Easiest plants to take care of with the best prodution during WTSHTF
 

Any Fruit trees, nut trees, bushes, plants (Jerusalem artichokes). Must be disease resistant, bear heavy, and fairly easy to keep.

List name and link to site if possible.

Re: Easiest plants to take care of with the best prodution during WTSHTF
 

depends where you are for me it seems if they are thorny and considered a pest somewhere then they are good to grow here

nopal cactus pruduces fruit,grain and vegetable matter in the form of pads
needs little water to survive but will produce better with some watering.
also called prickly pear a mexican staple and is sold in many stores.

blackberry i have these around pond and other water sources

mesquite just started these but have high hope cause they are native
thorny and considered a pest they produce good strong wood and a flour
substitute as well as some medicinal properties

oak acorns were a staple amongst the indians of california and dont taste
bad at all and the trees provide fuel.

wild rose for rose hips

clover, vetch,miners lettuce,dandylions all good greens (watch the vetch) grow wild and the chickens also love them.

my main "survival crop"would be barley because i can grow it with little
water it germinates grows and heads early in the year.I also noticed last
year that it will automatically reseed which saves a lot of work.

with a bit of water i could get 2 crops of barley.

cattail in the pond for food, craft and medicine

im growing some tomatoes this year but just cause they are easy i dont
like to eat them.

pumpkins are another favorite because they produce greens,seeds and vegetable foods and whole pumpkins store easily but they do need lots of
water.

almost everything i grow except for barley is good fodder for bees and or chickens.so i can get a double use from anything i am planting

Re: Easiest plants to take care of with the best prodution during WTSHTF
 

anyone have experience with amaranth?

Re: Easiest plants to take care of with the best prodution during WTSHTF
 

Pot...........................

Re: Easiest plants to take care of with the best prodution during WTSHTF
 

Everything depends on your location of course, but here's my short list:

- Apricots - I prefer them over peaches b/c they don't need spraying or supports for the crop. Requires yearly pruning, and crop thinning when the 'cots are small (~almond size or so) so they don't overbear & the fruit gets bigger.
- Grapes - Most climates will support some variety of grapes, which are great for eating, jamming, and of course, winemaking!
- Avocado trees - Big beautiful trees, and they produce heavy crops of high calorie fruit (many varieties need 2 for cross pollination). Need very little care.
- Citrus trees are great if you live in a mild climate

Fava beans and mustard are good ground cover in mild winter areas or in early spring plantings. They need zero care and both enrich the soil when you till them under (adds nitrogen), and both are good to eat (stir fry w/ olive oil & garlic). My fava beans re-seeded themselves for years with no help, but they didn't come back last year so I had to order seeds. I'll be more careful to keep the seeds from now on.

I grow lots of tomatoes in the summer too, plus whatever else I fancy. I don't have deer to worry about, but I have a horrible gopher problem: they get all my artichokes, and my melons too. No matter; I'm sure they'll cook up nice in the ol' popcorn popper in a pinch.

You might check around with your neighbors to see what grows well in your area, and practice planting as soon as you can to see what works for you.

I'm getting spring fever just thinking about it. :yippee:

Re: Easiest plants to take care of with the best prodution during WTSHTF
 

I live in zone 9 and have had good easy crops from plain old sweet potato's. Not only is the root or tuber portion excellent, but the leaves and shoots are tasty. They grow well in poor sandy soil and don't seem to be affected much by bugs. I'm still pulling perfectly edible potato's out of the ground from last season.

Blueberries look promising as well. They need acid soil though, but otherwise are easy to care for and are thought to be a super food.

Re: Easiest plants to take care of with the best prodution during WTSHTF
 

You seem to be complaining about plants which attract meat. Explain.

Soybeans. Very productive, not soil-depleating.
Chestnuts, highest production, high carbs, should be possible to use for ethanol.

