Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

Here's my take on the best plants to have for the economically uncertain times that we're in. I'd be interested to hear other's views as well.

• potato

  Most calories per square foot. One method is to plant several spuds covered by a bit of soil in the bottom of the barrel. Keep mounding over sprouting leaves with soil as they come up until eventually the entire barrel is filled. At that point you have a barrel full of potatoes that can be harvested as needed or tip over the barrel and harvest all at once. They can also be planted and stored in the ground to be harvested as needed instead of consuming storage space. Use hierloom seed potatoes instead of the tasteless common russet potato that is on most grocery store shelves.
  
  To induce the potatoes to begin sprouting expose them to warmth (60-70 F) and lots of light a week before planting. The day before planting cut the larger seed potatoes into smaller "seeds" about 1 1/2-2inches square with at least 1 or 2 eyes or buds. Let the callus form over the cut overnight and plant the following day.

• sunchoke

  Like potatoes, these produce an abundance of root crop that can be stored in the ground and harvested as needed. To me they taste similar to artichoke hearts. They are difficult to digest for some people, but I have no problem with them. They produce a sunflower like plant and do so well that they can take over an entire garden. You can cook and eat the bulb as you would a potato.

• florence fennel

  These things grow incredibly well and produce a nice tasty stalk that can be eaten like celery or cooked. I like to slice the bulb into thin slices and saute and use as I would noodles. Add some spaghetti sauce and they turn into a healthy and best tasting spaghetti dish I've ever had.

• squash

  Another abundantly producing and very easy to grow plant that can be growing vertically on lattices to reduce the amount of space taken in the garden.

• beans

  Great protein source (has complete essential amino acid profile if you have a variety of beans of different sizes). Also a nitrogen fixer (pulls nitrogen out of the air and stores it in nodules on the roots) which can help fertilize surrounding plants.

I like the potatoes and sunchokes the best as they can be hidden in the ground where people wouldn't as likely see and take them. I think fruit trees would also be great but would be a prime target for hungry passers by unless you can protect or screen them from anyones view. I've working on guerrilla planting fruit trees and vegetables throughout the neighborhood to improve the odds of keeping neighbors somewhat fed without coming my way.

BTW- As I can't convince the wife to move to a remote homestead I've decided to hunker down and prepare for survival as best I can in urban southern california (wish me a big heaping spoonful of luck).

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

That would all depend on your local climate.

http://www.usna.usda.gov/graphics/us...ne/ushzm1a.jpg

http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/ushzmap.html

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

im looking for a homstead!

i was a marine corps combat engineer and im also a baker :)

I work cheap too....i work for silver!!!:applause_

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

That's a good point, but potatoes are a perfect summer crop just about anywhere.

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

Red beets, turnips, and barley grass,
barley greens in dehydrated form can sustain.

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

barley for many reasons but most of all because i can get a crop before needing to irrigate because i have little summer rainfall also it will reseed
itself (missed harvest grains)saves on replanting.

cold tolerant, heat tolerant takes little time to get to harvest so could probably get 2 crops per year.seems very simple for even a dummy gardener to grow and did not need deep tilling of the soil.

also barley grains store well and easily and are good for sprouting and malting.



then pumpkins but these need good supplies of water but have many usefull
parts and good yields

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

Another option rather than the barrel for potatoes (it may shade the plant too much early on) is to use old tyres. As the potato plant grows, place a tyre over it and fill with earth. Then later another, and another.

Come harvest time, it's easy to dismantle too.

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

I think you misunderstood me. I'm not looking for a homestead since I can't get my wife to buy into the idea of moving away from this city. Hope you find a good homestead.

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

I hadn't considered barley. Does it take much land to produce a decent amount and is it easy to harvest without machinery?

Edit: Plants for a future shows a ton of uses for Barley. No wonder it's top on your list.

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

Does anyone have a clue what edible plants wild boars will not touch?

Further any tips on hunting wild boars without a gun? I have to do it with a crossbow or a normal bow and arrow or a trap of some kind, since I am not allowed to buy a gun here. Should I have a club or a spear or something like that as a back up, if it attacks me after I have injured it?

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

also, dont down play the benefit of peanuts. They grow pretty damn much anywhere and rejuvinate the soil.

Also, get your hands on a good variety of herbs. They are packed with antioxidants and have medical uses as well. They are also all very easy to grow in a vairety of climates. There are some that have a tough time in winter and may die back, but a great majority are perenials and very heardy once grown to a good size

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

You got any pictures of those barrell potatoes? Sounds interesting. I've never heard that potatoe plants will keep making potatoes vertically.

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

Barley is a great cover crop after harvest. Then plow under in the spring. It is one of the best green fertilizers available.

