How much to plant per person for a years worth of food or how many plants per person… tis a much-asked question when one is trying to harvest and preserve enough food to take their family through an entire year without buying it from the store.
As we shared in Episode #81 with my father and 17 Self-Sufficiency Tips from the Great Depression and 1940s almost all of the food they ate was what they grew and put up themselves, knowing how to grow all your own food was crucial to survival.
These essential homestead skills used to be a way of life, planting and putting up your own food to see you through. It was how the pioneers did it.
Most of us arent relying completely on what we plant and preserve ourselves, were still supplementing with the grocery store. But what if you did have to survive on what you planted and preserved? How much money would it free up for you and your family?
Listen to this post (just push play below) and all our episodes of thePioneering Today Podcast while youre on the go, scrubbing the house, cooking up dinner (can I get an invite?), or mucking out stalls! I post new episodes Friday mornings. You can subscribe via RSS and receive every episode for free. Or subscribe via Itunes
Hey there fellow gardeners! I’ve been growing potatoes for over 10 years now, and lemme tell you – figuring out exactly how many potatoes to plant can be tricky business. But don’t worry I’m gonna break it down real simple for ya in this guide.
Quick Answer
For a family of 4, plant about 40 potato plants (15-20 plants per person) for a year’s worth of potatoes. This typically yields around 125 pounds of potatoes when grown in good conditions
How Many Potatoes Will One Plant Give You?
Under ideal conditions here’s what you can expect
- 3-8 full-sized potatoes per plant
- A few baby potatoes as bonus
- About 3-5 pounds of potatoes per plant
- Total yield varies by variety and growing conditions
Calculating How Many Seed Potatoes You Need
By Row Length
Here’s a super handy guide I use for planning:
- 5-8 row feet: 1 pound of seed potatoes
- 10-15 row feet: 2 pounds
- 20-25 row feet: 3-4 pounds
- 50 row feet: 8-10 pounds
- 100 row feet: 15-20 pounds
By Planting Method
The amount you’ll need changes based on how you cut your seed potatoes:
| Method | Spacing | Seed Amount Needed |
|---|---|---|
| Whole tubers | 1 foot apart | Most seeds |
| Halved tubers | 2 feet apart | Half as many |
| Quartered tubers | 4 feet apart | One-fourth as much |
| Cubed pieces | 6 inches apart | Least amount |
Potato Varieties and Their Yields
High-Yield Varieties (8+ potatoes per plant)
- Kennebec
- Red Pontiac
- Yukon Gold
- Purple Majesty
Medium-Yield Varieties (5-8 potatoes per plant)
- Red Norland
- Viking
- French Fingerling
Low-Yield Varieties (3-5 potatoes per plant)
- Yukon Gem
- Caribe
Tips for Maximum Potato Harvest
-
Plant at the Right Time
- About 2 weeks after last frost
- When soil temperature reaches 45°F
- Avoid wet spring soil
-
Proper Growing Conditions
- Plant 12-14 inches apart
- Leave 3 feet between rows
- Plant 4-6 inches deep
- Use loose, well-draining soil
-
Care During Growing Season
- Hill soil around plants regularly
- Water 1-2 inches weekly
- Use 5-10-10 fertilizer
- Monitor for pests
- Ensure 6-8 hours of sunlight daily
My Pro Tips for Success
-
Always add 10-20% more seed potatoes than ya think you’ll need – trust me, some won’t make it!
-
For continuous harvest:
- Plant different varieties
- Stagger plantings every 2-3 weeks
- Mix early and late-season types
-
Storage Planning:
- Cure potatoes for 2 weeks before storing
- Plan extra if you want some for seed next year
- Account for storage losses
Common Mistakes to Avoid
-
Using grocery store potatoes as seed
- They often have sprout inhibitors
- May carry diseases
- Lower yield potential
-
Improper spacing
- Crowded plants = smaller potatoes
- Too far apart = wasted space
-
Inconsistent watering
- Can cause splitting
- Reduces overall yield
- Makes weird-shaped taters
My Final Thoughts
Growing potatoes ain’t rocket science, but it does take some planning. Start with these guidelines and adjust based on your family’s potato consumption and garden space. Remember, it’s better to plant a bit extra than not enough – you can always share with neighbors or store them for later!
