How many tomato plants or potato plants or squash plants do you need to feed your family? Gardener Scott discusses how to determine the number of food plants to grow in your garden and offers suggested quantities for typical gardeners. (Video #432)
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31 Comments
I eat 4kg + of veg a week, typically. I have room but I'm daunted by trying to grow that much, plus I haven't had success with brassicas. I easily kept up with eating everything from 4 zucchini plants. Isn't it also random what you lose to pests or bad weather?
i think the recommendations of yours are more realistic for a common 1/3 acre backyard home gardener for eating and preserving . tyvm
Thank you for sharing your insights about gardening! I’m trying to grow garlic now, but want to try potatoes and melons next.
As you know I'm trying new things at scale this year. Idk why I'll need 50 parsley plants , but I might end up with that many.
I wanted to try indeterminate tomatoes so 48 seedlings sounds ab but it right.
I dont know anyone that would need 24 cabbages, but we might just end up with that many.
All the while I'll end up succession sowing things as time.goes by. Itll be a race of time, patience, care, and room to store and eat harvests.
All I can say is you can't eat the grass so if some more of it has to go, it has to go. Heck idk if I even like turnips, but I want an early harvest of those bad boys as well.
All of this is a super experiment. If I start 1 plant I might as well plant 6, and if I'm starting 6 might as well be 12…. or 24.
I’m focusing on availability for my needs (the closest Asian market is 50+ miles away), growing things organically that aren’t available at my local market, and flavor.
I don’t have enough beds to feed my family just off the garden. But I moved from Los Angeles to rural TN and a lot of the produce and foods I’m used to just don’t exist out here. So I have to grow my own and make many of the dishes myself to enjoy them.
So I’m growing stuff like a variety of Asian and SW chili peppers, Thai basil, lemongrass, perilla, Chinese leeks.
And then I’m also growing organic versions of veg that I don’t see at the market – napa cabbage, basil, thyme, oregano, sage, cilantro, parsley, ginger, chives, leeks, garlic, baby bok choy, broccoli rapini, lettuce, mustard.
Then I’m growing stuff that is really expensive at the market like organic strawberries and organic kale that our family enjoys all the time.
I’m experimenting with growing celery, cabbage, and a wide variety of tomatoes. My son loves cherry tomatoes fresh from the garden so of course I’ve decided to grow 3 different kinds for him lol. Husband loves tomato sauce with his pasta so I’m growing 4 different paste tomatoes. I’m growing 2 slicing tomatoes for fun and flavor.
I’m hoping to try out potatoes and purple sweet potatoes again this year. Failed miserably last year.
Very excited for the year!
Okay Scott how much total square footage do you have in your garden beds? My method is a spreadsheet that calculates the total square footage needed for the type and number of plants I'm planning. I also factor in companion plants and a small percentage for plant failures; since my household is two adults, also in Colorado. By the way, I have a total of 320 SqFt for veggies. And I use a modified version of Mel's Square Foot Gardening recommendations, along with succession plantings.
Thank you Scott, a good system to make the best of a growing space and , as you say, the numbers will be particular to each family's needs. I will make good use of your advice in my small veggie patch at home.
To be honest, people often ask "how many plants do I need to grow?" but I'm more interested in how much a given plant YIELDS. This is something that experienced gardeners probably know, but that information is VERY hard to come by. I mean, one carrot plant grows one carrot, that's pretty easy. But how many zucchini can you expect to get from an average plant? How many potatoes? How many strawberries? I know it depends on climate and variety, but just having a RANGE would already be helpful. It's much more convenient for me to know that an average indeterminate tomato plant yields about 20 lbs or whatever of tomatoes, than someone telling me I need 5 tomato plants to feed a family.
Thank you for your videos! First season starting garden from seed as transplant prices have skyrocketed here in France. I was too anxious about getting everything right until I listened to your videos. You are the Mr. Rogers of the gardening world. Thank you!
Did anybody get that list? I'm lazy but saw a few I wanted to try
You also need to think about where and how you will store your bounty! Great video as always Scott. Lol I should have listened to the end. Of course you covered preservation!
Yeah them artichokes do take lots of space and takes 2 years for me to get one per plant. they are tastey though.
I start by looking at what veggies cost locally. Carrots are $1.50 – $2.00 for 2 pounds. Potatoes are $3-5 per 10 pound bag. Lettuce costs 3 heads for $2-5. And water is a limiting factor where I live. So I won't grow carrots or potatoes, but I will grow lettuce, chard and other greens that provide a continual harvest. Tomatoes, peppers, garlic, herbs, rhubarb and other more expensive produce are also on my list. And I will try some new plants like sweet potatoes and beets because I enjoy eating them. What works for me may not work for you. But realistically I will always need to buy some produce from the store. I want to make sure that I am spending my money wisely and not investing a huge amount of work in growing something that isn't economically reasonable for my area.
I honestly hope I will end up with extra! That way I will take some to work to share, and see how many people believe they came from my driveway! Lol
I try and error it! so far i keep doubling and seeing what happens, we have got to 50 tomatoes, 20 peppers and 25 chillis etc and we just see how winter goes. at the moment wr are running low in everything but squash! LOL but then we will see what happens as we now have greens coming in!
Very thanks Scott i think this is a one of the biggest question for a real self-sufficient-gardner 👍 appreciated
Nice video. My own spreadsheets seem to have roughly the same numbers your list has (Ontario 5b). Except potatoes, hmm.
