Friday 1 August 2014

Latest from UK Allotment Microfarm

So CAN microfarms feed the world? The 2014 potato crop in my allotment in Gloucesterhsire, UK, suggests that they can! Six square metres of King Edward potatoes produced 38 kg, equivalent to a yield of 6.3 kg per square metre - or 63 tonnes a hectare - and compared with 39 kg from a similar planting in 2013. They were planted 9th April, lifted 23rd July so giving them 105 days in the ground. Compare this with the Queenstown, S Africa, figures: 5 kg and 4.0 months (say 120 days) in the ground. Both crops were irrigated but neither received either fertilizer or pesticide. Onions: 13.5 kg from 3 square metres, or 4.5 kg per square metre (45 tonnes a hectare), grown from sets and in the ground for 105 days (Queenstown average, from seedlings, is 9 kg per square metre and 6.7 months say 204 days - twice as long.)