For years, I would plant lots of vegetables and then say I was ready for canning season. There was no organization. Now, I know better and I plan my canning garden around what I’d want to preserve instead.
Growing your food specifically for preservation gives you the power to select vegetables best suited to your tastes and needs. It enables you to manage your harvest and plan for year-round food efficiently.
With a little preparation and care, you'll soon enjoy the satisfaction of a pantry stocked full of homegrown goodness. As a master gardener with experience in USDA Zones 5 & 6 I will recommend varieties that have worked well for me.
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Rows of tomatoes and sweet peppers. Photo by Ame Vanorio
start With A Plan
Any garden will serve you best if you start with a plan. Think about the purpose of each crop. Do you want to eat it fresh or preserve it? You may want to do both.
You can even plan for specific recipes. Does your family love spaghetti dinners? Planting extra tomatoes is a great way to make your own pasta sauce. Think about what meals you make frequently in winter and what vegetables it would be nice to have in the pantry,
Planning a canning garden is the ideal way to maximize your garden space and utilize your time. By preparing your garden ahead of time, you can be sure that you have what you need to feed everyone without a bunch of waste.
Planning for canning is different then for example planning a salad garden. A salad garden uses succession planting to have a continuous supply of fresh greens. For a canning garden, you want to think in bulk so that you have a large amount to harvest at the same time.
Check out my video for some great tips on planning your garden.
Make a list of what foods your family likes best. If this is your first time growing a garden for canning, start small, and pick one or two crops that are your favorites. Canning is a lot of work and you don’t want to feel overwhelmed.
If you are new to canning check out your local extension office. They frequently have classes on canning and some even have equipment to borrow. Find your local office here.
Tomatoes and green beans are the most commonly canned items in part because they are fairly easy to process.
Choosing Vegetables Ideal for Canning
Here are the most popular choices to consider:
Tomatoes: Perfect for sauces, salsa, ketchup, and whole canned tomatoes.
Cucumbers: For pickles, relish, and just a great snack food.
Green Beans: Makes a fabulous side dish, casseroles, or winter stews.
Corn: Delicious side dish, chili, or burrito bowls.
Carrots: Versatile for soups, stews, and pickled snacks.
Beets: Pickled or canned whole, use in soups and salads.
Peppers: Great for Mexican salsas, stews and pasta dishes.
I have articles and videos on growing these crops as well!
And you can check out my books on Amazon!
How Many Plants Do You Need?
This is a trick question! Because it depends on how much of that food your family eats and how much garden space you have. The chart below are averages to get you started.
According to the National Center for Home Food Preservation, 35 pounds of tomatoes yields roughly 7 quarts or 9 pints of tomato sauce. Consider keeping a journal to keep track of how much you planted and how much you harvested.
These charts from Mrs. Wages give you the yield of pounds to quarts for canning purposes.
Smaller Gardens
You can grow enough plants for canning even in a small space. Take Square Foot Gardening where the growing space is 4-foot square beds.
For instance, a 4 X 4 space can hold 64 green bean seeds planting 4 beans per square. Note: The traditional square foot spacing is 9 to a square which I feel is way to close.
On average, a bush bean plant can yield around 1/2 pound of beans throughout a growing season. So one 4 x 4 bed would produce enough beans for 16 quarts or 32 pints of canned beans.
You can do the same thing with carrots. In one 4-foot bed, you can plant 256 seeds 3-inches apart and harvest thirty pounds of carrots. This will net you about 10 quarts of diced carrots.
Larger Gardens
If you have a canning garden that is between 400 to 800 square feet you have a bit more room to spread out. If you have a larger garden and are using a traditional row method, fifty feet of green beans would yield you an average of about 30 pounds of beans. And fifty feet of carrots would be about 50 pounds.
Timing
Spend some time considering what you need and want. Plan your harvest so that you don’t have everything available at once.
You may also want to sow a few plants in succession so that you have a fresh supply of food before or after canning as well.
You can also ensure that veggies are ripening at the same time, so you’ll be able to preserve everything at once.
Plant Varieties for Your Canning Garden
Canning subjects your vegetables to extreme heat and pressure. It is important to choose varieties that are hardy, productive and withstand the cooking process.
