Hacker News Reader

I am curious, but surely the $900-$1400 an acre is based on rows configured for tractor-based tilling/plowing, fertilizing, herbicide etc.? As I understand it, the nice thing about a smallholding is that you don't have to mechanize near as aggressively, and therefore can plant much more densely than a tractor-based farm would.

View on HN

While hand grown can be denser it’s not an order of magnitude denser. The main advantage is being able to combine/layer different crops.

Look at machine farmed fields just before harvest; the fully grown plants will often be quite close together.

Perhaps? This was based on google top-link data which may not be reliable for a small farm but I assume it's within an order of magnitude!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com