Secret Farming Techniques!

This is a good one since a lot of folks may do poorly at catching game, and for the folks that do well with game there is always a need for a variety in the diet as well as vitamins and minerals that don't come from pills. The ability to farm even just a few items to augment what is found in the wild is like having a gold mine.

First and foremost of all: The simple potato.

They come in all types from Giants to very small gourmet varieties. Its also one of the higher producing and cheaper crops you can plant.

Buy about three times as many seed potatoes as you want for your yard location.

Buy enough for your yard that you will be giving away far more than you can imagine eating. Thats how many you need. Get several varieties that match your climate and are insect and disease resistant.

Plant a plot where you live and then take the rest with you on your bug out path. find little plots and use a bulb planter to cut plugs and drop them in with some good high composted soil that will rot away and give growing room. plant in several small groups in each location. You are trying to vary the amount of sun and water as well as provide for different surrounding brush so not all of the plants will be exposed to the same predators and pests. At your final perceived location plant the final third.

Read up on everything potato, and learn the cuts and how to divide them. When turning the ground a 3/8 mesh screen will allow you to pull all the new ones from the soil and start new patches.

If you read between the lines here you can have acres of crops scattered all over the country side and still live in an apartment.

think......do

Next up Garlic!

As an Irish gal, potatoes are close to my heart.
I'm looking forward to your tips for garlic; it's so very good for the heart.
Thankyou!

hi there,

good post, also courgettes/ zuchinnis are also very good as they grow pretty much any where thats mild ....and once they get going they produce loads.

this last few years since the climate has got hotter they are going mad !!
they even grow wild in the hedgerows in portugal.

thanks

snoopyuk

Couple this with a few well placed snare traps or some 110 conibear traps and you will probably be sitting well for about anything that comes up. These traps can be easily hidden and spaced out well. Of course they may be illegal but in a survival situation does legal even count?

respectfully

reluctantpawn

Somehow I got off the track from where I was headed with the topic so let me first recommend a knowledge site that lays out the basics.

www.gardenaction.co.uk...

Second if its not your land and you have no permission it is trespassing.

This is not traditional gardening by any means through. There are specific goals with what we want to consider here.

1. We are looking for plant and harvest crops. Not maintenance and care.

2. You are looking to do this in places that we can get permission as well as in wild uncared for areas. Not Parks or public lands.

3. The preference is in tubers and roots, for fire safety of the crop as well as safety from solar flaring and other things.

4. We would prefer to plant and harvest once per year, or in the case of things like carrots where we need seed some every other year.

5. We are aware there will be significantly high losses due to pests and lack of tending as well as the multiple locations instead of a single crop.

6. There is no intention of building rows or planting mounds. This is a direct insertion into the native environment for the highest degree of camouflage.


With those guidelines, you must also find locations with no human or animal trails or traffic. Most animals are found at 75 feet or further from a traveled road. Lead and chemical deposits in the soil are highest in ditches and within 12 feet from the edge of roads. With this in mind you will find locations that are well marked so they will not be forgotten and plant your secret food items in flat open spots and behind other brush so they are not easily detected.


Potatoes being the first mentioned a list of these tubers, bulbs and roots are.

Potatoes
Garlic
Onions
beets
carrots
radishes
parsnips

A few different varieties of each should be tried in the specific area to find the best suited. A few of each group will have a natural resistance to disease and predators. the seeds tubers and bulbs from these are the ones to replant. The plants will be much healthier than the others and easy to spot.

If things are very dry line the bottoms of your holes with a layer of plastic with about an inch of lip to hold water long after a rain. In dry barren regions someone will likely spot and take the crops.

For Garlic I recommend the elephant garlic from Gilroy California. Expensive to start with but the cloves being a very large size create new cluster that are very large as well. the large yeild will always help when there are higher losses.

At home you may hide rows of garlic,onions and leeks behind similar looking flower bulbs such as daffodils. Keep distance and avoid planting conflicts. Some things may actually blend with the landscape of the yard and draw no attention. Think this through well. If food get scarce you may want to harvest at night to avoid detection.

Plant fermentable crops in very large densities and numerous locations. Potatos and Beets for instance.

Take some lessons from pot farmers.

1. a large blackberry patch may be hollowed out in the center by laying a sturdy fence board from the outside edge, walking to the center, and hacking out a hole with a machete.
2. Small sacks of fertilized planting soil may be poked with drain holes and placed directly into cracks and hollows in stumps , etc where the outside soil is too poor to grow crops. Cover with grass and debris to camo.
3. Cheap large plastic or throw away flower pots may be pre planted and then deposited outside in covert locations.


The whole idea here is to have more than what is visible in your garden plot.

Moving on we do have the perfect outdoor crops. The squashes, melons and other vines. These all have some drawbacks. They produce large vine leaves and large colorful flowers to lure folks right in.

Think everything through carefully. Your crops must look like they belong or they will be harvested before you get a chance.

You may double or triple the amount of gardened items by moving and cultivating Wild plants such as wild strawberries, blueberries as well as many others.

This all has to be practiced well in advance to develop the skills. Its a lot better than eating cat tail roots......

Hey cattail roots are right tasty and somewhat sweet, try it before you knock it!

respectfully

reluctantpawn

reply to post by reluctantpawn


I jokingly planted some summer squash to see if they would grow just half assing it.


