Discuss your tips, tricks and experiences growing and selling vegetables, fruits, flowers, plants and herbs.
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#1 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Richmond, TX
Posts: 327
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I have a chance to farm about three acres a guy has. It is cleared, has water, and has been planted before. Its like 30 miles from me so I cant be there all the time.
I was thinking of something to plant that might work in a situation like that. Maybe cowpeas or corn, cantalope. Any suggestions? |
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#2 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Oklahoma
Posts: 4,488
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If you can spend the time to paper and mulch it properly to start with, peppers are almost care free. Especially hot peppers. Few fatal pests or blights. Few insect pests. Even very few animals like the real hot ones. They handle heat about as good as anything, and many peppers are usable either green or red/yellow etc..., and typically keep on the plants well. That's what I would grow. 3 acres is a lot of work to get started properly, but after that, just pick em.
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Scott AKA The Redbaron "Permaculture is a philosophy of working with, rather than against nature; of protracted & thoughtful observation rather than protracted & thoughtless labour; & of looking at plants & animals in all their functions, rather than treating any area as a single-product system." Bill Mollison co-founder of permaculture |
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#3 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: California Central Valley
Posts: 2,542
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Do jerusalem artichokes grow there? Here, they grow like weeds and can be harvested in the winter whenever it's convenient. They keep better in the ground. People at the community garden give away bagsful, but I didn't find a way to prepare them that I liked in previous years. This year I cooked them with onions, for a sort of thick potato-onion soup, and loved them. Still, it's an acquired taste.
Fairly carefree crops for me have been garlic, potatoes, winter squash, malabar squash, popcorn, herbs. Shell beans work for me if they mature before the fall rains come and if I can pick mature pods before they get moldy. I've been reading about different varieties of great-tasting corn for flour, polenta, and parched corn in Carol Deppe's book The Resilient Gardener. Added -- I just noticed it's the market gardening forum! So I guess it'd have to be crops that people in your area are familiar with. Perennial herbs are easy to grow, but for a market you'd have to pick them day-of or day-before. Maybe some flowers? I don't know what grows well there. Last edited by habitat_gardener; October 6, 2012 at 06:51 PM. |
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#4 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Illinois, zone 6
Posts: 8,407
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The deer are a huge problem in my area. They eat everything that isn't fenced in or guarded with dogs.
What's your irrigation plan? Is it city water? You can hook up city water to drip with a timer, but the risk of not being there is not seeing a leak or malfunction until you've run up a big bill. |
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#5 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Den of Drunken Fools
Posts: 38,539
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What do you plan on doing with the crops? Worth |
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#6 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Alabama 7.5 or 8 depends on who you ask
Posts: 727
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I would think Okra would not need much tending.
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#7 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Den of Drunken Fools
Posts: 38,539
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When a large patch of okra starts producing it needs picked constantly, trust me.
![]() Melons, corn, winter squash, peppers, root crops and dried beans would be my choice. Maybe a nice blue or red corn you could make cornmeal and corn flour from. ![]() Worth |
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#8 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: 2 miles south of Yoknapatawpha Zone 7b
Posts: 662
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What is the ground suitable for and what do you have a market for.
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#9 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Illinois, zone 6
Posts: 8,407
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Yeah, the deer don't eat the okra, but it does require daily picking. And it is an itchy job.
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#10 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: cincinnatus, new york
Posts: 341
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i cant think of many cropa that font require regular weeding... maybe winter squash and pumpkins
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#11 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Den of Drunken Fools
Posts: 38,539
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How about kudzu.
![]() Worth |
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#12 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Holbrook, Az zone 5
Posts: 157
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Garlic and its planting time lol very low maintenance
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“The yield of a crop is LIMITED by the deficiency of any one element even though all of the other necessary elements are present in adequate amounts”. J. Von Liebig's law of the minimum. ![]() |
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#13 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: SW Ohio
Posts: 1,818
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If I was going to grow a crop for market that was low maintenance and pretty much pest free and liked poor ground and didn't care too much about regular watering........I think I'd look at Lavender. I see you live in Texas so I'm not sure if that would work for you or not.
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Barbee |
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#14 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Richmond, TX
Posts: 327
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Thanks for the help guys.
In reply to some of the questions, it is well water, and fence. Some fence is broken through in spots. Deer and hogs may or may not be a problem. Artichokes wont work here. There is a kid that goes by a few times a week I can pay part time to water and so on, he is in ag in school and that would be a fun deal for him. As for what sells, after tomatoes, squash, cukes, melons, corn, and southern peas do well. For whatever reason, peppers not so much. |
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#15 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: 2 miles south of Yoknapatawpha Zone 7b
Posts: 662
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Based on this past season, I'd plant snap beans. They were selling for $40 a bushel here and selling well at that price. (If you have labor to pick them.)
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