Would ya like to know more about specific potato varieties or growing techniques? Drop me a comment below! And don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter for more gardening tips and tricks!
Last updated: January 2025
What size garden to feed a family of 4 for a year?
Our main annual vegetable garden space is a 20 x 30-foot rectangular bed. We have a 10 x 20-foot high tunnel where I grow all of our tomato plants.
This past year we added another 20 x 20-foot garden bed and three 3×20-foot rows for corn.
Your yield per plant can vary by type and growing season, but this is our average and typical yield.
Beans. Ya probably guessed this is one of my favorites. Green beans go well all by themselves as your vegetable for a meal, or theyll stretch a casserole or stew. One of our favorite foods is a pot of green beans simmered with a bit of fatback (aka bacon) thrown in.
Our strain of green bean is a pole bean and when allowed to mature on the vine, also doubles as a dried or shell bean. A lot of times these are also referred to as shelly beans.
Dried beans are awesome possum (confession, Ive never eaten possum, just in case there was any confusion there, but when I get excited about something I tend to rhyme) because theyre packed with protein and calories. This is one of the few times where well get excited about food having a lot of calories.
When youre truly living off of what you can grow, especially if its not livestock (this allows you to render down a fat source) it can be hard to get a substantial amount of calories from just vegetables and fruit. A dried bean gives you both.
In my experience, a pole bean gives you a much larger harvest for the amount of space than a bush bean. With our pole beans, I plant approximately a total of 30 plants (3 bean plants on each 6-foot pole with 3 poles to a teepee, so 9 plants for each teepee) and from that I can about 50 to 60 jars of green beans, eat them fresh through the season, and save for both seed and as a dry bean over 200 beans.
How much do you need to grow per person for a year?
aka, how much to plant per person.
There are five vegetable crops that we currently grow enough of that I dont purchase from the store, as in ever.
Watch This BEFORE You Plant Potatoes
FAQ
How many potatoes can a plant grow?
I hope you try out the tips in this guide to increase your potato yield, so you can cultivate even more spuds in the same growing space, which is a delightful bonus! How many potatoes a plant can produce averages between 3 to 8 potatoes per plant in ideal growing conditions. Learn more on the number of potatoes you can grow.
How many seed potatoes are needed to produce a good crop?
The number of seed potatoes needed to produce a good crop is based on the amount of space each plant needs at maturity, as well as the growing conditions, since potatoes need different spacing depending on whether they are grown in a container or in the garden.
How many seed potatoes per row?
There will be 30 potato plants per row, meaning you will have 3*30 = 90 plants. You will need about 11.25 pounds of seed potatoes for 90 plants. Each plant will come from 1 piece of seed potato, which will be about 2 ounces. This means you will need 90*2 = 180 ounces of seed potatoes (or 180/16 ~ 11.25 pounds of seed potatoes).
How many potatoes are in a row?
Let’s say that you are planting 3 rows of potatoes in your garden. There will be 30 potato plants per row, meaning you will have 3*30 = 90 plants. You will need about 11.25 pounds of seed potatoes for 90 plants. Each plant will come from 1 piece of seed potato, which will be about 2 ounces.
How many potatoes do you need to plant a row?
It’s time to count how many potatoes you need to plant per foot, and how many potatoes you can expect to get; both in numbers and pounds. Assume you have a 25 foot row; in this case, you’ll need approximately 5 pounds of seed potatoes. If each seed potato gives you, let’s say, 15 pounds of potatoes, you’ll get 75 pounds of potatoes per row.
How many meals can a potato plant eat?
Since you will get between one and two meals worth of potatoes per plant, you can get a rough idea of how many meals you can have by multiplying the number of plants by 1.5. So if you plant 40 plants, you can expect to get potatoes for around 60 meals.