Or to harvest for nutritional benefits, begin considering those benefits here.
http://barleygreencompany.com/

Barley grass is one of the green grasses - the only vegetation on the earth that can supply sole nutritional support from birth to old age. The true beauty of barley is found in the leaves; the young green shoots of power that form before the grain. The young leaves have a tremendous ability to absorb nutrients from the soil. When barley leaves are 12-14 inches high, they contain all the vitamins, minerals, and proteins necessary for the human diet, plus chlorophyll. These necessities are easily assimilated throughout the digestive tract, giving our bodies instant access to vital nutrients.
Amino Acids and Proteins
Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins; 20 of them are present in the body proteins in significant quality. Proteins are the major constituent of every cell and body fluid (except urine and bile) and are thus necessary for the continual cell building, regeneration, and energy production that we need for life. An added benefit of the green barley leaf proteins is that they are polypeptides; smaller proteins that can be directly absorbed by the blood, where they promote cell metabolism (the chemical changes that we need to live) and neutralize substances that are bad for our health. Eighteen amino acids are found in barley grass, including the eight essential ones - that is, the amino acids that we must get from out diets; the body cannot produce them itself.
Enzymes, Vitamins, and Minerals
Green barley leaves contain a multitude of the body's spark plugs, enzymes. Enzymes supply the spark that starts the essential chemical reactions our bodies need to live. Without this spark, and these chemical reactions, we would be helpless: a bag of bones, unable to walk, talk, blink, or breathe.

Astounding amounts of vitamins and minerals are found in green barley leaves. These include potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, copper, phosphorus, manganese, zinc, beta carotene, B1, B2, B6, C, folic acid, and pantothenic acid. Indeed, green barley juice contains 11 times the calcium in cows' milk, nearly 5 times the iron in spinach, 7 times the vitamin C in oranges, and 80 mg of vitamin B12 per hundred grams. Green barley leaves also contain significant amounts of chlorophyll.
Alkalinity and More
Green barley leaves are extremely alkaline, so digesting them can help keep the body's alkaline and acidity ratio balanced. Our cells cannot adequately function if the pH range (which measures acidity and alkaline) is not in a narrow range. Most processed foods are acidic, and when we consume too many of them the acidity/alkaline balance is upset. This may result in possible fatigue.

Recently research has unveiled a wealth of other possible benefits of green barley leaves. Extracted compounds have found to have hypercholesteromic, anti-inflammatory, and anti-ulcer properties. A new antioxidant, 2"-0-GIV, has been isolated and reported to have antioxidant activity equal to or superior to vitamin E. Finally, studies have shown that when green barley juice is added to injured cells, the cells' DNA repairs itself rapidly. This may contribute to preventing the changes that often lead to cancer, rapid aging, and cell death. Barleygreen captures these nutrients to bring you the wholesome goodness of the green barley leaves.
Barleygreen: A Total Food
It is tempting to look at these facts as individual pieces. "Yes, well Barleygreen contains beta carotene," you might say, or "Barleygreen contains more than spinach." This is true, of course, but the real power of Barleygreen is found in the combination of all these nutrients. Barleygreen is a whole food concentrate; that is, it is as close to its natural state as possible and thus supplies the nutrients in a natural proportion. This is what attracted Dr. Yoshihide Hagiwara, the creator of Barleygreen, to barley; a vision of totality, not individual pieces: "Barleygreen should not be recognized by discussing the amount of its vitamins and minerals. The era of focusing on a single vitamin or mineral is gone...much more attention is being focused on biological phenomenon."

Before deciding on using the barley plant, Dr. Hagiwara looked at all green plants in Japan, and then narrowed his search down to 150 leafy green varieties. He found many plants with satisfactory nutrition, but none that covered as wide a spectrum of nutrients as green barley. A Herculean task? Yes, but in a way this was the easy part.

Getting the nutrients from the plant to people was another matter. Dr. Hagiwara struggled at first. "I was told by people who used my product that it was not effective." He accepted this challenge and kept working, eventually discovering that, "I was subjecting the barley to too much heat...killing the active ingredients." To avoid this, Dr. Hagiwara created a secret and patented drying process, guaranteeing that all active nutrients remained active.

Dr. Hagiwara's quest to make the best possible product has resulted in a manufacturing process that uses the most expensive and sophisticated processing plant in the green juice industry. However, this is not enough. The search to make Barleygreen even better continues, which is why 10 percent of the wholesale price is dedicated to green barley research.

Today, barley for Barleygreen is grown in Oxnard, California. Before choosing this site, extensive research was performed: Dr. Hagiwara says, "We tested soil from ten different states and grew samples of several types of barley grass to compare nutrient levels before selecting the one that would give us superior results. We gave careful consideration to climate, environmental conditions, and water supplies.... The barley grass that we are growing in Oxnard consistently shows higher nutrient levels than that grown in Japan."

