How Many Plants Worksheet
Work back from what you eat. Record the actual yield at the end of the season - that number is worth more than any catalogue.
BFCBrilliance · bfcbrilliance.com/tools/vegetable-yield-per-plant-calculator
The arithmetic
- Servings needed
- people x per week x weeks
- Total harvest
- servings x serving weight ÷ 16
- Yield after losses
- yield per plant x (1 − loss %)
- Plants
- total harvest ÷ yield after losses
- Harvest per week
- people x per week x serving ÷ 16
- 1 lb
- 16 oz
- ⚠ Yield per plant
- YOUR record beats any catalogue
- ⚠ Zero loss allowance
- has never happened in a garden
- Space needed
- see the Plant Spacing Calculator
This crop
- Crop and variety
- Season
- People eating it
- Servings each per week
- Weeks of eating
- Serving weight (weighed)
- TOTAL HARVEST WANTED
- Expected yield per plant
- Loss allowance
- PLANTS TO GROW
- Sown on
- Actual yield per plant
Yield record — the most valuable page here
| Year | Crop | Plants | Total picked | Per plant | Enough? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Planning and reviewing
- Worked back from what you EAT, not from the space available
- Serving weighed once rather than estimated
- Yield taken from your own records where you have them
- Loss allowance set above zero
- Long eating window met with succession sowings, not more plants
- Plan for the surplus if the crop matures together
- Space checked separately against the plant count
- Actual yield weighed and recorded at the end of the season
- Next year's figure updated from this year's record
Weigh it once and you never guess again
A single season's record - plants grown, total picked, divided out - replaces every published yield range with a number that describes your soil, your variety and your gardening. It is the most valuable thing on this sheet, and it costs one weighing at harvest.
A long window means successions, not more plants
A plant yielding five pounds over a season does not give you five pounds in the week you want them. If you want to be eating a crop for twelve weeks, that usually means sowing in batches rather than putting more plants in on the same day - otherwise it all arrives at once and most of it is wasted.