Hey all! Real Farmer Jeff here.
As many of you know, I garden in my small townhouse backyard, aiming to maximize yields in limited space. Additionally, I’m mainly interested in growing plants that either:
- Are more expensive to buy at the store
- Or taste significantly better than the store-bought variety
So how do I maximize my limited gardening space? And how can you do the same? Keep reading to find out! And be sure to follow me on Instagram to see everything I’m planting in my garden. Let’s get started!
Table of Contents:
How to Determine What to Plant in Your Garden
Determining what to plant in your garden can be intimidating and hard to figure out! I recommend using this one-of-a-kind ranking on Bonnie Plants’ website that ranks vegetables based on:
- Their yield per square foot
- The average value per pound
- The length of time in the garden
Pictured is a little snapshot of Bonnie Plants’ table. Click here for the full table. If you’re interested in growing a specific vegetable, check out the table to see how the vegetable is ranked!
Minimal Information on Highest-Yielding Plants
When researching what plants produce the highest yields per square foot, I was shocked at how little information I could find!
As a small-space gardener, knowing this is critical to me. And yet, there’s practically no research or information out there about it (at least that I could find)!
There is a decent amount of information about approximate yields per plant, but that is less useful to me. This is because a watermelon plant or squash plant will take up significantly more square feet than a tomato plant.
General Ranking of High-Yielding Crops
Even though information on plants’ yield per square foot is not readily available, there are a number of farming studies that either look at:
- Yield per acre
- Yield per 100 ft. row.
Although this information is a bit less digestible, it’s almost as useful to me personally, since I mostly care about general ranking of different crops on the same square footage.
Researching Maximum Yields in Gardening
Two of the main reasons why I wanted to look at multiple studies was because:
- Growing conditions can vary greatly between different climates
- Some studies focus on the average yield, while others focus on the maximum yield.
I am mostly interested on the maximum yield because in my little garden, I am confident that I can create ideal vertical growing conditions for most plants.
In contrast, most farmers, are not able to give as much attention to each individual plant, especially in mass farming scenarios.
For this reason, I researched the maximum tons per acre that was recorded for each plant type in ideal conditions.
Methodology: Researching High-Yielding Vegetables
To find the “final ranking” of each vegetable, I took the ranking of each individual study and then did an average for each vegetable type to come up with a standardized list.
Pictured is the table of data I created that displays the rankings.
The Results of My Research:
I was surprised to see that onions topped the list! However, there was a lot of variation in onion rankings between studies, which made me wonder how much climate affects onion yields.
I’m personally not interested in growing onions since they are inexpensive (and I have such limited space), but after seeing it place #1, maybe I should reconsider!
I was also surprised how highly cabbage ranks. I think these high yields per square foot are mostly because of how dense cabbages are!
I was not at all surprised to see how highly tomatoes ranked on almost every study! The data on tomato yield is likely understated since most farmers don’t have the time to do the same level of trellising as a home gardener. Farmers may also prefer determinate varieties for easier harvesting than indeterminate varieties, which produce a bigger crop over more time.
And fun fact, many tomatoes yield about double of the maximum norm when grown inside a greenhouse!
For that reason, I believe tomatoes have the highest yields when grown with ideal climate and trellising.
I was shocked to see that green beans and pea pods ranked so low on the list! I’ve always thought of those as high yielding vegetables, but maybe these figures aren’t taking succession planting into account (succession planting is a technique where crops are planted in intervals to ensure a continuous harvest throughout the growing season).
At the very least, beans and peas are one of the easiest vegetables to grow vertically, which is a huge factor for small space gardeners. It’s also very possible that, similarly to tomatoes, farmers don’t have the same level of trellising when growing beans and peas on a mass scale.
So… What Should I Plant in My Garden?
Putting all the yield data aside, the most important factor to take into consideration when choosing what to grow in your own garden is what you vegetables you like to eat the most!
If you like to eat a large variety of garden vegetables and have a small space, I recommend analyzing the data above. It can give you the biggest bang for your buck!
My hope is that this research will help you optimize your garden! Best of luck gardening this season!
Thanks for reading along, guys! If you enjoyed this, check out my other gardening blog posts:
Citations
- My Favorite Ranking: https://bonnieplants.com/blogs/garden-fundamentals/ranking-vegetables-for-efficiency
- Approximate Yields Per Plant: https://www.grit.com/farm-and-garden/vegetables/vegetable-yields-per-plant-zm0z24jfzols/
- University of Vermont Study: https://www.uvm.edu/vtvegandberry/factsheets/vegetableberryyields.pdf
- LSU Ag Center Study: https://www.lsuagcenter.com/topics/lawn_garden/home_gardening/vegetables/expected-vegetable-garden-yields
- North Carolina Study: https://cefs.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sfu-vegetable-planting-guide.pdf
- Utah State Study: https://extension.usu.edu/smallfarms/research/expected-vegetable-yields-in-utah
- Michigan State Study: https://www.canr.msu.edu/resources/yields_of_michigan_vegetable_crops_e1565
I never knew cabbage was such a high yielder but that makes sense! And onions were higher than I expected. Thanks for doing the research and citing your sources.
I bookmarked this for fall planting — great info for planning out rows.