Subsistence Farming, Planning Ahead

[TWP]

A good, short article on some points about subsistence farming, ie. growing just for yourself and family/group and not for trade goods:

http://www.prep-blog.com/2017/02/25/subsistence-farming-for-survival/

I concur on all of the points made by the author.

My own experience, in Washington state, is to add some livestock such as rabbits or chickens for both additional food sources and as fertilizer production.  Livestock means additional plantings for their food so do include this in your farm design.

RE non-subsistence farming:

Growing additional crops for sales or trade is not precluded, but do note the additional work this entails and the absolute need to replace what this takes from your soil.  Whatever you take in trade should be at least as valuable, in terms of your survival, as the food you exchanged.

Do note the final paragraphs about protecting your farm.  If you trade your produce, then you will be known to have food.  This may be especially important during the early years of an TEOTWAWKI situation...

How you handle relations with those outside your family / group is just as important as working the farm.

[230gr]

My comments on Subsistence Farming for Survival
         
Land
By the time the stored food runs out, you must be ramped up to Subsistence level food production. If and when we can achieve Biointensive Gardening yields intensive soil enactment, subsistence cultivation would take, for 15 people; a total of 4.5 acres will be needed under cultivation with 3.8 acres devoted to field crops (grains, potatoes and starchy root crops) with 0.7 acres of garden vegetables. This is carefully picking your types of vegetables carefully for yield agents and area needed. Considering all the possible disasters possible in gardening, doubling this acreage would be a very good idea if you can.     

Labor
In the long run, the biointensive method will save you labor although, since it is not Square Foot gardening, not necessarily cultivation area. Heathier plants and greater yield are always desirable. I doubt that something like share cropping is sometimes a practical option. Food production will be your groups primary occupation the more land under cultivation is more weeding, watering and varmint security (2 and 4 lagged) that must be done. The peasant farmers of old Europe and China proved this but at a level of physical labor that we are no longer accustomed to.

Equipment
Few prepers will have or can really afford much in the way of agriculture machinery most things, for most people will be done by hand. It will be a full time occupation, wheel barrowing and shoveling in manure and compost, hoeing weeds mulching where you can), harvesting by hand (with sickle or machete) and thresh by hand.  Fuel is the next item that must be stored and stored properly. Producing alcohol from food is, at best, a break even proposition for the energy needed to produce it. Vegetable oil is better but still a lot of extra crop that you must grow and not eat.       

Seed
You should be learning what grows well in your area, not only vegetables, legumes and grains but small fruits and fruit trees as well. You need not only to store sufficient seed but have experience with producing your own from cultivars that work for you.
You need to know how much of your current crop to save for seed production and how long they stay viable.  This defiantly means open-pollinated preferably heirloom seeds to me. Not in the later stages, producing seeds with enough genetic diversity that they will not dwindle in future generations should be an excellent cottage industry to barter for needed items.


Fertilizer
I doubt that you will have enough land to produce much green manure after SHTF and using manure and carefully composted humanure (not all will have animals). He is right about compost being the way to improve the soil and build fertility.  A good quality chemical fertilizer is a good thing to stock pile even though it does not but temporarily improve soil fertility. You will need every advantage to achieve higher yields.
As to composting, I believe it necessary to return as much nutrients that were taken from the soil to grow the crops as possible. It is really not additional expense and additional labor but just part of the cost of “doing business”. Anything else is just mining the soil fertility. If you can, importing organic material from off site will help add fertility to where it is needed. The major drain on fertility is the food that humans eat and is not returned to the soil. It is extremely rich in minerals and micro nutrients. This is where the composting of humanure comes in. It must be done properly and I suggest you look it up and learn how it is safely done. One note, urine is almost sterile and rich in nitrogen, potassium and many minerals. Diluted 3 to with water, it can be applied directly to the roots of garden plants and an adult male produces enough to fertilize an acre. You are going to be faced with disposing of human “waste” anyway, use it as a resource!       

Knowledge
He is absolutely right here. It takes hands on doing to learn and years to do it. Start Now!

Security
I think every preper successful garden, farm or not will be a target and few of the raiders will mind using force. You will need security 24/7 for your retreat and crop fields. I think that you might be able collaborate with neighbors on security to some extent because it is mutually beneficial.

[pqtb]

Those in colder climates subject to frosts need to plan for early and late season frosts.  I know where I live there is a month difference in growing season from the top of the hill to the bottom.  There is the direction of slope of the land to take in consideration.   

[230gr]

Microclimates are very important especially in some parts of the country. This is something you need to find out for your location.