Skip to main content

Veggie Gardening in Hot Areas: Long or Short Growing Periods?

Contrary to popular opinion, long hot summers do not necessarily mean long growing periods for vegetable gardens.

Some vegetables like tomatoes, cucumbers and squash don’t do well when the weather is extremely hot for long periods. There are also many varieties which are resistant to common tomato diseases.

 

Growing Periods

Tomatoes

Vegetable gardeners who live in areas with long, hot summers should plant early maturing varieties of tomatoes.

In fact, starting them indoors before last frost date, and then planting them in the garden after any threat of frost, will give the gardener a little more growing time, and allow the plants to set fruit before the weather gets too warm.

Many heirloom and older variety tomatoes have longer growing seasons. Tomato varieties which mature and fruit in less than 60 days are the ideal ones to use in warm areas.

Here are some tomato varieties which have shorter maturity and fruiting dates:

  • Bush Early Girl – 54 days
  • Early Girl – 52 days
  • Early Wonder- 55 days
  • Glacier – 58 days
  • Buckbees New 50 Day – 55 days
  • Oregon Spring – 58 days
  • Northern Lights- 56 days
  • Siletz – 52 days

While some of these varieties have been bred for colder climates, they are all short-season maturing. Bush Early Girl, Early Girl and Early Wonder tend to do best in warmer climates.

 

Cucumbers

While cucumbers and squash need warm weather, they produce fruit in short seasons, usually 55 to 65 days.

Both vegetables should be planted in hills or mounds. Build mounds about a foot high and four to six feet apart. (The mounds allow excess water to drain away, which is what the plant prefers.) Plant four or five seeds in the top of each mound and cover with about an inch of soil.

Starting the seeds indoors, like tomatoes, when the weather is colder, and then transplanting into the garden after danger of frost has passed can extend the growing season.

Cucumber varieties with shorter growing periods include:

  • Armada – 54 days
  • Armenian – 65 days
  • Blitz – 51 days
  • Carolina – 52 days
  • Calypso – 51 days
  • Explorer – 52 days
  • Pioneer Hybrid Pickling – 51 days
  • Pot Luck – 55 days
  • Early Pride – 55 days
  • Straight Eight – 58 days
  • Sweet Success – 54 days

 

Summer Squash

Summer squash includes crookneck, straight neck, scallop and zucchini types. Interestingly, many gardeners have the mindset of “the bigger the better.” However, when it comes to squash, think the opposite.

In fact, gardeners usually pick summer squash when it is too large or overmature. Squash has a very short maturing time and grow very quickly. They usually reach maturity within four to eight days after flowering.

Squash should be picked when small and tender. Elongated varieties like zucchini should be harvested when about two inches in diameter and six to eight inches long.

The post Veggie Gardening in Hot Areas: Long or Short Growing Periods? appeared first on Downtown Homestead.



from Downtown Homestead http://downtownhomestead.com/long-short-growing-periods
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to Create an Evening Oasis of Bloom and Fragrance

I think it is equally important to turn your outside space into a place to feed your family, but not overlook the chance to escape into it. We have a suburban house, that has a backyard backed up to 5 other yards, so we wanted to create a perfect little oasis for ourselves to escape into. So, we are creating a moonlight garden, to give us a perfect little escape for those late-night bonfires.   Many plants bloom in the evening, particularly in warm climates, and their delicious fragrance can be smelled on the breeze perfuming the whole area. The flowers are usually white or light yellow.   One vine that I especially like is an annual called, appropriately enough, moonflower. It’s in the same family as morning glories and the large white flowers can be up to 6 inches across and very fragrant.   The great thing about this plant is the way it opens its flowers. The large buds look like furled white beach umbrellas. But look again. Did you see the bud move? As the twili...
Post a Comment
Read more

What Changes Can I Make to My Garden to Be More Natural?

Gardening has changed a bit in recent years as people’s philosophy of gardening is starting to change to go back to more natural and organic methods. For those who have been gardening for a number of years, these new practices might be a bit hard to understand at first since the traditional ways of doing things is adding chemicals to the soil or plants to take care of problems and grow larger plants. Organic methods work a bit differently. Traditional methods use chemical fertilizers to add nutrients to the soil. Organic methods use compost . This is organic matter and carbon matter mixed together. This would be things like fruit peels, vegetables, grass, hay, leaves, and other types of waste mixed together. Over time it breaks down into rich soil that doesn’t need any fertilizer at all. A good compost is natural and doesn’t require extra chemicals. Pest control is a bit more difficult since you don’t want to use chemicals on your plants that end up killing everything. There are a fe...
Post a Comment
Read more

Learn how to Freeze Fresh Garden Vegetables

As the garden harvest comes rolling in, many of us are left with more vegetables than we can comfortably eat. As always, to help your neighbors, offer some to them, trade with other gardeners for things they both of you didn’t grow, hot water can some, and freeze some for the winter. Have you ever tried freezing your own vegetables? Because many of them contain enzymes that will cause them to lose color while frozen, it can leave you with a colorless bunch of vegetables, which don’t look appealing. I recommend blanching them before freezing them, it helps keep their color vibrant, and also makes cooking them from frozen easier.   Homemade frozen vegetables are healthier than store bought ones, since you know you’re vegetables have been grown organically . They are also friendly to the wallet , since you spent your sweat equity instead of your hard earned money. There is no reason to not be doing this. So, what is blanching? Blanching is the process of boiling your vegetable...
Post a Comment
Read more