Fact sheet
How Much to Plant Per Person
Plant for the plate, then plant again for the pantry.
Why it matters
Beginners usually plant too much of one thing and not enough of what they actually eat. Texas A&M AgriLife's planning guide gives approximate row feet or plants per person for eating fresh and for preserving. Multiply by the number of people in your house and you have a real planting plan.
Step by step
- List what your family actually eats Rank your favorite vegetables and plan around the top of the list.
- Multiply by your household Take the per-person number from the table and multiply by the number of people you feed.
- Decide fresh or fresh plus preserve Use the 'fresh' column if you just want to eat from the garden; add the 'preserve' column if you plan to can or freeze.
- Convert row feet to beds A 4-foot-wide bed holds several short rows across, so add up the row feet and divide across your bed space.
- Start smaller than you think AgriLife says making the garden too large is a common first-year mistake. Grow what you can water, weed and harvest.
How much should I plant?
| Crop | Fresh eating, per person | For preserving, per person | Your household: fresh | Your household: preserving |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beet | 10 row feet | 20 row feet | — | — |
| Carrot | 10 row feet | 15 row feet | — | — |
| Corn | 15 row feet | 50 row feet | — | — |
| Bush green bean | 15 row feet | 20 row feet | — | — |
| Pole green bean | 5 row feet | 10 row feet | — | — |
| Greens | 10 row feet | 10 row feet | — | — |
| Leaf lettuce | 10 row feet | — | — | — |
| Okra | 6 row feet | 10 row feet | — | — |
| Onion | 5 row feet | 30 row feet | — | — |
| Pepper | 3 plants | 5 plants | — | — |
| Radish | 5 row feet | — | — | — |
| Summer squash | 2 hills | 3 hills | — | — |
| Tomato | 3 plants | 5 plants | — | — |
| Turnip | 10 row feet | 10 row feet | — | — |
| Broccoli | 4 plants | 8 plants | — | — |
| Cucumber | 2 hills | 5 hills | — | — |
| Collard | 5 row feet | 10 row feet | — | — |
Household columns multiply the per-person numbers by your headcount. Source columns are 'Use fresh' and 'Preserve'. Treat the preserve figure as the total per person if you plan to both eat fresh and put food up; the source does not say whether the columns add together, so confirm against your own harvest log.
Key facts
- Figures are AgriLife's approximate amounts per person; 'hills' for squash and cucumbers are small groups of plants.
- Most vegetables need at least 6 hours of sun a day.
- Pole beans need far fewer row feet than bush beans for the same harvest (5 vs 15 feet fresh per person).
- Put tall crops like okra, corn and tomatoes on the north side so they do not shade short ones.
- Watermelons take too much room for small gardens.
Texas notes
- Texas gets two main seasons for many crops (spring and fall), so you can split the planting and harvest twice from the same bed.
- Cool-season crops like broccoli, collards, greens, turnips and carrots go in late summer/fall or before spring warms; warm-season crops go in after the last spring frost.
- Plant close to a water source; Texas dry spells make watering the limiting factor.
Beginner mistakes
- Planting 20 squash plants for two people.
- Planting everything at once and getting one huge glut instead of a steady harvest.
- Forgetting to plan the extra rows needed for preserving.
- Building a garden bigger than you can keep watered in July.