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How many here actually know how to raise crops
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In accordance with industry accepted best practices we ask that users limit their copy / paste of copyrighted material to the relevant portions of the article you wish to discuss and no more than 50% of the source material, provide a link back to the original article and provide your original comments / criticism in your post with the article.
[quote:Anonymous Coward 34610595:MV8yMTUwMjIzXzM2MzM1MDY2X0ZCNENGODAx] [quote:Abi ~:MV8yMTUwMjIzXzM2MzM0ODc2XzU0RjhGRjlE] [i]You also need to consider fencing or some other means of keeping animals, bugs, etc from eating and stripping your crops... some bugs can be picked off by hand, but if you are talking an acre or more, forget that...netting, perhaps? the fence would have to go down a couple feet to keep moles and other burrowing animals from getting under and eating the roots, too...[/i] [/quote] I've looked into netting. It's expensive, but very effective. My grandmother told me how back in the day when your crop literally meant survival people often sleep in their gardens at night to help keep the deer and rabbits out. The old dog would, of course, sleep right along side you. Between your snoring and the dog being around it was pretty effective. [/quote]
Original Message
I was raised by my grandparents who were depression era share croppers and cotton pickers. When I was a kid their "garden" was 4 acres in size and fed the entire neighborhood. Raising crops is in my blood. There's a lot I don't know, but I've raised several gardens of my own.
In college I learned a lot about permaculture. I haven't fully embraced the idea yet as I'm not convinced that large harvests can be maintained with no pesticides. I'll give it a try some day though, since huge labor savings can be realized (for non-machine harvested crops) once the raised beds are established.
Realistically you'll need almost an acre to completely feed a family of four and you'll need to do successive plantings. You'll need to be able to put away this food also. Beans and field peas are great as they can be dried and stored easily. Freezing stuff is easy....so long as electricity is available.
I anticipate doom as an economic event where everything is still available, but priced sky high. Thus I could still buy the few dozen gallons of gas needed to farm. I'd still have electricity. Otherwise, everything would have to be canned or dried and plowing would turn into a nightmare (permaculture time).
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