How to grow large amounts of food plants in San Diego

Growing food in San Diego is a lot like buying a home in San Diego: it is a lot of work, and it is very expensive. In the end, you are left with such a large amount of wealth that it begins to be difficult to disburse it.

Here are the basics: you have to have a good watering system, you have to plant things at the right time of year, and the amount of maintenance you put into it will equal your yield. Good soil is essential, sunlight is essential for most food plants, also making a plan will help immensely.

Watering system: hand watering really doesn’t work for many San Diegans, it takes a lot of time, and it needs to be consistent. Having a drip system is best for food plants, many food plants need water excluded from their leaves so sprinklers can be killers. Some food plants don’t mind wet leaves and those are easier to grow and maintain, some food plants are even intolerant of our coastal fog/dew. Some examples of plants that are intolerant of water on them are pomegranate, mango, tomato, and others. Some plants are only picky when setting fruit, others are prone to moisture sensitive disease, pests and fungi. Sprinklers do work for many plants, and make sure you have the most water efficient sprinkler emitters installed for water savings.

Timing: this one is simple, don’t sow when the nursery is selling the plant you want, sow when the plant needs to be sown for success.

Maintenance: do as much for your plants as possible! they will pay you back! When you have a newly planted fig tree, tarragon, tomato plant, or whatever you choose read up a little about it. What time of year is good to plant it? Does it thrive in our climate? How is this plant with coastal conditions and warm weather all year? Do any of your friends or neighbors grow this plant successfully? How much sun does it need per day, and does your selected site get as many hours as necessary to create sweet fruit?

Soil: San Diego has a clay soil throughout the county in various degrees. For food plants this is good but not great. Use at least some amendments when growing almost all food plants around here. The better soils are more expensive so sometimes this takes a little DIY motivation to source good soils for free.

Planning: Plant all your sun loving plants in the sun, plant all your water loving plants together, plant all your hydrophobic plants together, plant all your heavily amended plants together, this in general is called hydrozoning. This will save you money, time, water and will prevent disease. It’s exciting to buy plants quickly and challenging to create a master plan slowly, so land somewhere in the middle and do a little preplanning.

I hope this short guide helps with the basics, remember to stay motivated and give away all your extras to the neighbors!