Your University of California Cooperative Extension site is a wealth of info for the home gardener. I would start there.

Technically, planting amounts are often computed in pounds of desired production for each specific vegetable/fruit. So you would need to compute roughly how many pounds of each specific veggie/fruit your family would want to consume in the average year.

But I don't think most of us home gardeners get that specific ;) - we plant what we like and in the amounts we have room for and if that isn't enough this year then we plan on more the following year. Plus when you factor in the problems of weather, pests and diseases, crop loss from other causes, etc. it is nigh onto impossible to plan to such detail.

Plus, I assume you aren't planning to cultivate the entire 5 acres so what size garden are we talking about? And what specific vegetables and fruit are we talking about?

Dave

PS: You might also want to check out the many similar discussions over on the Vegetable Gardening forum since the focus here is primarily on what to do with the food after it is harvested.

Here is a link that might be useful: UC Davis Coop Extension Service

Check out this chart from the CA extension.

Here is a link that might be useful: Approximate Yield for Selected Vegetable Crops

I'm not sure of the size garden I will plant this year. Last year I planted tomatoes, bell & hot peppers,corn, eggplants, melons, summer & winter squash,sugar snap peas, carrots, radishes, leeks, chives, red & yellow onions & potatoes. My garden area was approximately 30'x60'. This year I want to plant a lot more corn, potatoes, tomatoes,peppers plus green beans, peas, more root veg & winter veg. I know that corn takes lots of room. I have two peach trees, three cherry, one apple, one plum, one nectarine, one pear, one Asian pear,two black walnuts, 12 almond, two orange, & one lemon.

I plan to plant another apple, a pluot, some strawberries & some cane berries. In time, I want to add a crab apple, persimmon,avocado,pomegranate & fig.
Thank you for the link to the CA.Extension service.

I'm expecting a Pluot tree here soon. It has grafts for 4 types. Hopefully it will show up before the ground gets too hard to dig. This, added to my 5 apples, quince, sour cherry, 3 Asian pears, a peach/plum/apricot. Also now down to 25 blueberry bushes and need a few more red raspberry canes. Also have anice patch of asparagus which increases its yield every spring. I do have a fig as well, but its confined to a big heavy pot and stored in my garage for the winter months. Its getting too many roots now, and needs to live outdoors all year round. Its the brown turkey type fig. The rest of my garden this next year will be corn and maybe a few seedless water melons again.

Not sure if it's still in there but the Gurney's seed catalog used to have a chart for the amount to plant for desired yield.

I can't find the chart I wanted but here is an approximation that may help. http://www.countrysidemag.com/issues/92/92-4/revive_the_working_family_garden.html

Hope it helps. Jackie

Thanks a lot for all the help. I have been reading the posts on this forum for months but this is the first time I had a question. I have tried a lot more canning this summer, thanks to this forum. I like Annie's salsa better then anything I have canned before. You guys (and gals) are great.

I had a similar question a while back and got some very helpful feedback. I learned so much this year thanks to the folks here and a lot of experimenting.

You have a real advantage of a warmer climate than me so you can do lots of tweaking as you go along. I really envy that. Good luck and happy planting!

Here is a link that might be useful: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/sqfoot/msg0519195621747.html

20-30 highly productive tomato plants for each person you need to feed for the year.

I thought I'd chime in here - because we are in a similar growing zone. I'm not disputing what the charts say, but - for your consideration - we can eat a lot of fresh produce here because of our warmer climate. Thus - with the added bounty that you hope to harvest and - I presume preserve, you may find your self having a lot more food than your able to consume.

We don't always have - say lettuce and greens when weather warms up - so we substitue other fruits in season - I'm just guessing with the amount of trees that you now have - (as I do), then any speculation on food quantity per person is a guess at best.

Also - you might add to your collection - macadamia tree, boysenberry, apricot - perhaps olive - all grow well here too. I also have 2 chickens - which produce a few eggs, but wish I had more. I find that their feed costs can be minimized by feeding them a lot of the excess foods from the garden - extra celery, bok choy, etc., that we don't eat and I don't care to preserve.

Just my 2 c's.

Bejay

Thank you Bejay, I had not considered a macadamia tree. I thought it was too cold up here. We live in the northern part of the Sacramento Vally where it can get down to the 20's. So far, I have been keeping frost blankets on the tender plants and Christmas tree lights in my citrus trees. Some of our trees are still small. We continue to add a few new trees each year. I do have some berry vines that I planted last winter. We are just waiting for the first crop. We love berrys. I do want to get some chickens, I have to convince my hubby to build a coop that is strong enough to protect the chickens from the neighborhood fox family that lives nearby. We don't have a problem getting rid of the extra food in the summer. We have neighbors who are delighted to get it. I trade veggies to my neighbor who comes over and rototills my garden every spring.

Yes, the greatest "eaters" are the wild critters. We have raccoons, skunks, fox, coyote, lizards, birds, and the "infamous" white butterfly moth (worms).

But, I fashioned a critter-proof cage for my hens, all by myself. It took a few days to assemble - (my age of 86 didn't help). It does a great job of keeping out the predators.

