Planning to can or how much to plant?

Dace

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So this may be a hard question....I want to can. Pickles, Salsa, Tomato Sauce, Beans...you name it, I want to learn how to can it.

So this is my first real garden in many years. I have a small 100 sq foot raised bed and then lots of other things (peppers, herbs, tomatoes, melons, lettuce) tucked in beds here and there.

What I want to know is how many peppers do I need to plant if I want to jar some? All of my toms are not ripening quickly AT ALL, so I get enough to make a single batch of salsa which we eat in a day or 3. How many cuke plants does one need to make a years worth of pickles?

I began this adventure with great plans for summer canning and realize that I have a lot to learn! There must be a rule of thumb as to how much to plant!
 

Grow 4 Food

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I go with the theory that is easier to give it away than it is to wish that you had more. Therefore I plant way to much and always have what I need unless something major goes wrong (which happens). It will take a few years and you can fine tune what you really need compared to what you really want. Example being I started with 25 tomatoe plants and 8 years later I only grow 12 and still get all the tomatoes I want, just don't have as much to give away.

Also keep in mind that a plant the is taken care of will produce about twice as much as one that isn't (also a lesson learned). Plant what you can manage otherwise you are probably wasting your time.

Probably not much help, but it is a thought.
 

averytds

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I completely agree with Grow 4 Food. I rarely have probs finding people to give away to. Between all the veggies and hopefully eggs soon I'm not anticipating chicken/neighbor problems.

DH always way overplants. Some things some years just don't do well no matter how many you plant or what you do for them.

Usually by this time I'm swimming in tomatoes and have plenty of peppers and onions for salsa and such. Stuffed peppers is on the weekly menu. Not this year. Onions and Peppers are tiny and tomatoes slow to ripen. I'm honestly enjoying the slower pace.

I know somewhere there is a table/chart you can customize for planting/canning what and how much/person. Pg 14 here has a canning freezing chart/person. http://www.foodsaving.com/G1PrinciplesOfHomeCanning.pdf Can't find the other but I know I've seen one.

But like Grow 4 Food said there are a lot of variables.
 

Dace

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Grow 4 Food said:
I go with the theory that is easier to give it away than it is to wish that you had more. Therefore I plant way to much and always have what I need unless something major goes wrong (which happens). It will take a few years and you can fine tune what you really need compared to what you really want. Example being I started with 25 tomatoe plants and 8 years later I only grow 12 and still get all the tomatoes I want, just don't have as much to give away.

Also keep in mind that a plant the is taken care of will produce about twice as much as one that isn't (also a lesson learned). Plant what you can manage otherwise you are probably wasting your time.

Probably not much help, but it is a thought.
All thoughts and opinions are helpful...as I said this is new and I know there is a learning curve!
I currently have 21 tomato plants, many different varieties and stages of development. Yes, I always have a colorful bowl of Sungold cherries & yellow teardrops but I am not getting many of the larger variety...so nothing to can, yet.
 

Dace

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averytds said:
I completely agree with Grow 4 Food. I rarely have probs finding people to give away to. Between all the veggies and hopefully eggs soon I'm not anticipating chicken/neighbor problems.

DH always way overplants. Some things some years just don't do well no matter how many you plant or what you do for them.

Usually by this time I'm swimming in tomatoes and have plenty of peppers and onions for salsa and such. Stuffed peppers is on the weekly menu. Not this year. Onions and Peppers are tiny and tomatoes slow to ripen. I'm honestly enjoying the slower pace.

I know somewhere there is a table/chart you can customize for planting/canning what and how much/person. Pg 14 here has a canning freezing chart/person. http://www.foodsaving.com/G1PrinciplesOfHomeCanning.pdf Can't find the other but I know I've seen one.

But like Grow 4 Food said there are a lot of variables.
Thanks for the input. I guess this is just a learn as you go program :)
 

Grow 4 Food

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As someone on here told me not to long ago "patients grasshopper!" :D
 

patandchickens

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Cucumbers are the most difficult, as they don't hold well at *all*. Pretty much you need to either plant vast amounts, or consider the farmer's market as a backup plan (or even just make that the source for your pickling cukes, period). Most everything else either holds well enough to get a reasonable size batch's worth together, or you can freeze it til enough accumulates.

As far as way overplanting goes, it depends how much energy/time/water you have available. A very large garden that gets out of control (weeds, pests, drought) because you turned out not to have time for it is not as good a deal, production-wise, as a more modest garden that you definitely can keep up with.

If you are in a canning mood and have insufficient produce of your own at the moment, there's always farmers market stuff :)

Pat
 

Dace

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patandchickens said:
Cucumbers are the most difficult, as they don't hold well at *all*. Pretty much you need to either plant vast amounts, or consider the farmer's market as a backup plan (or even just make that the source for your pickling cukes, period). Most everything else either holds well enough to get a reasonable size batch's worth together, or you can freeze it til enough accumulates.

As far as way overplanting goes, it depends how much energy/time/water you have available. A very large garden that gets out of control (weeds, pests, drought) because you turned out not to have time for it is not as good a deal, production-wise, as a more modest garden that you definitely can keep up with.

If you are in a canning mood and have insufficient produce of your own at the moment, there's always farmers market stuff :)

Pat
Well that is working for me so far so I guess I will stick with it. I do have a pretty nice farmers market that keeps me in as much produce as I want....thanks for the advice :)
 

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