Amy Ulmschneider
Master Gardener
In my last article, I wrote about the necessity and strategies for gardening in hot summer climates. One of the options we mentioned was to explore growing tropical and subtropical crops that are adapted to hot summer climates. Now, let's dig deeper into hot summer plants, first looking at some common plants you already know, and then venturing into unknown plants. Remember, lack of knowledge and finding sources for non-traditional summer vegetables are the biggest hindrances to trying new summer crops.
Okra, black-eyed peas, kidney beans, and sweet potatoes are on the well-known list, and I've written about sweet potatoes before.
Okra and black-eyed peas, a type of snow pea, are staple foods in the South and you can find seedlings locally. Okra is widely enjoyed in the South, but less so in colder regions. Okra grows abundantly in the long, hot summers and is a staple food in other tropical and subtropical regions of the world. It is recognized as a health food, its fiber lowers cholesterol and other plant compounds help stabilize blood sugar levels in diabetics. The fiber has also been used to make paper and string. The beautiful flowers are edible as well. Okra belongs to the Malvaceae family, as does the native pavonia, which was named Lady Bird Johnson's 2024 Wildflower of the Year.
Traditional green round peas and black-eyed peas are both in the legume family Fabaceae, but in different genera. True peas belong to the genus Pisum, while creamy black-eyed peas belong to the genus Vigna. So technically black-eyed peas are beans, not peas. And we grow and eat them differently. The delicate taste and texture of round green peas make them an early spring pleasure, both raw and cooked. Black-eyed peas and other varieties of southern peas are more nutritious as beans, and can also be cooked with meat like other beans. For more information on growing and eating them, see https://plants.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/plantguide/pdf/pg_viun.pdf.
1 Yard Long Beans
Similarly, long beans or yard long beans look like very long kidney beans, but they are in the same legume family, but in a different genus. Like black-eyed peas, yard long beans belong to the genus Vitis while kidney beans belong to the genus Phaseolus. The young edible pods of yard long beans are eaten just like kidney beans, but when yard long beans are allowed to mature, the seeds inside can also be dried and eaten like other types of beans. True kidney beans cannot tolerate the heat of summer, so they are planted in the spring or fall. But if you find yourself craving traditional kidney beans in the summer, try growing yard long beans, a scorching summer plant. For more information on growing and using yard long beans, see https://plants.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/plantguide/pdf/pg_viuns2.pdf.
If you have any questions, please call the Odessa AgriLife office at 498-4071 or the Midland AgriLife office at 686-4700. More information and a blog with access to past articles can be found at westtexasgardening.org.[リソース]Please click on the.
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