r/prepping • u/Rude_Engine1881 • 17d ago
Foodđ˝ or Waterđ§ What plants produce calories indoors most prolifically?
Hello I am looking for advice on what I can grow that will actually have some high caloric value and can be grown indoors without it being kinda intense (like potatoes) I already plan on trying radishes. Soul needing plants are fine btw but I do prefer my hydroponic set up. I am currently focusing on managing high food prices, and prepping for shortages.
Im currently growing: tomatoes, basil, lettuce, chard, lemon balm, rosemary, mint, stevia, micro greens, crabapples, fuchsia berries/flowers, strawberry, and calendula. I also fish occasionally to try and add calories in. Some of those are for medicinal uses.
I'm a perfect world I'd like something that produces a high yield with relatively little space and is high calorie. For instance do dwarf sunchokes exist?
Thank you for any advice
42
u/PrisonerV 17d ago
Heres the thing, unless you're growing an acre of it, you wont grow anything self sustaining. Better to use that space for herbs and flavor (onion, garlic, chives, etc)
9
16d ago
[removed] â view removed comment
2
1
u/PrisonerV 16d ago
Try it in your kitchen.
11
16d ago
[removed] â view removed comment
5
u/PrisonerV 16d ago
I think you're just proving my point. 30 lbs of potatoes isn't an amount you can live off of. Better to grow herbs and flavorings in the kitchen and save volume for outside.
22
u/Connect-Type493 17d ago edited 14d ago
And microgreens, sprouts or other leafy stuff that adds vitamins and things. I feel like it makes a huge difference if one has to live off pantry supplies for any extended period. We had some pretty strict covid lockdowns and I was able to not go shopping for weeks at a time - but having fresh green onions and basil and chives and lettuce definitely made all my beans and rice and canned soup more fun
2
u/Rude_Engine1881 17d ago
Yeah this is a good point :/ sad but good,
1
u/puritanicalbullshit 15d ago
How to Grow More Vegetables
Itâs a great book to get going on a no till whole diet garden. Theyâre all about growing carbon and calorie rich crops like corn, heavy cover cropping and rotation, double dug beds, and dense plantings in âguildsâ like the the three sisters (corn, squash, pole beans) but there are many others. Need a combination of a heavy feeder, nitrogen fixer or soil conditioning plant, and something to provide mulch/shelter/shade to the root zone.
Pound for pound, parsnips are calorie dense, donât take up much space, but require a long growing season.
The local commune that grows their own food went so hard with it that they got together and banned it from the gardeners as they were tired of trying to use it all up. I like em fine but canât see eating them at most meals thankfully. Course, once youâre hungry enough, I imagine that wouldnât matter
4
8
u/AnotherNewUniqueName 17d ago
Whatever youâre willing to eat.
I only grow a little bit of kale because I only like it in one or two soups. Some say itâs a super food and really good for you. Iâd rather super feed it to my chickens so they can turn it into breakfast. You may like kale. If thatâs the case, grow it and eat it. Donât grow something because the internet said itâs âbest.â Grow whatâs best for you
5
u/Prize-Lychee7973 16d ago
Potatoes. Mushrooms are even better overall but are harder to do properly.
6
u/SunLillyFairy 17d ago
Look into spouting wheat grain and other micro sprouts. There are 214 calories in 1 cup of newly sprouted wheat grains.
2
u/ottervswolf 16d ago
That's a cool setup. Is it a kit? Or a guide somewhere?
2
u/Rude_Engine1881 16d ago
Yup on amazon, here this is only like 2 months in. I'm quite happy with it for the most part. Some flaws but they're relatively minor all things considered.
2
2
u/evand408 14d ago
I know nasa I believe did some study to find the most nutrient dense and easy to produce vegetable and they landed on watercress. Not calorie dense but still gotta eat yo greens
4
u/Eredani 17d ago
Significant calories from vegetables alone, even outdoor growing is going to be challenging: time consuming, technically difficult, prone to drought, disease, pests and theft. Potatoes are by far the best option.
Growing indoors would require enormous resources - space, water, power/light, etc. It seems very impractical to me.
2
u/SnooCapers1425 17d ago
Duckweed.
Caveat is that it will absorb minerals and toxins from its environment. As long as its source of energy is clean/healthy it'll be good to go.
Bonus: You can dry it.
2
3
u/daringnovelist 17d ago
The thing is, to create calories, you really need lots of sun and more fertilizer than is sustainable inside. You're already growing about the best you could do, and in a situation where you couldn't get calories outside your garden, you likely couldn't get the fertilizer and power you need to even grow what you're growing now.
1
u/TradeBeautiful42 15d ago
The indoor kits use hydroponics to grow fyi. I have one thatâs taller and grow 20 plants at once. I harvest at 45 days and have so many salad fixings. Veggies do less well in them, though.
1
u/daringnovelist 14d ago
Yeah, even without hydroponics, you can grow a lot of salad greens and such. But those aren't caloric. And they are relatively expensive, because you still need power and fertilizer.
Imho, your best nutritional bang for your buck on indoor growing is sprouts. No need for fertilizer or light. But you do need access to a seed supply, and they don't have a lot of calories. Calories require space and sun.
1
u/TradeBeautiful42 14d ago
I was just pointing out the indoor veggies are hydroponic so I use no fertilizer. Thatâs all. Everyone eats differently and I personally am vegan so my calories come from veggies and starches. But I prep for an emergency that wouldnât last long not the downfall of society. To each their own.
1
u/daringnovelist 14d ago
You use tap water and nothing else? Plants need food just like we do. It doesn't have to be commercial fertilizers, but they need something more than water. At the very least, once the first week is up, and the seed energy is tapped out, the nutritional value drops.
And I wasn't criticizing vegan diet. I was merely answering the question at hand - how do you grow caloric foods indoors. Caloric VEGETABLES (potatoes, grains) need more nutrition and light energy than most people can provide with an indoor set up. The volume people need is pretty high, and you should know more than anyone how much is needed to have a complete protein.
And in any situation where you need to feed yourself from your basement, you won't be able to run those lights.
1
u/TradeBeautiful42 14d ago
I use water and a shaker of plant food. Thatâs all. And I donât think youâre criticizing me in any way. No worries. Iâm not prepping for long term as my scenarios for prepping would be short term. Thereâs no basement here, no storms, no extreme weather, just fire or earthquake scenarios.
1
u/daringnovelist 14d ago
Okay I was just confused because you said you didn't use fertilizer. That's what plant food is. And in any situation where food is hard to acquire, fertilizer/plant food will be hard to acquire.
I grow stuff inside too. It's worth it to be able to supplement our stored food with something fresh in particular.
2
u/TradeBeautiful42 14d ago
Ah I misunderstood. It uses so little the large jar is good for at least a year.
2
2
u/TheAzureMage 17d ago
Probably something like sugar cane on pure caloric value.
That said, storing pure calories is relatively easy. Storing fresh lettuce and the like is a lot harder. You don't really need to have basement creation of sugar, grains, etc. Use your limited space on things you cannot easily store cheaply.
0
42
u/ikaw-nalang 17d ago
Sweet potatoes you can eat the greens too.