The things are the best tasting virus you can ever imagine. They grow like ivy, it's pretty incredible.

Originally posted by reluctantpawn
Hey cattail roots are right tasty and somewhat sweet, try it before you knock it!

respectfully

reluctantpawn

Yes from good soil and water not too bad. We have cedar swamps and they have "a flavor". From the right places you can find good tasting ones.

Originally posted by DeadFlagBlues
reply to post by reluctantpawn

 

I jokingly planted some summer squash to see if they would grow just half assing it.


The things are the best tasting virus you can ever imagine. They grow like ivy, it's pretty incredible.

True, all the things we cultivate where wild somewhere at one time. Many of them fare far better than would be imagined.

Thank you all for this very interesting read, this is a way to secure some of the the bug-out supplies I've never thought of.

I think Cheech and chong could teach a few pointers on this topic. Just take some of the same strategies and apply them to food crops.


The big problem I see is that several posters (the OP?) are mentioning stuff you plant and then leave alone till harvest.

The problems are two-fold: first, animals eating your crop. Second, humans stealing it before you notice.


It made me think of planting some hay grazer or coastal grass. Non-farmers would not see it as anything worthy of notice. but it would draw wildlife, especially cattle and deer. Instead of harvesting it for haybales, I would harvest the animals (including rabbit) that came to feast on it.

sorghum is another. In the US, it is seen as an animal feed crop. But it is completely edible in its raw state. we used to just grap a handful of white sorghum berries from the bin of the harvester instead of stopping for lunch. I know people who eat it like breakfast cereal, topped with honey and covered in milk. It will also draw deer. It frequently grows volunteer (wild) in ditches adjacent to last year's fields.

In most places its illegal to "bait" wild game. But there's a fine line, and it is completely legal to plant fields so that sorghum, sunflower, and corn come together by a line of flowing water, and build a stand at the interseciton of the three fields.

Nut trees are another option in some areas. So are berry-filled bushes. I have seen hikers cussing "thornbushes" without even noting the ripe raspberries hanging everywhere. My favorite fishing area in NM is by a hillside of wild strawberry, which we've eaten when there were no trout biting.

what about the roofs of abandoned buildings? Or homes with high fences around the back yard?

.

reply to post by dr_strangecraft


My brother in law sowed oats in his back 40 within eyeshot of the house. The deer can't resist it. He just sat on his back porch with a small scope and picked off whatever he wanted. They also had a constant source of water, 80 acres for planting, horses and cattle, but they sold it. They think I'm crazy.

I find planting stuff around for emergency situations a good idea, but having a spot you can defend and plant in volume is priority #1 IMO.

edit for whatever

[edit on 23-12-2007 by resistor]

yes baiting is illegal but sometimes a forage crop gets accidentally sown on property in strange places. It sometimes becomes necessary to eliminate those pesky deer that happen to wander onto that property and destroy that crop. If they happen to be good to eat so much the better. Hey illiminis do you happen to have any good swamp otter recipes?

respectfully

reluctantpawn

My problem here in North Carolina is our soil is no good its all rocks, so I have to resort to buying my food. I grew up in Maine where you could dig a hole any place and any type of crop would grow but here its so hard to get anything to grow. I however am getting more and more into wanting to plant my own vegetables and this looks like it may work.

Hilda

gardening is great but for easy food production I strongly urge poeple to consider planting their food forests today.

permaculture

Permaculture and Food Forests

permaculture and food forests

Originally posted by dr_strangecraft
I think Cheech and chong could teach a few pointers on this topic. Just take some of the same strategies and apply them to food crops.


The big problem I see is that several posters (the OP?) are mentioning stuff you plant and then leave alone till harvest.

The problems are two-fold: first, animals eating your crop. Second, humans stealing it before you notice.


It made me think of planting some hay grazer or coastal grass. Non-farmers would not see it as anything worthy of notice. but it would draw wildlife, especially cattle and deer. Instead of harvesting it for haybales, I would harvest the animals (including rabbit) that came to feast on it.

sorghum is another. In the US, it is seen as an animal feed crop. But it is completely edible in its raw state. we used to just grap a handful of white sorghum berries from the bin of the harvester instead of stopping for lunch. I know people who eat it like breakfast cereal, topped with honey and covered in milk. It will also draw deer. It frequently grows volunteer (wild) in ditches adjacent to last year's fields.

In most places its illegal to "bait" wild game. But there's a fine line, and it is completely legal to plant fields so that sorghum, sunflower, and corn come together by a line of flowing water, and build a stand at the interseciton of the three fields.

Nut trees are another option in some areas. So are berry-filled bushes. I have seen hikers cussing "thornbushes" without even noting the ripe raspberries hanging everywhere. My favorite fishing area in NM is by a hillside of wild strawberry, which we've eaten when there were no trout biting.

what about the roofs of abandoned buildings? Or homes with high fences around the back yard?

.

Exactly. There are several outlets that sell seed mix to sow for the feed of wild animals. They concentrate on mixes for horn development, etc but they are all mixes to promote healthy game animals. There are also mineral blocks for the same sort of purpose.

This is a link to many books on the subjects you like. Please check it out, share with your friends. It is updated regularly!

www.4shared.com...

Namasté

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