I ordered a chain link dog run (one of those on-line, do-it-yourself jobbies), to protect my hens. After putting down a pad of galvanized fencing (Home Depot), built the enclosure frame on top. Then ran extra fencing all around the outside to keep out rats and mice. I then topped the whole affair with corrugated metal panels - which can be removed for easy cleaning, if needed.

The only glitch was the door - which was oval, whereas, the opening was rectangle. But a piece of plywood serves as a security door - it works, and I usually get a couple of nice brown eggs every day. The City says I can have 10 in my locale - may increase - as we love those fresh eggs.

Otherwise, I garden in boxes - and protect my veggies with cages - most of which are PVC type - surrounded with chicken wire - or old rabbit cages with bottoms removed. That way, I can move them from box to box as needed.

It is cumbersome - but there was no way to fence my whole back yard, and I live on the edge of a wild animal preserve.

So - where there is a will, there is a way - (wonder who coined that anyway?).

I assumed - because you mentioned citrus - that you could have macadamias too. Too bad - they are nice. On the other hand, you probably have enough chill hours to get good apples, peaches, pears. We are borderline here. Last year it was cold enough - and apricots, almonds were everywhere.

My 2 low-chill apples may or may not survive. They are OK, but also sometimes don't live too long in our warmer climate. Last year, I had a good apple crop from one of my dwarf trees tho - so, hopefully, it will stay around for awhile. The pear doesn't like it here at all.

Just my 2 c's.

Bejay

If you can build a chicken coop at the age of 86, my hubby(only 81) should be able to. He is quite spry for his age, does his own maintenance on the car, builds shelves and takes care of our home. He is not a gardener. He grew up in the depression when he had to plant a large garden and care for his grandma's chicken. He doe's not want to do it again. I love to putter in the garden and dream of having a hen house again. I love fresh eggs and grew up on a chicken ranch in S CA.

You are an inspiration, to be able to do all you do gives me hope for the future. I am just a baby at 67.

Just a "spring chicken" I daresay --- LOL

B

Stay with us, Avon lady (?) and let us know how this turns out. You're obviously not new to gardening, so my original thought of don't go overboard this first year is not appropriate. Yield is truly a personal thing. I get twice as much yield out of my green beans, for instance, than most others, because I keep picking them until they freeze instead of picking until they slow and jerking the plants.

Planting extra (so long as you can tend the plants) is always a good idea - for bartering, food pantries, etc., so plant as much as you can handle!

No, I'm not new to gardening, but I have never grown on such a big scale. I knew when I had to go out and buy extra tomatoes to make Annie's salsa (several batches) that I was going to have to greatly increase my garden. We have a 16 sq ft freezer, but it is usually pretty full. I have a good place to expand my garden, a neighbor with 5 horses who keeps me in horse manure, and two teenagers to help pull weeds. I have been eying pressure caners. It will be on my shopping list right after Christmas.

I thought I would share my experience in expanding my garden for the same purpose of canning and preserving. We have 10 acres so plenty of room (this was a first garden at our new house, though). I have gardened for about 10 years so I'm not new to it. My old garden was about 20x60 with another smaller plot, both very near to the house. My new garden was much, much bigger and...a bit too unmanageable for me. It was also a little distance from the house and that really made a big difference for me in upkeep. Not very far but in my old garden I would pop out just for a few minutes to pull weeds or some such in between laundry loads or what have you. Anyway, I guess my point is that for me, bigger was not better. Of course I had a terrible pest and weed problem and that cut my harvest by quite a bit. I decided to move the 2009 garden right next to the house and keep it about the size of my old garden. I would rather plant and harvest 8 cabbages instead of having 20 that are bug infested or untended to the point of losing them. I love gardening but it is a lot of work to waste your time and effort to not get much from it. I only mention all this because I was so excited to expand and had dreams of a full canning pantry.
It is hard to judge how much you need to plant to feed a certain amount of people for the year. Many of us can on a 2-yr cycle as well, so one year you may not need as much of something you put up the previous year. I made a list of those items we use a lot of or are staples. Green beans and tomatoes topped that list. I don't think you can ever have too many. I chop and freeze a lot of onion as well since we use quite a bit. Something else to keep in mind is the good ol' bartering system. I had originally planned a fairly large orchard but I'm glad I waited on that. I still plan peaches and cherries but will hold off on apple trees since so many of my neighbors have delicious apples and I usually supply them with eggs in trade. I guess I'm not helping much but I was really disappointed in my LARGE garden and hope to spare you the same. Sounds like you have lots of help, though. My DH would help if asked but generally the garden is my baby. Lori

Thank you Lori, My garden is right next to my garage. I see it every time I walk out my door. It isn't far from the house. When we first moved in, I planted on the other side of the house and it wasn't as convenient. My biggest pest problem is deer, I do have a good spray that I mix up and sprinkle around and that works well. Every once in a while I scatter some blood meal when the corn is just about ready. So far, the deer stand off at a distance, looking at the goodies, but they don't like the smell. So far, they have never been in the corn field. In our old house, we had scads of snails & slugs. I have never seen any here. Before we built our house, this was all an oat field. It was never watered in the hot summer so the snails never came. I have been careful to quarantine all new plants to make sure not to import the little beasts.

Donna