Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[yarrow@sfo.com]

I've seen the Jeavons book, and it gives a range.

Yields depend on so many variables! Today I picked more raspberries 
from my small berry plot than I picked in the best *week* last year.

The yield of tomatoes, and many other vegetables, depends so much on 
the variety you plant, when you planted, whether you try to extend 
the season, how much sun you get, the weather patterns that season, 
etc. For tomatoes, I've kept records for a few years on how many 
tomatoes I get per plant: I've gotten as few as  3 (a plant that 
didn't get enough sun, or a seedling that never thrived) and as many 
as almost 1300 (cherry tomatoes) from a single plant. I don't have 
last year's notebook at hand, but for me, in general the largest 
luscious heirlooms have produced a choice few (30 to 80), whereas 
some more prolific heirlooms have produced hundreds per plant. If I 
hadn't written it down, I wouldn't have believed that I picked 48 
ripe tomatoes one day from one 2-foot-high plant. Even when I've 
planted two of the same variety of tomato in different parts of the 
garden, I've gotten different yields.



At 10:48 PM -0600 6/3/08, Tradingpost wrote:
> This might help tho I haven't seen it myself.
> http://www.rodaleinstitutestore.org/store/customer/product.php?cat=373&page=1&productid=825
> Jeavons' How To Grow More Vegetables has minimum and maximum yields 
> for intensive beds
> http://www.bookfinder.com/search/?ac=sl&st=sl&qi=DTx3tI6qX1Rd9eP3tSXhDJJRSks_3839001423_1:1:9&bq=author%3Djohn%2520jeavons%26title%3Dhow%2520to%2520grow%2520more%2520vegetables
>
> However ... the information you're asking for is of limited use. If 
> I grew average yields I'd be out of the farmers market business. 
> Average isn't worth spit. From a practical standpoint, yield per 
> plant varies too widely - with factors like soil structure, moisture 
> retentiveness, depth of topsoil, temperatures, winds, length of 
> growing season, organic matter content, rain and irrigation. Yield 
> per square foot for a given garden space is more useful because 
> other things being equal, biointensive can yield several times as 
> much as conventional tractor rows. It does for me with less than 
> ideal conditions.
>
> Your own experience, Tony - and neighbors - can tell you more about 
> yields where you live and with the methods you use. Your location in 
> the Berkshires is wildly different from mine in the high desert 
> southwest, so the concept of average is useless for both of us.
>
> paul tradingpost@lobo.net
>
> *********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********
>
> On 6/3/2008 at 6:49 PM Tony Marzolino wrote:
>
> > Hello All,
> >   Does anyone know of a site that lists the average vegetable yields per
> > plant?  If yes, please post the link.
> >
> >   Thanks,
> >   Tony Marzolino
> >   Berkshire, NY
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Livingontheland mailing list
> Livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/livingontheland