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What are some other hot weather crops?
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Posted by frdnicholas Albuquerque NM (My Page) on Sun, May 3, 09 at 9:45
| OK, I'm in a rut. I have tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and cucumbers in my garden right now. I have more space for vegetables, but can't seem to think of any that would do well in our hot, Albuquerque summers with my full sun garden space. Any other suggestions? Oh, I also have 1 large Swiss chard plant going to seed. I think of all the lettucey kinds of vegetables as cool weather. Are their any that would thrive in our heat? |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: What are some other hot weather crops?
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| I am in the Bosque Farms area and have had good success with green beans in full sun as well as zucchini (sp?). This year I am trying yellow beans and burgundy beans and patty pan squash as well as cantaloupe and watermelon. I'm not aware of any lettuce that does well in the heat of summer. |
RE: What are some other hot weather crops?
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| All the other cucurbits in addition to cucumber, including summer and winter squash, melons, and watermelons should do great too. All beans (other than cool season lentils, garbanzos, favas), including green beans, lima beans, dry beans especially the drought-tolerant tepary bean (native to Sonoran Desert). Also various relatives of tomatoes, the tomatillos, ground cherries (like a small sweet tomatillo), and such. If you're looking for heat-tolerant greens, you might try New Zealand spinach (probably have to grow it from seed, since I doubt you can find seedlings of it at the store), which should keep producing all summer long without bolting. Or, you could just seed things like lettuce, kale, spinach under the shade of your larger plants every two weeks or so to keep an ongoing supply. Mulching well will help all the plants do best in the heat... Hope this gives you some more ideas |
RE: What are some other hot weather crops?
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| I'm trying Jericho lettuce (a romaine lettuce grown in the Israeli desert) under shade this Summer to try to keep salad greens on the table the whole season). It's really a challenge when it's both hot and windy. |
RE: What are some other hot weather crops?
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| I've never had much luck getting greens to sprout in our hot summers in Central Texas. This year I may try to sprout indoors, where it's cooler, under a grow light, and then transplant to a shady area or under shade cloth. Mostly I adjust what we eat according to what's seasonally available fro, the garden. Here that means we hardly ever have lettuce and tomatoes at the same time! That seemed funny at first -- I was used to getting anything I wanted anytime, flown from anywhere in the world and waiting for me at the produce section, just like most of us. But now it seems natural to have whatever is coming out of the ground. On a related note: have you tried tatuma squash? We call them calabacita here and they grow in the hottest, driest weather. They're delicious and sweet and creamy. Good luck! |
Here is a link that might be useful: The Accidental Huswife
RE: What are some other hot weather crops?
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| Anasazi bean. Available from Plants of the SW on 4th St. A nice 'paint horse' color bean and native to our area. Very interesting discovery history too (can be found online) which older kids may find interesting. Mine come up every year in the garden from volunteers - a better 'harvester' will not have this problem. Also legumes, such as this, fix nitrogen in the soil. Mine is easily the best growing plant in the garden besides hops. Blue corn is fun but can be buggy. |
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