June, Central FL, What do you plant?

[urbanfarmer]

What do you guys plant in June in Central FL or even N/S FL? Sweet Potatoes seem to be the only option, but I'm not remotely interested in those...

[davidstcldfl]

Sweet potatoes and okra are about the only thing that will grow in the 'heat' of the FL summer. I heard hot peppers like the heat. I only raise sweet ones....and maybe malabar spinach.
Last summer, I only had sweet taters in my media beds, which grew like crazy ! And just duckweed growing in the DWC troughs.

Stir fried sweet tater leaves.....

Ingredients....
One bunch of sweet potato leaves (volume of the untrimmed bunch was 6-10 Qt.)
1-2 hot dried red chilies
1-2 cloves of garlic
Salt, soy sauce, pepper to taste

Method........
Fill a pot with water and put it on the stove over high heat. The pot should be large enough to hold the leaves, and there should be enough water to cover the leaves.
Strip the leaves from the branches. The thin stems that attach the leaves to the branch are tender enough to eat, so there is no need to remove only the leaves. Wash and drain the leaves.
Mince 1-2 cloves of garlic.
Chop the chilies fine, and combine with the garlic.
When the water comes to a boil, turn off the heat and carefully add the sweet potato leaves. After 2 minutes, remove and rinse with cold water. Chop the leaves.
In a large skillet or wok, heat some vegetable oil over high heat. When it is hot, add the garlic and chilies. Cook for 30 seconds, stirring often.
Add the greens, then stir-fry the mixture until the greens are tender, about 2 or 3 minutes. Add salt, pepper, soy sauce, or other flavorings to taste.

[stucco]

Collard greens, mustard greens, kale, egg plant, okra, cucumber, basil, Swiss chard did well in the shade, buttercrunch lettuce. Good luck!
http://www.farmersalmanac.com/calendar/gardening/

[urbanfarmer]

Thank you sirs! I will give those a try. My beds are now empty and I need to plant SOMETHING!

Stucco, the lettuce wasn't bitter or did you have a secret to remove the bitterness at harvest?

I will definitely plant a lot of chinese okra (luffa) mwahahaha, I wonder if that will be the same!

Thanks again guys

[keith_r]

i read somewhere that an ice bath immediately after picking the lettuce will get rid of the bitterness, but have never tried it

[urbanfarmer]

i read somewhere that an ice bath immediately after picking the lettuce will get rid of the bitterness, but have never tried it

It helps. I have also read that taking the live lettuce and placing it in the fridge for a week triggers the plant to remove the bitter substances in its leaves. I have also never tried this. I'm sure stucco has a trick or maybe he's using a summer lettuce? If so, which one works in FL? I would like to know!

[stucco]

The buttercrunch is a heat tolerant heirloom that will work with a bit of shade in the evening and an earlier harvest.

[urbanfarmer]

Perfect, thank you. Will definitely give that a shot!

[dufflight]

I like to shop for seeds online. I just go through the lists and order anything different or pretty. That way I have a good stock of seeds to plant. One drawer in my kitchen has 400 seed packets. If I see some space in a gb I just hunt through the drawer.

[Lordshandyman]

What do you guys plant in June in Central FL or even N/S FL? Sweet Potatoes seem to be the only option, but I'm not remotely interested in those...

Here in Naples, SW Florida, I have had good success growing tomatoes in the summer, but not just any tomatoes, only the small ones, like grape, cherry, tommy toe, or smaller. The small ones seem to still set fruit in high temps when the bigger tomatoes give up. Also, green onions, asparagus, and blueberries grow year round here as well as. Not sure how they would do in AP system, but they are thriving in our raised dirt beds.
Of course, we love sweet potatoes, the leaves are very nutritious and tasty when stir-fried. As for the potato, we just pop a sweet potato in the microwave for a few minutes, slice, add a little butter, and I never had a tastier potato. Forget the marshmallows, that just ruins them.

bsfman was growing carrots in his system and they seem to be doing just fine, quite tasty even, but not sure how they will hold up in summer.

If you like to throw caution to the wind, then there is a noxious weed that is wonderfully delicious when stir-fried, or boiled with some noodles. I think they call it water spinach or Ipomoea aquatica to be more specific. It will grow like crazy anytime the temp is 70+ but even the slightest frost will kill it. It loves the water and Florida's warm summers. I think it made the noxious weed list because some people would plant it in the canals, to eat of course, but during floods, it would stop up the waterways and cause even more flooding. So it has been banned in Florida, sorry. Anyone living in more northern states could probably grow it just fine in their GB's as the winters would kill it if it did manage to escape to the wild. If I was living in Missouri now, I would have tons of it growing in my AP system.
Here's a link if anyone is interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipomoea_aquatica
If someone does decided to grow it, don't let it vine, just let it get about 10" tall, then snap or cut it about 1" above ground level. It will regrow just like green onions. The whole stem and leaves are edible, as long as the stem isn't allowed to get too tough. Anyone wanting more info, just pm me.

Oh, by the way, I never pull the green onions, I just cut off the tops and it regrows very quickly.

I like to shop for seeds online. I just go through the lists and order anything different or pretty. That way I have a good stock of seeds to plant. One drawer in my kitchen has 400 seed packets. If I see some space in a gb I just hunt through the drawer.

If you store those seeds in an air tight container in your fridge or freezer with a dry pack added, they will last a whole lot longer and germinate a lot better, at least that has been my experience. Although, on second thought, 400 packets of seed would take up a lot of space in the fridge.