TS

Re: Easiest plants to take care of with the best prodution during WTSHTF
 

I had a bad experiment with blueberries last year too, though it was the deer that did me in. Ate all the berries before they even began to turn color, and the twigs right down to the main branches.
We'll see if they recover this year and if they do I'll try one of those motion activated sprinkler sprayers maybe to keep the deer away, though I don't know if it will work with the starlings etc.
My raspberries did very well though and neither deer nor birds bothered them.
I found out from a neighbor that's been here 50 years that raspberries and blackberries grew wild all over the area, though he could recall no wild blues in the immediate area, though I did remember them around the reservoirs near the woodline years ago. Plus I needed to amend the pH down for blueberries as well, and not for the raspberries.
So , I've decided to stop fighting mother nature and just go with raspberries/blackberries when I plant more this spring.
Find what grew in the area naturally and was hearty/low maintenance/pest resistant and it will make life easier I think.

Re: Easiest plants to take care of with the best prodution during WTSHTF
 

I thought halogens were the only good grow lights, looks interesting if it works.

Re: Easiest plants to take care of with the best prodution during WTSHTF
 

I pretty much plant everything that will grow in my area. I have at least one of every kind of fruit tree that will grow here, grapes, berries etc... I just cannot grow sweet corn because of the raccoons.

Re: Easiest plants to take care of with the best prodution during WTSHTF
 

dude, wtshtf there is only one kind of "taking care of" that will be happening with the canna...:smokin::wink:

Re: Easiest plants to take care of with the best prodution during WTSHTF
 

Anyone heard about those new upside down hanging tomato planters? I'm gonna get couple and try them out this spring. They can be used for more than just tomatoes too. The box showed eggplants and cucumbers.

As for the raccoons, I have acquired some chain link fence and am thinking about trying to grow some sweet corn in a steel cage.

Re: Easiest plants to take care of with the best prodution during WTSHTF
 

sure:smokin:

Re: Easiest plants to take care of with the best prodution during WTSHTF
 

Don't overlook sprouts--very easy to grow.

Also, bamboo--virtually impossible to not grow. Like jerusalem artichokes, you'll need to isolate it or it will take over everything. As to "Why?" Bamboo can me a good building material, and the shoots are tender and tasty.

Re: Easiest plants to take care of with the best prodution during WTSHTF
 

We have several (4) different bamboo varieties growing. There are two types, spreaders and clumpers. Our clumping bamboos are over twenty feet tall after three years, and gives us material for things like garden stakes, and small cages, but the spreading varieties are really slow to get moving.

As in everything, soil is paramount. We just recently purchased and trucked in 25 cubic yards of garden mix from a local place called reliablepeat.com. This stuff looks and feels excellent. 40% peat, 40% mushroom compost and 20% sand. Our garden is expanding.

Here's some general info on blueberries.

All types of blueberries grow best in full sun. Plants tolerate partial shade, but production declines as shade increases. Blueberries are shallow rooted and poor competitors against large rooted trees, shrubs, and weeds that compete for water, nutrients, and crowd airways necessary to good blueberry production.

The most important element in growing blueberries is soil composition. To make the most of your blueberry planting, begin necessary soil amendments the year before planting. Blueberries grow best in loose, sandy loam. Although you may run across wild blueberries growing in a bog, on closer inspection you'll see that plants grow on small, natural hills.

Blueberries need moisture retentive, well-drained, humus-rich soil with good aeration. Soil acidity is also very important in growing blueberries. Plants need a pH of 4.0 to no more than 5.0 to thrive. Initially, bring the pH down to acceptable levels with sulphur or 4 to 6 inches of acid peat mixed into the first 6 to 8 inches of topsoil. Also, enrich soil with good organic compost.

Planting blueberries

Although most blueberries self-pollinate, plant two or more varieties within a type for a larger harvest of more voluptuous fruits. Five plants provide enough blueberries for fresh eating, drying, and preserving for a family of four.

Plant blueberries in spring after all danger of frost passes. When growing several plants, you may find it easier to prepare a bed rather than digging holes for individual plants. Add a generous portion of peat moss to your trench or hole both to increase the organic content and to ensure continued soil acidity.

Standard spacing for highbush, half-high, and rabbiteye bushes is five to six feet apart in rows eight to ten feet distant. Dig holes or make your row three to four inches deeper than the size of the root balls. Pack soil firmly around the roots of each plant.


At this time of year, we're growing and eating collards, cabbage, kale, garlic, scallions, broccoli, radishes, pea's, and oranges.

The only problems we've had with critters are bugs, snails and gophers.

We're all set up with 10 laying hens and one rooster, a dozen or so bunnies,
and a small aqua culture pond with 25 bream. Oh, and a nice worm bed.