The result of all of this - over 20 years of research; the ideal location to cultivate barley; the green barley leaves, rich in nutrients; and the sophisticated manufacturing process - is Barleygreen, the best green juice product there is.


Please visit our Link Partners

Barleygreen® is a registered trademark of Y.H. Products, Inc. in the United States and worldwide.

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

Here's a site with some nice pics of them throughout the process:
http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/scho...ato_barrel.php

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

I just learned last Wednesday the women folk around here place a tomato seed inside a sprouting potato, and then plant the potato. Both plants will flourish, as the tomato takes early sustenance from the high moisture potato, and puts down roots as well as the potato.

I hope this helps someone.
:bull-buddy-icon:

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

Sounds like North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia or Arkansas.
Hunting them from a treestand with a crossbow or regular compound bow would sound successfull.

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

Have you done this? Perhaps it is more well known than I knew of. I've also heard that potatoes will grow in straight sawdust.

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

Actually I am a Swede living in Turkey. Just bought a 4.5 acre property with very fertile soil (old grazing ground) in the mountains with a huge forrest right next to it. As I went there last week to plant some vegetables, the locals told me that you can't grow these things here because the wild boars will come and eat them. My long term plan is to grow fruit (apple, pear, peach, cherry, apricot, plums) and nut (almond and walnuts) trees and have some animals grazing under them.

But I would like to grow something edible that wild boars don't like (and I'll try and get a few wild boars as well, the treestand was a good idea...). Anyhow if you shoot for instance a piglet (I think they are called) from the tree, is there a risk that the mother would attack as you go down to collect your food?

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

I have heard that you can grow potatoes also by just putting them on the ground and putting a feet of straw over them (maybe a good way of using unfarmed land) no digging necessary.

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

Squash are very heavy yielding indeed but they are not to be relied upon. As a grower of squash I can attest to the truly destructive power of a little moth-like insect called the Squash Vine Borer. They basically land on the stem of the squash plant during the daytime and stealthily plant their tiny brown eggs near the base of the plant. These eggs hatch within days and a larva burrows into the stem of the Squash plant, completely eating the insides which cuts off the life to the entire plant. These little bastards can decimate an entire crop of squash and you won't know anything is going on until one day you look out and suddenly all your plants are wilted and fallen over. They are extremely hard to prevent.

Pole beans (stringbeans) are great as it has few predators (watch out for the ground hogs though!) and many varieties are extremely prolific and abundant yielding.

Potatoes are great too but there is a danger with relying on them too much as the Irish potato famine taught us. Dont rely on just one variety, plant numerous varieties and definitely try natural heirloom varieties as well as the commercially available ones. They also are susceptible to an insect invasion of Colorado Potato Beetles which can decimate your crop. There are several chemical/organic controls though against them since they are exposed and you can spray them, unlike the Squash Vine Borers which wont be affected by sprays.

One plant I always like to recommend is Swiss Chard. It's a leafy green vegetable like collards that is virtually indestructible and a great yielder. You can literally plant them and forget them as they have very few diseases or predators. Probably the worst predator I have encountered are leaf miner flies but they only cause damage to portions of leaves and cannot destroy entire crops. Swiss Chard is also packed with nutrients and you can keep cutting leaves from the plant and as long as you leave a few the plant will continue to produce.

Kale is a crop people could utilize in the winter. In many climates in the US you can grow Kale in the winter and frost only improves their flavor! They are also incredibly nutritious and virtually no problems with diseases or insects.

Always grow garlic. It's not the easiest to grow and not the most abundant but it'll be your number one disease prevention measure when TSHTF. It's healing powers are unrivaled.

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

Don't forget species that produce vitamin C. Rhubarb is one. It's the first source in spring. Rhutabagas are one of the only tubers that have C.

Asparagus is one of the first sources of complex B in the spring. I have been slowly planting it along ditches and fence rows out here in the country near my house.

sb

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

It's well worth the time and effort to learn what edible 'weeds' grow in your area. There is, in fact, quite a supply of wild food growing all around you if you only know where to look .... and it hasn't been poisoned with weedkillers.

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

Good topic, I've been enlightened so far, but some nitpicking first...

I couldn't independently verify some of their health claims (see bolded), but some things are appearing suspect. The author mentions briefly the importance of 20 amino acids needed for human nutrition, says barley provides all of them (enough go from cradle to grave apparently), then says it provides 18 amino acids, 8 essential ones. Commonly accepted nutritional theory says there are 20 amino acids necessary, but 9 essential amino acids and 11 non essential. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essential_amino_acid

I also couldn't find much on the totality of it's vitamin and mineral abundance, but it does appear to contain, at the very least, little bits of almost all nutrients.

