Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

Yes. Now without seeing Plangarden I'm going to be skeptical since there are 
so many soil, plot, and weather unpredictables. Besides unexpected pests or 
personal differences. Yet it may get people thinking about how to plan. 
Either way my guess is we tend to misjudge what we can get the family to eat 
or what we like a lot or very little of. Or more likely, whether we know how 
to prepare certain things to be appetizing or to preserve thru cold months. 
Yes, more variables.

I plan on graph paper with 57 3'x8' beds to scale, not counting greenhouse 
beds which are tomatos and sweet peppers. That's two dimensions but then 
there's the timing element which complicates things. Gone are the days when 
we could till up a whole plot and mark some rows, and plant stuff and wait. 
Now I find that the more planning, the less work. The more planning the less 
waste. It helps greatly to spread the work thru the year and not have too 
much to do all at once. Market's over but this is a very busy time for me 
before ground freezes.

Each kind of vegetable has its own ideal planting time based on weather and 
desired time of harvest. And there are basically three types of things, 1. 
the keepers to plant all at once and harvest at one time to keep for months 
(or sell all along) inc garlic, shallots, onions, winter squash, shell beans, 
etc. 2. staggered plantings that need to be eaten or sold (or preserved) when 
picked (and leave beds open for more planting), like carrots, beets, 
kohlrabi, greens, radish, cukes, summer squash, certain beans etc and 3. 
things that keep producing till frost like indeterminate tomatoes, sweet 
peppers, some peas and beans, okra, etc. Did I get that right? These are not 
rigid categories but need to be planned that way. And I'm sure there are 
angles I haven't thought of but someone will and I'd like to see their 
thoughts on it.

It's just too easy to be discouraged when we don't plan enough time to put 
away all of the peppers or green beans, or can't eat all the carrots at once 
and then have none, or can't keep up with picking so much beans or tomatoes 
and lose too many. To keep going we need to feel it's rewarding and 
worthwhile. The difference is planning. And planning the planting can't work 
apart from planning what to do with the harvest.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net


*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 11/21/2010 at 7:12 AM Emery Mitchamore wrote:

>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 con
> ti
>> 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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