posted 3 years ago
It's just my opinion but having tried to grow all the things that just don't like it here, it's not worth it. It's far easier to supplement leafy things with leaves that like it here, such as amaranth. The Chinese use the leaves like they would spinach and it grows like a weed here even in sand, you could try Aztec spinach, which is one of the first domesticated crops in the world and grows well in heat.
I'm starting to alter my entire gardening structure around ease, because as much trouble as other people have elsewhere with things like deer, I don't think they have as much trouble as getting a couple pounds of tomatoes and okra, plus a few random successes out of 2+ years of gardening.
Squash, watermelon, most leafy greens, cucumbers, they all get destroyed by cabbage worms or aphids instantaneously, especially during the hottest months, and especially-especially if you're in a neighborhood where they dump pesticides everywhere for green lawns. I've failed over and over so I finally decided to proceed differently. Honestly if you have success, please let me know, I'm very interested into what type of environment you would've had success in.
Just today I planted Everglades tomatoes everywhere and Seminole pumpkins which came highly recommended, I also switched to roots such as yams, malanga, cassava, Japanese purple sweet potatoes, etc... last year I had great success with kohlrabi and Chinese yard long beans.
If you are going to plant any leafy greens, I would recommend Japanese Misome and Russian kale, possibly, arugula, those are pretty tolerant and are robust plants. There are also a couple tiny Japanese turnips that you can succession plant every two weeks to have a constant source of them and I had great success with them last year, if it's cold enough they're read to eat in 25 days and you can use the turnip greens as well. Gigantic daikon radishes grew here but the leaves are too bitter.
Just follow the equator around the globe and see what's equidistant to where you live. Often it's Southern Asia, the island nations like Jamaica and Indonesia, Japan, etc... and plant that stuff. Florida is completely not like anywhere else in America, unfortunately we can't cater to our grocery store diets here.
I highly recommend only planting directly outdoors in the Florida sun. Many plants can't handle being transplanted even from being outdoors in Florida shade to the garden when temperatures reach nearly 100F.
1
