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livingontheland - [Livingontheland] What does it pay to grow? / was Organic Food Goes Mass Market

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  • From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] What does it pay to grow? / was Organic Food Goes Mass Market
  • Date: Thu, 04 May 2006 22:11:57 -0600


I mentioned a page from Virginia Cooperative Extension, Intensive Gardening
Methods, at http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/envirohort/426-335/426-335.html .
They discuss several methods of raising production, including interplanting,
succession planting, and raised beds (or wide rows). They stress planning.
The page contains an *intensive* spacing guide for several dozen vegetables.
(I discuss the critical role of humus-rich soil elsewhere)

Their list of the top ten vegetables in economic value: Tomatoes, Beets,
Green bunching onions, Carrots, Leaf lettuce, Cucumbers, Turnip (greens +
roots), Peppers, Summer squash, Broccoli, Edible podded peas, Head lettuce,
Onion storage bulbs, Swiss chard.

And this paragraph "Economic Value of Crops"

"It is difficult to judge the economic value of crops grown in the vegetable
garden due to the different lengths of time they require for maturity and
harvest, the availability of varieties and vegetable types not generally
found in the marketplace, and the lack of comparison values for vegetables
that are not acceptable by commercial standards (cracked tomatoes, crooked
cucumbers, etc.), but which are perfectly useable for the home gardener.
Nevertheless, several studies have attempted to determine which crops bring
the most value per square foot of garden space, partly to aid small-space
gardeners in making decisions about what to plant. Of course, if no one in
the family likes beets, there is no point in growing them just because they
are economically valuable, but this list may help you determine which
vegetables to plant and which to buy. Perennial crops are not on the list
below because each of the studies was on a one-season basis. However,
asparagus, rhubarb, horseradish and other perennial crops have considerable
economic worth. Fruit trees and shrubs, too, are valuable producers,
especially considering the long term."

--------------
paul, tradingpost@riseup.net
---------------

The outstanding scientific discovery of the twentieth century is not
television, or radio, but rather the complexity of the land organism. Only
those who know the most about it can appreciate how little we know about it.
- Aldo Leopold in Round River, 1933






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