How much to plant?

[sisterpine]

I am having trouble determining how much to plant in my garden/property this coming year. What I want may not be in sync with what is appropriate. I have twenty acres with about three dozen trees of various types/kinds. Some are apples/pears/ pistachios'/ pine/evergreen etc.

I planted 7 fruit trees last summer when we moved in. They are planted along a fence between the main house and the guest house and are: apple, plum, nectarine, fig and pomegranate.

My current garden area is 30x40 and I have a bunch of heirloom seeds to plant. I want to plant goat browse in the acre and a half that is the goat yard and once the well is deepened I hope to plant a small orchard on the west side of the guest house. The remaining 16 acres will remain in what ever type of wild grass it already had last year.

So how do I determine how many green beans or apple trees to plant to feed a future family of about 10 people?

[dfr1973]

Given that Murphy and his "law" govern much more than just the US Army, I would say plant twice as much as you think you need. You can always put up or give away extra.

[FarmboyBill]

Im wondering how many families plant for 10 people? AND what ages are these 10.
I would hazard a guess for beans 2lbs seed.
As for apples, are you going to make cider or just cooking apples and apple sauce? Answer will make a difference.

[Callieslamb]

I have of each of the fruit trees that grow here readily. They are enough for the three of us times 2....5 each of all fruits you can grow will easily handly your needs. Most of it will be determined by the size of the trees- dwarfs produce less than semi-dwarfs and standard sized trees.

I plant for 23 people that are currently in our family. They don't all live here but when they come visit, I love to send them home 'stuff'. And if nip came to tuck...we want to be prepared. Bad year for apples? We'll eat more peaches, etc.

[Jolly]

There's fresh eatin' and then there's cannin'.

Are we talking about ten folks, year round, most meals?

[DEKE01]

I found a local church that has a soup kitchen. They will send pickers to harvest any surplus I have so I am planting as much as I think I can pleasurably grow.

[Robotron]

What the old farmer told me was:
1 for the earth, 1 for nature, 1 for you.
Then you are in sync.

[oldasrocks]

Nice place you have. I'm jealous. Like was said above- plant twice what you think you'll need.

We have excellent soil we've built by hailing in truckloads of manure etc so our crops produce heavy. In you situation I would say go long in case production is limited on stuff like green beans and tomatoes. We pick about a gallon of green beans a day off a 16 ft trellis. It wasn't always that good. We can the surplus. I put in 50 tomato plants last yr. Some varieties ripen sooner and some are for canning. A lot to give away.


You probably have a longer growing season down there than we have in Missouri unless it gets too hot and slows things down. Stagger your plantings so you have a steady supply. We plant beans a month apart for example. Our main garden is set up with trellises for beans, cukes, tomatoes, and melons. Its about 50 X 60. Some sweet corn there too. Top garden is raised beds for beans, peas, tomatoes, peppers, salisfy, parsnips, and some chinese greens. Herb garden beyond that for basil, thyme, bunch onions etc in 2 ft X 8 ft beds.

I may be giving you unneeded advice but don't know your garden experience.

[claytonpiano]

I plant for 15. Green beans.... .at least 100 feet. I canned them for years, but now we dehydrate them......think leather britches like they do in Appalachia. That way, when the bean beetles consume everything, I still have beans from the year before that are dried. How much to plant really depends on how many green beans you eat. That is the tough part. I way underestimated and now probably plant too many, but there are years that beans do great here and years that the bugs are absolutely ridiculous!!! Now, that the grandkids are older and can squash the beetle larvae it is better.....but we still plant a lot of beans.

Apple trees.....for the entire year......think about how many bushels you eat and how many bushels you can truly get off a tree. Also, think about the years they do not produce as well. Ours seem to be cyclical based on rain and cool spring weather. Yours may be different. Our family eats bushels of apples. I have dehydrated 5 bushels this past year and made apple sauce, apple butter, canned cinnamon apples and apple pie filling from additional bushels. Our six trees that are producing just do not produce that much. I have planted more. I'm thinking we need 15 apple trees in addition to the figs, pears, nuts, plums and grapes. It really depends on how many you eat. If you are looking for self-sufficiency, then you need to plan on several more trees than you need for when you lose some to drought, blight, insects or wayward goats.

[Homesteader]

This is a link to some yields - how much to grow for x amount of people for veggies:

http://www.harvesttotable.com/2011/0...elds_plants_p/

another one:

http://migarden.msu.edu/uploads/files/Table%204.pdf

and one more:

http://www.creighton.edu/fileadmin/u...ting_Guide.pdf

Here's a link to a thread from HT from 2008 regarding fruit:

how many fruit trees to plant...

[deb_rn]

We use hog panels for our bean, pea and squash trellising. It has big enough squares to reach through and get the ones you missed on the other side! You'll also need to figure out of you need to fence the whole garden in to keep the critters out, or else you need to plant more so YOU have enough after the critters take THEIR share!

Debbie

[sisterpine]

Thanks to all of you who provided pointers and information. I think I am just way to excited for planting season and I am sure if I plant a big garden this first year most will be a donation to something or someone.

[Maura]

You need your fruit trees to be pruned. This will help air circulation and make it easier to pick. You can prune them to make picking easier as well.

[FarmboyBill]

AND YOU need to be doing this soon.

[anahatalotus]

I agree with the prune soon statement! You will get higher heartier yields and picking will be a lot safer and easier!
Another suggestion is to look into permaculture design and plant perennial herbs etc around your orchard. It has a specific name that I've forgotten. When I had a apple and pear orchard I planted about a dozen perennial herbs and veggies and legumes around each tree and noticed two main things. First of all the trees with mini gardens around them had less insects borers etc, secondly the ducks and chickens pooped around them more which I aprett sure led to more nutrients in the soil and healthy fruit. It's really time consuming to figure out and I know I made a few mistakes in companion planting but the long term result should be worth it. I no longer live there so I'm not sure but I've seen other people develop food Forrest's out of their orchards. Okay hopping of my permaculture high horse here...