Food crops

Rating: 7/10 (10 May 2017)

Warning...food supplies/survival assessment. It's essential to his survival, but when assessing his potato crop, there is no way he could have reaped 400 potato on the first harvest. Also, when they showed shots of his potato crop, there are way too many plants based on what he started with. The bag looked like it had 12...2 potatoes each for a crew of 6, or 12, and 48 plants. If successfully grown, 4 large potatoes from each plant, and smaller ones to replant would give him 194 from first harvest...OR,
Take the Thanksgiving meal...at best, 3 potatoes each times six people would give 18 potatoes. He was quartering them...that would give him about 72 max. The next crop would be bigger, as he used several small potatoes from each plant, so ideally, 72 x 4, or 288 plants. It took roughly 35 'Sol's' to grow and then harvest, so it would still take awhile for him to produce 400 potatoes to eat. He'd need to have 3 or more successful harvests to get enough to last the 3 years needed before the Ares IV mission. Important for the movie, but a bit impossible in real life. Also, potatoes need at least 2 feet of dirt to grow, and he only had a foot or so...it would matter if that last crop was still edible after the surface plants died...since they were underground, they might have survived, which would have given him about 6-8 from each plant, small and large. He should have tried to grown more...somehow, even if it was a smaller operation...and holding a breathable atmosphere in the HAB behind tarps is another question.