The Survival Food Pyramid

This is a great concept that lays it all out so clearly

The top of the pyramid is for stocking the smallest amount of food for the shortest amount of time. The idea being that someone who is completely new to prepping can start with a cheap and easy goal and build (downward) from there.

Immediate
If you are new to prepping, or you are experienced but find your supplies jump all over the map, start by stocking enough food and supplies for a 3 Day Emergency.

Extended
The extended food preps simply build on the immediate preps. On further trips to the store, add a few food items to your 3 day cache each time and you will soon have enough to survive for several weeks. Perhaps choose a dedicated closet or other area to stock your preps.

Long Term

Long term food preps mean there has been some type of major disaster and there won’t be any trips to the store for months.. This step moves on from basic stocking, to self sustaining.

Perpetual

The perpetual food supply is for total collapse from which there is no coming back or voluntary off grid living indefinitely.

Its pretty simple and I will admit that I've almost got up through the Extended portion covered. The rest is pretty serious and will take great effort to establish.
survivalcache.com...

reply to post by jibeho


I feel the a long term to perpetual term on the survival pyramid is close at hand. We are looking at as close to two weeks from now up to two years. but make no mistake, a world collapse is near.


I have the long term covered like you but our family is getting ready for the perpetual. we just need more time

Have everything covered on the pyramid. Good source info for folks to think things through. Lots of these sorts of questions lately.

I have the outdoor part down. Thats takes years to get it right and get your soil fully set up and working right. Knowledge of rotation etc.

Currently I have not bought any fresh produce since February. I grow all my produce indoors in trays, using a hybrid soil and hydro culture which is working out really well. everything all together uses about 1.75 gal of water per day which is about the least i can go for what I get. I have the racks in front of southern windows and only supplement the daylight in the eves with T5 sets.

I would like to find nutrients which have long term shelf life for deep water culture, which in my case would be shallow water lol.

The next step now is building led light boards to use a single 1 watt 60 degree bulb over each plant cup and at 4" they will spread across the whole tray just fine. Trays are 22 cups so 22 watts per tray. And then solar and deep cycles to cover the portion of winter when supplemental light is needed.

Its that foundation on the pyramid thats going to determine the ones who make it and do well and the ones who make it struggling.

We are also preparing for perpetual, but there is so much to learn. I started planting, but boy, you need to plant a lot if you have to grow all your own food.
And it looks so easy, but even after hard work, the outcome is sometimes disappointing.
Like the pumpkins! Lots of flowers, very large, but no pumpkin.
And the water!!! They say you need a gallon a day, with a large family where do I put all the bottles?

But getting there, maybe in a year or so we will have covered the basics

reply to post by Shadowalker


Maybe aquaponics will do the job.

Fish in a tank, a pump to circulate the water, the plants get the nutrients and the fish get clean water.

www.aquaponics.net.au...

www.backyardaquaponics.com...

Originally posted by notsosunny
We are also preparing for perpetual, but there is so much to learn. I started planting, but boy, you need to plant a lot if you have to grow all your own food.
And it looks so easy, but even after hard work, the outcome is sometimes disappointing.
Like the pumpkins! Lots of flowers, very large, but no pumpkin.
And the water!!! They say you need a gallon a day, with a large family where do I put all the bottles?

But getting there, maybe in a year or so we will have covered the basics

for those of us in the long term to perpetual mode, we have already made the move to or have means to get to our retreats that have natural year round rivers/streams/lakes. Its un realestic to store 3 months of water at home. It can be done with water colection and traps but what happens when you get no rain?

Spam, Mres, and beer in my survival food pyramid!!!

Good info Mr op.

Originally posted by Shadowalker
I would like to find nutrients which have long term shelf life for deep water culture, which in my case would be shallow water lol.

The next step now is building led light boards to use a single 1 watt 60 degree bulb over each plant cup and at 4" they will spread across the whole tray just fine. Trays are 22 cups so 22 watts per tray. And then solar and deep cycles to cover the portion of winter when supplemental light is needed.

Its that foundation on the pyramid thats going to determine the ones who make it and do well and the ones who make it struggling.

Check out General HydroDynamics beand of nutrients: "Ionics".
They are PH buffered, and do not chelate.
They work great for any DWC application.
LED lights do not have the power to penetrate any decent canopy.
The inverse square law dictates they just dont cut it for plants over a few inches tall.
( check user reviews of LEDs that are NOT on any website associated with selling them)

technology just hasn't advanced enough to bring LEDs to the forefront of indoor gardening.
They are the future, but they arent the NOW.

Im told Solar panels can be home built at a fraction of the cost of conventional panels, cutting corners with deep cycle marine gel batteries instead of the expensive power cells used in commercial solar setups, but Im not current on solar panel construction, so I dunno.

reply to post by notsosunny



A friend of mine has tried that, and failed. He is on his fourth batch of fish and snails. Tried talapia twice, catfish the first time and now he has settle on the pretty industrial coy. I asked him what he thought about eating them and he said as slow as they are growing that its a holiday thing.

For me I only need to produce for one. I have spare equipment if a couple people show up to increase things. Right now im tipping some on the side of a slight bit of waste.also spend very little time with it. just in harvest mostly.

reply to post by BadNinja68


Here in Holland they did it, with great results.
The site is in dutch, but the vid shows enough.

www.plantlab.nl...

reply to post by BadNinja68


The LEDs are only to supplement the short days and trick them into thinking its not winter. Summer I didnt even run the T5s at all.

My entire canopy for 4 types of lettuce, spinach and the lemon basil and various herbs im drying is only 4" tall. about 5 before I cut. The plants are dwarfed in 2.5 inch mini pots full of heavily amended organic soil, with the root mass about 6" long in the gutters underneath. They gutters are passive/evaporative to they get 2 days under worm/guanno tea and then a day dry.

In this case LED will work fine. But I know what your saying, about having to have them cropped down, with larger plants and LED. Thats too much work. Tried it with 6 kinds of peppers and larger tomatos and if you dont cut half your branches your spinning your wheels. Right now I pull a tray and cut a couple salads to last two days and pick tomatos enough to go with it. The third day i cut and feed tea or water. The rest of the herbs, tomatos etc get dried.

Here is a pic from when they were babies. They are big and beefy now. The guy at the plant store who sold me the trays said you know you cant do that.....now when i come in he says when are you going to admit that didnt work.