Looks like a great nutritional boost, but always be wary of health claims these days...

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

Are there different strains of barley? Where would you buy seeds?

Good tips folks!@ Thanks!

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

did you cut all kinds of rice or just white rice?

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

How do you prevent potatoes from being ravaged by potato bugs and other disease? Don't potatoes need to be rotated? I have planted potatoes over the years and had crops wiped out by bugs and blight. What low chemical way prevents this?

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

Potatoes and string beans are good crops.

Have you thought about carrots and radishes? Planting to maturity cycle is short (we can get two full crops per year here in washington state)

Corn is a favorite too.

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

I've had GREAT success with teh String (green) beans and Radishes -(Turnips too) not so much with potatoes and carrots here down south...

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

I hadn't heard of that either. Sounds almost like dropping a fishhead into the bottom of a corn furrow. :D But that combination of tomatoe and potatoe would make a good soup.

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

Try planting them with green beans which will repel Colorado potato beetles. Also horseradish planted near potatoes will cause them to be healthier and more disease resistant. Also, garlic spray will prevent potato blight. To make the garlic spray soak 4 oz of chopped garlic in 2 Tbsp mineral oil for a day, then add 1 pint of water and 1tspn of fish emulsion. In addition, nightshade plants lure away and kill the colorado potato beetle. Carrots Love Tomatoes is a good book that covers companion planting and natural pest control methods (and which I got this information from).

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

I had been doing the barley grass tea several years ago. I only used if for a year or perhaps two. It did seem to help digestion and the stuff coming out had a green tint. :D It was during a time when I was riding exercise bike also, so I don't know which helped more. I think I was also taking the meta-form egg/whey/milk powder and mixing with barley greens and orange juice. VIBE is another newer wonder concoction that I have some amounts of faith in. The Barley greens have been well researched and weather it is everything it says it is or not, it is still a good basic food additive that I would use before vitamins. I'm looking at some of barley greens other products that incorporate kelp and other powders for a more complete 'system'.

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

Sounds like a good book.
As for getting mauled after shooting the piglet, it reminds me of an old he-haw joke. "Doc, it hurts when I do this"... man rotates his arm in his shoulder socket. Doc says... "well then don't do that".

If mama boar (oops Mama sow)is going to maul you when you climb down out of the tree, ..... Dont' climb down out of the tree.....or else take extra arrows.

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

That sounds very interesting. I looked it up and apparently it's called a topato. Supposedly tomatoes don't like to be near potatoes (according to my companion planting book), so I wonder if the tomatoes would do better when they're planted separately.

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

If you have a long warm season, then sweet potaoes can be very productive.

The tubers are more nutritious than regular potatoes, and most people don't realize that the sweet potato leaves are also good as boiled greens.

They can also be grown in large buckets of soil for easy harvest of the roots.

The plants are very vigorous in full sun and, other than root weevils (preventable by rotation or container growing in fresh soil), I've never encountered a serious pest.
They can be grown from starts from a grocery store sweet potato.

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

Now, thats good advice! :D I guess I wasn't thinking straight! Thanks!

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

I grow sweet potatoes, specifically an asian variety, because I find the taste, texture and even appearance to be superior to american strains.

The sweet potato has a long history of being a famine food in Japan. About two hundred years ago they were propagated throughout Japan as a food security measure. They have saved the japanese population on several occasions when rice crops have failed. Most recently, sweet potato was used as a survival food during WWII.

Of course, the tubers are a great source of calories. What many people are unaware of is that the leaves and stems are also quite tasty - though the stems become fibrous. I like the greens in stir fry or soups.

A little piece of tuber partially submerged in water will sprout, and you can eat the shoots when they are young and tender. My in laws, who are japanese, ate sweet potato greens in this way, when other fresh produce was not available during the war. You can keep shoots without a tuber alive in water almost indefinitely and grow a windowsill garden.

Sweet potatoes are originally a perennial, and here in sub-tropical florida they grow 365 days a year. They do fine with little nutrition, though obviously yield will suffer somewhat. If you have a patch of soil and a sprinkler, plant some tubers and forget about them unless you want to harvest. They will run wild and require almost no maintenance, though yield will increase with increased care.

In temperate climes, they are a summertime crop, though you can always sprout a tuber indoors for fresh shoots.

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

Beet me to it. :driver:

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

And don't forget the tomato -- easy to grow, can't hardly kill 'em as long as they get enough water, versatile, adds flavor to otherwise bland meals, high in vitamines. You can even grow them in a pot inside in front of a window.

Re: Most abundant plants to grow to prevent starvation
 

I watched a hunting show, where a guy Killed a wild pig with a pellet rifle. One shot in the head, in the right spot, and that was all she wrote!