From Southern Exposure Seed Exchange here.
- Southern Peas (Cowpeas) like Whippoorwill, White Acre, and Pink Eye Purple Hull.
- Asparagus Beans (Yard Long Beans)
- Green Pod Red Seed is the classic, reliable heirloom. If you’re in the Deep South,
- Chinese Red Noodle takes advantage of the long season and is more heat tolerant.
- Lima Beans (Butterbeans) are generally very reliable in heat, humidity, and drought.
- Tropic VFN (from the University of Florida) produces through very hot summers.
- Ozark Pink VF (from the University of Arkansas) is highly recommended for very hot climates. These blemish-free medium-sized tomatoes have very bright, crisp flavor.
- Neptune (also from the University of Florida) is a great choice.
- Carolina Wonder
- Charleston Belle are both excellent.
- Aji Dulce peppers have an unusual, complex flavor, with just a hint of heat. They’re generally unaffected by pests and diseases, but they take a little longer to mature than most peppers.
- Find out which diseases are problems in your area and use the resistance codes to help you choose what to grow.
- Little Leaf H-19 (from the University of Arkansas) has excellent disease resistance and is well adapted to very hot summers. It’s classified as a pickler, but it’s also very tasty sliced and in salads.
- Ashley is a slicer particularly recommended where
disease - a favorite choice for a heat-loving slicer is Suyo Long (the long, slender fruits are best grown on trellises).
- We recommend growing Moschata type summer squash if you have trouble growing summer squash and zucchini in your hot climate. The Moschata types have better pest and disease tolerance and produce well straight through very hot summers.
- Tromboncino summer squash has the extra advantage of also making excellent squash blossoms for stuffing.
- Waltham Butternut winter squash can be harvested small (3-5″) for eating like summer squash. (Moschata types need nights above 60 degrees F to grow well.)
- As with summer squash, we recommend choosing
moschata moschata will thrive through hot summers, but particularly productive varieties are: - Seminole Pumpkin,
- Waltham Butternut, and
- Tan Cheese. Green-Striped Cushaw is from another type of squash altogether (
argyrosperma ormixta ). We know Southern gardeners who won’t grow anything but Cushaws: they’re super productive through our summers and their seeds are very large and tasty. The flesh tastes a little different than most winter squash and not as sweet, but it can be used in pies if you add extra sweetener.
Okra: Choose older and heirloom varieties of okra with deeper root systems. The deep roots give these plants resistance to nematodes and improved drought and heat tolerance, but these varieties also usually take longer to mature.
- Gold Coast is a variety particularly noted for its deep roots, but
- Stewart Zeebest and
- Beck’s Big Buck also are excellent heirlooms for the Deep South.
- For cooked greens, Swiss chard and turnip greens are the best choices in the South.
- Sweet potato greens,
- New Zealand summer spinach, and the young leaves and shoot tips of squash can all be used for cooking greens.
- We strongly recommend Red Malabar summer spinach to anyone who hasn’t tried growing it yet. The crisp, slightly succulent leaves stay mild in high heat and maintain healthy growth all summer. The gorgeous red vines need to be trellised or caged, but this keeps the leaves clean. They’re excellent as cooking greens and in salad mixes.
