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

[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.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by 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.

Ooooh! Nomad agriculture! Neat idea.

Might be even more justified if it magically drains the land for some period of time, and won't grow on drained land.

[Nereidalbel]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Ooooh! Nomad agriculture! Neat idea.

Might be even more justified if it magically drains the land for some period of time, and won't grow on drained land.

It wouldn't even need magic. Just growing THAT fast is going to pull a ton of nutrients out of the soil, so anything less than burning after harvesting will kill the land fairly quickly.

[ClayDowling]

Yeast does grow that quickly, although it's moderately involved to keep the colony healthy, and you have to canibalise your other crops to keep it fed.

If you're looking for nomadic agriculture, you might look into what a lot of Native American tribes used. It's not exceptionally well documented, but there is some out there. The wild rice harvesting is still done the same way, but other crops were also planted.

Also, consider apples. Drop a bunch of seeds. Walk away. Come back in 10 years. They'll be wild apples, which aren't great for eating, but they make great cider, and there's always a market for a cheap drunk.

[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