the first food crop available.


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## ND_ponyexpress_

winter wheat is a popular crop up here.... relies heavily on snow cover to insulate the plant from low temps.. a greenhouse would be helpful, and it is one of the early plans. and we also plant peas for the nitrogen. we practice no-till farming, a rotation of wheat, peas, and lentils, shuffle in some soy beans and canola.. the whole point is to cycle the nutrients and keep the moisture in the ground.


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## bigwheel

It appears that any rational green thumb type person should grow some good quality smoke..and trade that for whatever else a person might need. It should beat 50 round boxes of .22 shells in a barter sitution. Prob rank right up near Marlboros..toilet paper and vodka as far as demand might go. Its just a weed.


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## bigwheel

@TG Us old raw vegans at heart agree with you entirely. Raw corn is really good. Once it cooks it turns into gut glue. Aint heard much bragging on raw tates. Raw dried beans is not good.


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## Redneck

bigwheel said:


> It appears that any rational green thumb type person should grow some good quality smoke..and trade that for whatever else a person might need.


You know, tobacco makes a pretty good, natural, organic pesticide. Make a "tea" from the leaves & spray it on. I haven't grown any tobacco before but have been thinking about doing so.


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## Smitty901

bigwheel said:


> @TG Us old raw vegans at heart agree with you entirely. Raw corn is really good. Once it cooks it turns into gut glue. Aint heard much bragging on raw tates. Raw dried beans is not good.


 Field corn if done right can be stored for years on the cob, shelled from the cob the used for all kinds of food needs both human and live stock. Field corn when it is still growing can be picked early eaten the same as sweet corn. Problem is modern hybrid seed from the cob will not grow proper cobs when replanted.
Root crops like sugar beets and carrots can be stored like others in root cellars.


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## Slippy

Great job everyone. Impressive suggestions. Me and Mrs Slippy are pretty good at tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, squash, beans and such. Potatoes, not so good. Never tried eggplant but may put it on the list for the future.

Thanks @*******!


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## Joe

*******, Even though its spitting snow mixed with rain outside and the ground is already saturated its good to think about gardening. so thank you for starting this thread. here in Ohio the biggest yields (at least in my experience) come from potatoes, green beans and squash. the nice thing about potatoes is you can store them in the basement and can them after all your other canning is done. green beans can be picked through 3 or 4 times. and well you know about squash it just keeps blooming. not only that the blossoms are loaded with pollen that the bees go crazy over. Well january is almost done so... It will be great to get the earth tilled up and planted once the weather warms. My favorite meal in the summer is sweet corn, tomatoes and cucumbers all fresh picked from the garden. there is nothing better as far as i am concerned.


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## Illini Warrior

nobody mentioned Jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes), parsnips or rutabaga .... all eazy root crops to grow and all winter store in root cellars ...

an interesting survival plant for everyone - even in the northern climes - prickly pear cactus .....


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## inceptor

LunaticFringeInc said:


> Another thing I like is Honey Dew Melons.............Im in North Texas and a couple of winter items that do very well here are Broccoli and Snow Peas! 10 Snow Peas can produce a hand full of pods for a stir fry on a near daily basis pretty easily. Broccoli is another great one that has done well for me. My issue with them is I havent been all that successful at sprouting them from seed and getting them to the transplant stage. The real trick here is staggered plantings of them so that only a few flowerettes(sp?) come due at any one time so you can have broccoli all through the cooler growing season.


I had never thought about the Honey Dews. Thanks. I do have a couple of Broccoli plants going right now but I think I started a little late for that.



LunaticFringeInc said:


> The other thing I have done is plant some fruit trees especially the dwarf and semi dwarf varieties.


Thanks for that idea too.



LunaticFringeInc said:


> I think one of the biggest problems with most people is that they dont currently garden much if at all and are planning to "suddenly become farmers" when the SHTF. I see several problems with that mentality or train of thought. 1st, it aint as easy as going out and throwing some seeds in the ground and eating in a couple of weeks......... This is not a skill you want to have to learn while you burn!!!


I'm a flat out city boy so it took me a long time to figure this one out. We did try a very small garden a couple of years ago but it went over like a lead balloon. I didn't get started until very late in the season this past summer. There is definitely a YUGE learning curve here and I'm growing not so much as to count on eating it this year as learning HOW to grow. Where I live I have nearly no backyard. So, I'm doing waist high raised bed gardens. One thing I learned right away is garden soil doesn't do nearly as well as potting soil. I figure garden soil needs time to process properly and I had no idea when I bought it. Hence the learning curve. I now have a SLIGHTLY better idea of what I'm doing so I am now preparing for the spring planting. I am going to have a separate bed (4"-6" deep) that will be dedicated to lettuce, kale and the like on the patio. I plan on building 2 other beds for the side of the house (pretty narrow) for some larger items and I also have grow bags for beans and other items.

I am second generation away from farming and none of that knowledge was passed on. People just don't understand that trying to do this by books and video's is very, very hard.


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## LunaticFringeInc

> So, I'm doing waist high raised bed gardens. One thing I learned right away is garden soil doesn't do nearly as well as potting soil. I figure garden soil needs time to process properly and I had no idea when I bought it.


I did mine with cinder bricks just stacked two high as thats whats worked best for me. Tall enough to give me a great bed and stop the weeds/grass growing through short enough I can work them without a ladder or step stool. The holes in the cinder bricks get filled with soil too and I plant a mix of Herbs and flowers (brings in the bees! They pollinate and I get great crops as a result!).

