Marley Sunshine asks: I need some info about sustinence farming/Gardening.?
I plan to grow:
Tomatoes
Lettuce
Bilberries (similar to blueberries, really need info on em)
And can yams be grown in NY? Central to be exact?
The answer voted best is:
Answer by Down in the garden
Are yo talking about growing the food to cosume yourself or to provide for you by selling it. There are two classifications for sustinence for this. If what you are attempting to do is grow enough to provide for you and your family there is a lot to take into consideration.
1. How many people are you going to feed?
2. How much to plant per person.
3. How much garden area do you have?
4. What types of fruit and veg. to grow for the different nutritional values?
5. What you can grow in your climate zone?
6. Crop rotation
7. Succesion planting.
8. Companion planting.
There is not really a way that I can explain this all here. In central NY. the growing season is shorter. Take corn as an example. There are early, mid. and late season types. If you plant a late season type in June, it might not make it to harvest in September because of an early frost or freeze.
You need to learn about your climate zone which will tell you the average frost free date in spring and the average frost date in fall. You will also need to either can, freeze or both, to have enough to get through the winter months. Crop rotation is important for the health of the soil and to help with pest contol.
Cornnell University in NY. has a very good web site for fruit and veg. info. You should also contact your local county extension office for more info and sources. There was a book that I bought years ago by a man named Shepard Ogden. The name is ” Step by Step Organic Vegetable Gardening”. It has a lot of info in it about the things I mentioned above. It would be good to read (if it is still in print) even if you don’t grow organic. Good luck.
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Man, I didn’t imagine you were down here in Babylon. Bad time for farming, bro. Wait until the spring to start your commune.
Peace.
edit: I bet you can grow yams here if you plant them about march-april. Do you know how long it takes from planting till harvest? You best stick to temperate crops.