Growing Food

17 Sep 2023

Yield

Yield per square foot can be expected to be 0.5 to 1.0 lb per square foot.

• 0.5 lb per square foot
• 0.5 lb per square foot
• 1 lb per square foot

Human Needs

A person eats about 5.5 lbs of food a day.

• 1996 lbs a year

If we go by three sisters. 268 calories per pound or 7.5 pounds of food for 2000 calories. I think meat and nuts are important to get calories. Rice and wheat also important for calories.

• Corn on cob: 482 calories per pound
• Beans: 141 calories per pound.
• Squash: 181 caloires per pound.

Square footage per person

That’s 2000 to 4000 square feet. Assuming you can grow 2 to 4 crops a year in that ssquare footage. That’s 500 to 2000 square feet. This article says you need about 200 square feet per person for a self-sustaining garden.

If you are just using a garden for veggies and have other sources of food, then 200 per person is probably enough. If you’re trying to survive solely on your garden, 1000 square feet seems more reasonable. A family of four would need 800 to 4000 square feet of vegetable A family of four would need 800 to 4000 square feet of vegetabless.