All my soil started out as cut grass, bedding straw (soiled), leaves and manure. It does take it a while to mature and come around but once it does, its self perpetuating as long as you continue to add material to it. I started off with one about 3x8 ft bed and as I got more soil in my bin ready I set up another bed or lengthed an existing one.


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## LunaticFringeInc

> Actually I did mention it.


Ooh I dont know how I missed that! Maybe before I post I will drink a cup of coffee first so I can get some blood flowing to the right side of the brain before posting when I wake up and check the forum.


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## Maol9

******* said:


> My problem with squash bugs is not while the plants are young, but after they are big & mature. That is when those damned bugs hit.
> 
> Yep, cucumbers are another huge producer. I didn't include them as I don't grow them anymore & really don't like them. One plant WAY outproduced what we would eat. But since we are talking survival, you are 100% correct in including them. Thanks! I do have those seeds in my seed vaults.


Cucs are a only a sometimes thing for me. When they grow up into pickles they are the bomb though.


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## csi-tech

Be careful with brassicas and legumes. Potatoes, turnips, radishes etc... deplete the soil of nutrients. Plant only every other year. In off years, plant corn and cucibrits.


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## Redneck

Smitty901 said:


> Field corn if done right can be stored for years on the cob, shelled from the cob the used for all kinds of food needs both human and live stock. Field corn when it is still growing can be picked early eaten the same as sweet corn. Problem is modern hybrid seed from the cob will not grow proper cobs when replanted.


Only corn seed I store is open pollinated field corn. Primary use would be to grind into corn meal but if picked at the right time, I much prefer eating field corn than the modern hybrid sweet corns. To me, these new sweet corns are too sweet (go figure) but more importantly have lost that good old corn taste. On top of that to me they are too tender. I like some "bite" to my corn. I also use field corn because the stalks are much stronger than sweet corn & that is important for two reasons. First the winds from strong storms can blow over (lodge) the corn. Second, I plan on using the three sisters method of companion planting, and this requires a strong, tall corn stalk to support the pole beans.

As Smitty says, please make sure you only store open pollinated seed. Modern hybrid seed will not breed true & some will not grow at all. Kinda like a mule, which is a hybrid between a donkey and a horse. Mules are mostly sterile.


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## LunaticFringeInc

Yep thats a fact on the Open Pollinated seeds. I first started off with just a few and now have a couple of dozen veggies that are open pollinated. Although my raised beds are all that huge, they produce huge and I always sacrifice a few plants at the end of the season for making me more seeds. If I ever need to garden for "real" Im hoping to have more than enough seeds laid back to pull a rabbit out of my hat and see me through a day of true need. Not getting there as fast as I would like but slowly but surely I am getting there!

My produce doesnt often look as pretty as the stores or produce as quick as the hybrids do but the fruit is much more flavorful. The fact that I can save seeds to makes them even better. I also try to keep some of the lesser know varieties as well since if there is a SHTF event it would be nice to be able to add some diversity back into the seed pool too. Buy using some of the lesser known varieties on some things I can do that


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## 7052

Robie said:


> From what I've read/heard...dandelions might be a good thing to nurture instead of killing....if we are talking in survival terms.


I read the same thing. Supposedly every part of that plant is edible and nutritious. And supposedly they are fairly easy on the soil. Note, I have not confirmed any of those things however.


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## Smitty901

The farm we own was homesteaded before they had electric power. They worked the land alone and without tractors. The survived . We can do the same thing they did.
It won't be easy. But we can do it. They may have done without a lot but they never went hungry.
We have a thread or two floating around on using may of the weeds as food. The hated burdock is one of them another is the Cattail


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## Robie

Egyas said:


> I read the same thing. Supposedly every part of that plant is edible and nutritious. And supposedly they are fairly easy on the soil. Note, I have not confirmed any of those things however.


I've read that the early settlers brought the dandelion with them when they came...and it was not indigenous before that.


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## ffparamedic

Lots of good information in this thread, I enjoy gardening and squash is definitely always a bumper crop for me. 

Mulching and composting are essential to helping replenish the soil.

Sent from my XT1565 using Tapatalk


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## Maine-Marine

remember it is not what can grow the most of.... but what can provide the best nutrients with an ample supply

beans, peas and beets are high in vitamins. as mentioned potatoes are wonderful fillers and good for vitamins. carrots too

corn is trash food.

celery is also easy to grow but you use more energy eating it then it gives you

https://www.buzzfeed.com/deenashank...best-for-you?utm_term=.qux0NnXZJW#.qq2nQyYzw0


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## Redneck

Maine-Marine said:


> remember it is not what can grow the most of.... but what can provide the best nutrients with an ample supply


Yes, and that is why I don't include potatoes in my list. The average gardener/prepper simply does not keep enough seed potato to provide ample supply the year of or following a crisis. On the other hand, I can easily & cheaply store vast quantities of corn, bean, peas, melons, squash, etc.



Maine-Marine said:


> corn is trash food.


Why so? I have more field corn seed in storage than any other. Any Google search of the nutritional value of corn shows it to be highly regarded. If it is a trash food, why was it grown by the native Americans and one of the 3 sisters? Matter of fact, studies show corn oil is as healthy as olive oil. One study says its one down side is that it is incredibly high in calories. Sounds like something people facing a crisis just might need.


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## SierraGhost

@******* Thanks for starting this most informative thread, and to those that have added to it


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## Annie

Tomatoes, Jersey tomatoes. They grow like weeds here.


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