I would say the largest problem we have had around the Small-Hold as far as producing our own food has been the heavy soil and root crops.
It's taken us a number of years to figure out how to grow Potatoes and especially Carrots and Onions with any regularity and required a combination of raised beds, timing and some serious soil work.
The heavy rains we usually get in the late Spring and early Summer pretty much cancels out any attempt at growing root crops in the main garden area. It's just too wet no matter how much we amend the soil or try and promote better drainage. We finally had to resort to the first two plantings of these crops going into the raised beds exclusively until at least Mid-July. After that it is usually possible to grow the root crops in the main garden area as the rains slack off and the plants don't rot in the ground.
Even then Carrots especially didn't do very well so the Mrs. took on the job of being the main Carrot planter by growing them exclusively in raised beds.
She has been working on this Carrot project for years and is just now starting to actually get Carrots that can be rated as something above "baby" sized.
I must admit she has grown some tasty Carrots over the years but they have rarely been longer than four inches or so. This year she managed to get a few six inch Carrots. When you consider that five years ago she couldn't even get a Carrot to grow I call that pretty good progress.
The next problem gets a bit more complicated though. When I begin to run the numbers on how many Carrots, Onions and Potatoes we would need for a full years worth of cooking the number of raised beds that would require begins to look a little daunting. The Potato issue is almost dealt with as I can put in a large crop in the regular garden later in the season, Onions and Carrots on the other hand is not going to be so easy.
So now that I have the figures in place for other staples like Beans, Tomatoes and Corn it's time to begin working on these root crops. So far I am showing that we would need to build or switch five raised beds each for Carrots and Onion production to begin to touch on our own yearly needs. Even if we pulled the beds now being used for ornamental flowers and switched them to root production it would still require me to build and fill six more raised beds. This isn't too bad of a number and can be done as long as I know I have the materials on hand to do it.
Looks like I will be adding some more raised beds in this next Spring.
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!
This is a bit of a long winded method and it a pain but it will give you huge straight carrots. You need a dibber or better still dibber plate, makes 8 holes at a time. Punch your holes into the ground in rows, fill with a compost sand mix 70/30 and pop the seed in. Now water well. Our dibber holes are 2 inch diameter x 12 deep. We plant thousands like this and sell them all. As the carrot grows in displaces the compost. The compost mix allows drainage as well. The same method is used for parsnips as well.
ReplyDeleteThe method may seem labour intensive but in a grid down situation, or in ours as organic growers, a certain crop is needed. Just planting the way mechanised farming does now allows for huge amounts of waste and failure. In future we will not have that luxury.
Anon - Thanks that sounds like a neat method and makes sense. I bet they have some type of huge tractor implement that does that on a large scale as well for the corporate producers.
DeleteDo you think it would displace in heavy soils? Regardless I think we need to try it out. Any idea where you can buy the plates?
I also agree with you about the future. A number of people, those already in Ag and those who don't give it a second thought today are going to have some hard lessons to learn. You are way ahead of the curve.
I get the 4" too. This does sound like something to try.
DeleteTo be fair we made ours simply because we couldn't get one. It works well in heavy soils but you may need to add more sand.
DeleteOne more thing, if you suffer from or want to prevent carrot fly plant onions in alternate rows with the carrots. The smell confuses them. No carrot fly ever!
DeleteWhen we work out what we need for a year of any veg it's daunting. We need to up everything really, onions alone would account for twice as much as I grow now but until have somewhere that I can store them well I'll stick to the numbers I'm growing.
ReplyDeleteI think in a grid down situation we'd need to widen our diet. I always think this when I have a crop fail or weather ruin it what would I do if there was no shops to fall back on. Having a diet that consists of many staples gets over this, that way if you lost your whole carrot harvest to some new bug or some such then you wouldn't starve. That's why I'm always trying to grow new things and see how we can incorporate them in our day to day cooking.
What about growing some dahlias and eating the tubers. Most people don't even know these are edible so it would be great in a grid down situation. Or chinese and jeruslem artichokes as more root crops and quinoa as a cereal crop that might reduce the number of potatoes you need.
Kev - No kidding. I don;t think it is necessarily mandatory that you grow all you need for a year right now. But it is mandatory you know how much you will need and have the means to start doing so in short order. Or so that's my philosophy on it. If you have two years or so of stored food that should give you enough time to compensate and grow to the size you need.
DeleteYes that is also why I try different things all the time. At least in growing food diversity is a bonus :)
I make it a point to try at least one new plant type each year and on a number of them I attempt to find the specific variety I like and then let it go so it adapts better to the local conditions.
So far grains and cereals are something I haven't expanded into yet but as soon as I get my plow for the Ford finished I have several experiments in that area to try.
Sounds like you are waaaay ahead of the game. I always laugh at these guys who think they can save some seeds and just grow a garden when the time comes.
I had the same conversion with someone on Friday night. They said that if things go bad they'd just grow their own - how hard could it be? I tried to explain it takes years to develop the skills and knowledge to grow successful year after year. Plus it takes years to develop your plot and learn what grows well there.
DeleteGoing back to the subject of carrots have you tried growing a round type like Paris Market? I used to grow them in pots when we lived at our old place. They don't go very deep so might be less prone to rot, although you'd need more of them.
Also added you to my side bar. Thought I did ages ago but it must not have come up.
DeleteKV - I moved your link over tot he right hand side under the plant god section!!!
DeleteI haven't messed with the Carrots at all honestly once I turned em over tot he wife. I have been relaying info to her to try and look into so a different variety has been mentioned now :)
You flatter me Sir! Not sure I can live up to that!
DeleteGet you some wild onions and plant them. Put em in a spot you brush hog but don’t mow. They grow like weeds and will spread to any place that isn’t constantly mowed. They are small but just as flavorful as regular onions; so instead of cutting up an onion, you cut up a dozen or so and use the onion slices as diced onions. No need to harvest just go pick some when you need them. Works great if you don’t mind seeing the plants growing all over. Also since onions can serve as a staple crop you will at least always have something.
ReplyDeletePersonally I like em as a desert. Wrap em in foil with a pat of butter and put em on the smoker when you make barbecue. Just put em on when you start and take em off after the meal and eat as is.
Best,
Dan
PS: If you have heavy clay soil like I do, making holes and filling them with topsoil, etc. will not work. You will make clay pots and anything planted in them will drown. I have been considering bringing in several tons of topsoil and making a ginormous raised garden to remedy it.
Dan - We have some wild onions but they never seem to really produce a viable onion just a little root that does taste like an onion but is barely above a finger root in size.
DeleteI was wondering about the hole technique with heavier soils. Our areas are pretty well amended now but the rain can still make it pretty heavy when we get too much.
PP,
ReplyDeleteRaised beds aren't so bad. I've noticed several of the root vegetables need deep raised beds in order for them to thrive. Next spring were adding to our garden beds as well.
Those carrots look great!!!
Sandy - Oh we have plenty of raised beds. The problem I have with em is that when you start talking in quantities needed for full on survival space becomes more of an issue and raised beds do waste a lot of space. However I have found they are needed around here for early planting or the rains either drown everything or make it too hard to weed.
DeleteIt is a lot of work to grow carrots here, very hard to get them to even come up but you and comments have got me thinking about ways that I can try again next spring. I really like fresh carrots.
ReplyDeleteSf - I have added so much manure and top soil to the Wife's raised beds for her carrot experiment. It is finally paying off some but it has been a lot of work.
DeletePP - i don't have the time to read or reply - i just wanted you to go check your email. love ya, ya weiner!
ReplyDelete