3. Harvest Index - This is a measure of how much of a crop is usable, or in our case, edible. Determine how much of your crop would be edible. For example, if sunflowers are one of the crops you chose, only the seeds are edible. But, for some crops, the entire plant is edible.

For example, of the two plants below, the lettuce crop has a higher harvest index than the sunflower crop. Why? Because you can only eat the seeds of a sunflower, and you can't eat the rest of the plant. Only a small part of a sunflower is edible. However, you can eat all of the lettuce plant. So the lettuce crop has the higher harvest index.

Which crop has the higher harvest index - apple or potato? Click on the pictures below to check your answer.

 

Remember that we learned about composting and the need to recycle plant waste in space because there is not much storage room for waste materials. Composting is a great option, but it would be even better if people could eat the majority of the plant and its parts.