Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Emery Mitchamore <emitch@att.net>]

Although I don't grow for market, I see this planning for crop production as 
a serious need and opportunity.  There are so many variables to consider and 
record that it immediately sounds like a good candidate for a computer 
program.  I know that some exist, such as Plangarden, but I don't hear much 
about how people do their planning, whether on a computer or on paper.  And, 
without a "written" plan, how can you keep records of what worked (or didn't 
work), and why?

May I suggest a conversation on the subject of planning (and record keeping)? 
  Considerations should include space, time, production, revenue, etc

E. E. "Mitch" Mitchamore
www.hillcountrynatives.net



On Nov 20, 2010, at 9:46 PM, Tradingpost wrote:

> 
> In the eight years since we started this list, growing more food on space 
> available has turned mainstream. Even urban growing has sprouted from 
> Detroit to Richmond, CA and many other places. Obviously, as the need grows 
> and the economy tightens it's essential to make the best use of the space, 
> the labor and inputs. What I've learned is, for most of us, there's a hard 
> learning curve to get the most from that space. If it's going to take time 
> then some people need to start years ago.
> 
> And I'm not there yet with growing for market. My use of one-sixth of an 
> acre has hit maybe 60-70% efficient use of the space, and the bottleneck 
> seems to be in the crop planning. For example, I expanded sweet peppers and 
> snow peas but miscalculated stagger timing on snow peas and wasted a few 
> beds on things that didn't sell much. Grasshoppers ruined our first try at 
> kale and chard so I'll forget that and expand beets, kohlrabi, snow peas, 
> and better onion varieties, for more continuous harvest and sale. Other 
> crops worked better than planned. It's not as simple as it sounds and so 
> far I haven't seen a book or even an article on this exact subject to help. 
> There's more on growing for home use. Either way it means growing what 
> you'll use or preserve at home, or what you can reasonably expect to sell 
> without much loss. It involves planning crop times on the ground, what can 
> be grown before or after another crop, guessing maturity times and 
> staggering certain plantings for conti
> nuous harvest to use or sell, and more depending on weather and other 
> committments. But, either way biointensive or some variation with permanent 
> beds and aisles seems so far to be far and away the most efficient use of 
> space, labor, water, mulch, and amendments. 
> 
> There is an urgency to this and not just for us. You don't make a lot of 
> money at it but it has other advantages and plenty of people can do it and 
> be better off for it. Esp when living costs keep rising and there's one job 
> opening for every five unemployed. There should be a billion dollar crash 
> program for local, healthier food run by a lot of people who are better at 
> this than I am. 
> 
> paul tradingpost@lobo.net
> 
> 
> 
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