Give your extras to farm animals they like it and it saves money
U can plant ur seedlings weeks apart and then u have a consistent supply throughout the planting season
Wonderful topic. I need to be mindful of how many of each plant I grow. Example last year we grew 75 each of kale & cabbage (way too many cos my seedling area was far too crowded for my space). Extras went to charity plant sale but thanks for the reminder 🤩
Great info
Great topic. I'm still learning how much to plant for each food crop, and still experimenting to see what I like best, The problem is, I like a lot of variety. I do canning, freezing, and dehydration. I use peppers in a lot of my cooking, so based on last years harvest, which was plentiful, I need between fifty and seventy plants. Squash and cucumbers were a problem last year from a moth that migrates up from Florida, and lays its eggs during he night—pickleworms. They are very destructive for squash and cucumbers, but I found an organic solution—Spinosad. It was too late for last year, but I'm ready for them this year. Tomatoes did okay, but could have done better—my fault. I burnt them with too high a concentrate of Neem oil treating a white fly infestation. This year I expect they will do much better, and half of my plants are being grown in raised beds inside a polytunnel greenhouse. It will be covered later in the season with a shade cloth. The greenhouse is letting me put tomatoes in the ground six weeks early. They've been in the ground since March first, and are growing rapidly. There is frost in the forcast, but they should do fine inside the greenhouse. I'm growing 8 varieties of squash, one or two plants each. I'm not worried about it being too much squash. It is an experiment to see what grows best, yeilds, flavor, and resistance to pests. I'll adjust it for my needs next year. I've tripled the amount of Swiss chard I am growing, trying two new varieties of spinach, Chijimisai, and New Zealand Spinach. Asian greens grew well form me up until the winter storm last December, so I've replanted them. Russsian Red Kale survived the coldest temperaures and hard freeze. I have two plants still growing, and am growing two additional plants. I over planted beans last year, and had multiple abundant harvests. There is such a thing as too many beans, Dragon Tongue, Blue Lake bush, Cantare, Tongues of Fire, Yellow Butter Wax, and Blue Lake pole beans. I have enough beans to last through June, maybe longer. This year, I am only growing pole beans, Oriental Yard Long, and Rattlesnake. Next year, I will plant Red Noodle beans, and Blue Lake Pole Beans. The following year, I will have a better idea how many beans I need to plant, of what varieties. The Blue Lake pole beans were planted in the beginning of April last year, and produced through October—tons of beans. Once I started picking, I was picking nearly every day into October before they started slowing down.
I have to disagree with the stats when it comes to the artichoke. Think about how many of those you need to have just to make dip. I would suggest, for those, at least three per person.
Fantastic! One additional consideration I make is plant size based on where it's grown. I have limited in-ground and raised bed space and so I supplement with lots of pots. Therefore, I grow more zucchini and summer squash plants because I choose to put them in pots instead, and the pots stunt their growth. Plant variety, too, can make a difference. We just discovered last year that we love the flavor of Costata Romanesco zucchini, but they have a lower production rate. Excellent video, Gardener Scott, thank you!
I love the kind and generous heartwarming atmosphere that you create, your kind, easygoing, warm vibe.❤❤❤My favorite thing to do in life is eat good food. ❤
The best advice is keeping records. For 34 years pre-retirement I only grew tomatoes and basil and some companion flowers like marigolds etc. Now I am coming up on 4 years retired and keep spreadsheets on plantings. Without good records I would probably forget how many of A, and B and C I grew last year or the year before and keep note of how successful I was. EG dill can only be grown in my 9B zone until May then the heat kills it. Thanks Gardner Scott.
Our plans changed when I got a pressure canner and could can green beans. I joke that one day we will just have green beans, tomatoes and cucumbers. But we actually grow almost everything. I’m a sucker for peppers and since I can add them in grow bags, I can’t seem to limit myself. A patio of grow bag around the patio furniture, sure that’s not a problem 😂
Great information! It is so hard to narrow it down to how many. This year I am really figuring out how i am going to use the harvest from my garden. I am doing a lot of canning and am going to try to grow enough of everything i need for canned salsa, tomatoes, pickled peppers. We will see.
Greetings from the Netherlands, last year i upscaled my amateur food garden substantially… from mai to januari-feb i didnt have to buy 95% of my vegetables(i still have some packages in the freezer now in march) or herbs and NO potatoes at all. This year i upscaled even more so we will be able to trade potatoes with others for tomatoes (this year i will start my first try with tomatoes)…. I dont have room to try to much new things (7 big raised beds/ 80 containers ranging from 80-50ltrs) and 40- pots with a diamater of arround 30 cm… So everything i grew last year i added a few plants of each (potatoes exception lol … 4 times as much, due to my wifes double seed potato buy) .. .and i added just a few plants i never tried … beets, tomatoes, cauliflour, cabbage, a second bean-race that can climb… But my core i grow alot of is herbs(oven drying), potatoes, onion, beans, courgette, pumpkin, broccoli, leeks, rhubarb, strawberries/raspberry/currants/gooseberries, carrots, garlic, vigs and sweet peppers, radishes and spring onions and ofc lettuce
This is very helpful. Is there a place your list recommendations can be printed?
I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned it or if you already know but there is a type of artichoke for cooler climates. Check out Colorado Red Star artichoke. If I recall it's hardy to zone 7 but double check me. The brain doesn't always remember correctly. 😉