[Fantasy] [Low-Tech] Crops with extremely short cycle and low yield

[vicky_molokh]

Greetings, all!

What would be the unforeseen consequences of a fantasy setting having crops of extremely short lifecycles but also very low yields. E.g. a crop with 1/300 the yield, but capable of providing this yield (and dying) in just 24 hours. Or 1/50 the yield, but with a cycle of 7-10 days.

I am of course postulating this to be fantasy, not historical low-tech. Some more considerations are that (a) it's probably best to make the crop somewhat picky, so that it wouldn't be able to take over the rest of the ecosystem (or make other plants similarly vigorous) and (b) I'm not sure if I want a setting with seasons or without, so I'm wondering about both variants.

Thanks in advance!

[zazen]

Magic could be used if the crop is valuable - it could be either transported or conserved through magic, or both.

If the crop is unvaluable and picky like that, chances are most societies wouldn't bother doing agriculture with it. If it dies in 24 hours *but* can be conserved with reliable and cheap methods, it becomes more interesting.

If it's unvaluable but edible, It could be used as food for farmers, but since it dies so quickly, it can't even reach cities or other societies.

Anyway, I wonder what that mysterious crop is all about? Is it food? Spice? Material use such as cotton or silk? It's use in society greatly affects the importance people will give to it.

[Turhan's Bey Company]

I doubt anyone would bother with them. Since you didn't specify otherwise, I assume they take the same effort to plant and harvest, which means you're getting a tiny fraction of the yield for the same labor. Better to do the labor-intensive plowing and harvesting once with conventional crops and get enough to live off of for months than waste time on crops that won't even feed you for the time it took to cultivate them.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company

I doubt anyone would bother with them. Since you didn't specify otherwise, I assume they take the same effort to plant and harvest, which means you're getting a tiny fraction of the yield for the same labor. Better to do the labor-intensive plowing and harvesting once with conventional crops and get enough to live off of for months than waste time on crops that won't even feed you for the time it took to cultivate them.

Hmm. Indeed I haven't put much (any?) thought into proportionally reducing the work required.

I'm basically looking for a way to create a setting with much shorter harvest cycles - numbered in days, or at most weeks.

Oh, and I intended the seeds/fruits to be as long-lasting as normal ones.

[Tuk the Weekah]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Hmm. Indeed I haven't put much (any?) thought into proportionally reducing the work required.

I'm basically looking for a way to create a setting with much shorter harvest cycles - numbered in days, or at most weeks.

Oh, and I intended the seeds/fruits to be as long-lasting as normal ones.

The problem, of course, in such a short life cycle is the weed issue. If it has a low labour cost, it will dominate the ecosystem. If it is so picky that it doesn't dominate, it will have a high labour cost. If it has a high labour cost, as TBC points out, farmers will tend to prefer traditional grain crops.

Have you considered something akin to wild rice? It is incredibly easy to harvest, and the process of harvesting simultaneously reseeds the "field". Basically, you bend the stalk over the canoe and tap it with a stick. Most of the seed falls into the canoe; some of the seed falls back into the lake/river to form the next crop.

Would having 4 cycles per year (and a dormant winter), with a low labour cost akin to wild rice, work for your purposes?

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Tuk the Weekah

The problem, of course, in such a short life cycle is the weed issue. If it has a low labour cost, it will dominate the ecosystem. If it is so picky that it doesn't dominate, it will have a high labour cost. If it has a high labour cost, as TBC points out, farmers will tend to prefer traditional grain crops.

I suppose there's some way to balance it to such a level of pickiness/labour that a field is easy to 'maintain' for a sufficient yield per time unit and per labour unit, but isn't very competitive in the wild (or at least not competitive enough to dominate everywhere)?

Originally Posted by Tuk the Weekah

Have you considered something akin to wild rice? It is incredibly easy to harvest, and the process of harvesting simultaneously reseeds the "field". Basically, you bend the stalk over the canoe and tap it with a stick. Most of the seed falls into the canoe; some of the seed falls back into the lake/river to form the next crop.

Thanks! This is the sort of things that would find a use in setting-building.

Originally Posted by Tuk the Weekah

Would having 4 cycles per year (and a dormant winter), with a low labour cost akin to wild rice, work for your purposes?

Maybe. Don't know yet. I'm in the very early stages of worldbuilding - I'm not even 100% sure the whole setting is viable at all, yet.

[gilbertocarlos]

Best option would be to plant it between other crops. So, let's say you can farm for 8 months a year, if you have a crop that takes 4 months and another one that takes 3, you'll be able to plant the first, then plant the second, then plant a few of the 1 day or 1 week crop.

Armies might be interested in it, wanderers too, just carry some of them for each man, in a siege, plant them, since it's low yield, the enemy won't have the incentive to put fire to it, and since you have a lot of manpower doing nothing, you can use it to plant and harvest.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Hmm. Indeed I haven't put much (any?) thought into proportionally reducing the work required.

I'm basically looking for a way to create a setting with much shorter harvest cycles - numbered in days, or at most weeks.

Oh, and I intended the seeds/fruits to be as long-lasting as normal ones.

You might want to consider a tree crop, or at least something perennial. Instead of growing an entire new plant in days, which is pretty extreme, it grows a new crop of seeds, nuts, fruits or edible flowers. And of course ever-blooming plants are a fantasy tradition.

You may also want to think about what the plant gets out of doing this. Cycling your whole body this fast seems totally useless unless there are severe seasons that will kill you on the same sort of timescale, or weekly fires that devastate the ecosystem. Continuously fruiting at least might give you some sort of reproductive advantage, though you need a really good seed dispersal mechanism to make it pay off for anything this fast. Maybe the fruit ripens into balloons....

[Anthony]

Some algae do have extremely short cycles, though the yield is generally going to vary with the quantity of nutrients available to be consumed.

A problem with your scheme, actually, is that, unless the unharvested crops promptly rot, it may be easier to just let multiple crops pile up and harvest them all at once.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Anthony

A problem with your scheme, actually, is that, unless the unharvested crops promptly rot, it may be easier to just let multiple crops pile up and harvest them all at once.

It's fantasy so maybe unharvested crops:

• Spontaneously Generate into pest animals.
• Attract unwanted supernatural vermin (pixies?).
• Anger the gods