Green Beans
Green beans are an excellent first choice when it comes to canning. They are prolific and you can plant them in succession. That way you have a supply for fresh eating and for canning.
Green beans should be picked when they are about 5 inches long and have good color. The seed pods should not be fully formed yet.
Blue Lake is a great green bean for a canning garden. It has that traditional bean taste and does not lose flavor during canning. They are productive with reliable yields.
My all time favorite “green bean” is Royal Burgundy. They are actually a purple bean, and to my great dismay, they turn green during cooking. I love this bean’s crunchy flavor when it is fresh, but it holds up well in canning and does not become too mushy.
Two beans I also love are Provider and Kentucky Wonder (pole).
Tomato
Did you know tomatoes were there own food group? Well not really but my Italian genes make me think so!
Tomatoes are a great crop to grow for canning because they are so versatile. They are a popular ingredient in so many dishes.
Rutgers is my all around favorite tomato because it grows well for me and is good fresh and canned. One year my Roma paste tomatoes had a low yield due to mildew and I substituted Rutgers. My sauce was fine - in fact delicious.
For traditional paste tomato, my favorite is Amish Paste. My favorite used to be Roma’s, but like I mentioned they are more susceptible to fungus issues. Amish Paste tomatoes make a nice thick sauce. It’s done well for me in both USDA Zones 5 & 6.
My article on growing tomatoes is here.
Corn
I admit, that corn is a space hog and has a low yield per plant. But many of us view it as a staple of summer cooking. Fresh canned corn is much better than “store” corn.
Check out our article on growing corn in Zone 6.
Corn is a low-yielding crop that takes up lots of space. For a canning garden, try to pick dependable varieties with 3 or more ears per plant. Corn should go from picking to canning as soon as possible because it loses flavor quickly.
Golden Bantam is ideal for smaller gardens as it only gets 5 feet tall. A proven heirloom variety, specifically popular among home gardeners and canners. Has a traditional sweet corn flavor that holds well in canning. Great for Zone 6.
Tender kernels, high sugar content, excellent canned Bodacious is an excellent variety. It has a nice uniform ear which makes kernel removal easier. It’s a yellow corn variety which also looks more attractive when canned. great for both Zone 5 and 6.
Carrots
Chantenay has short, stocky roots that store and preserve exceptionally well, plus it’s sweet and flavorful. Great for gardens with heavier or rocky soils.
Danvers Half Long adapts to various soil types and will grow in clay that’s had compost. It grows well in shorter seasons. It is pretty uniform in size which is nice when slicing, has excellent flavor, and, has a sturdy texture perfect for canning.
Check out my YouTube channel for some tips on how I grow carrots in heavy soil
Cucumber
Pickels are the perfect snack food and making them is surprisingly simple. Select cucumber types that retain their crunch, are small, and stands up to pickling’s intense flavors.
A pound of cucumbers will yield you about a quart of pickles.
Boston Pickling is a classic heirloom variety known for its crisp texture, uniform size, and consistent yields. It is great for dill or bread-and-butter pickles. Compact vines are suitable for smaller garden spaces.
Great for Zone 5 the Wisconsin SMR-58 was developed at the University of Wisconsin. I have grown it for two seasons now and it’s very hardy and productive. Specifically bred for pickling, the fruits maintain excellent crunch and flavor when canned.
Sweet Peppers
Peppers are another crop that is very versatile and lends itself to many dishes. You can add them to sauces and salsas, stews.
Carmen is a Sweet Italian-type pepper that is excellent roasted, canned in strips, or included in relish and salsa.
Sweet Banana is a mildly sweet, elongated pepper perfect for pickling or canning whole.
Notes: Early and very productive, making them a favorite for gardeners aiming to preserve large batches.
Ame Vanorio is a Master Gardener and semi-retired Science teacher. She loves gardening, canning, and eating homegrown meals! Check out her books on Amazon.
Winter squashes and pumpkins are one of my favorite foods to grow in the garden. There is nothing better to celebrate the start of autumn than going out to your patch to pick some squash and pumpkins!
Squashes germinate quickly and produce robust plants. Growing pumpkins is also a great activity to do with kids who might get impatient waiting for slower plants like carrots or peppers to come up.