Everything Else > Tropical Vegetables and Other Edibles
FL summer gardening ideas - best tasting & productive vegetables/herbs
Rispa:
For basil try African Blue Basil. It is an incredibly good pollinator attractor. Over winter you can bring cuttings inside to root in water. I also like the taste better than many other basil.
FloridaManDan:
--- Quote from: roblack on April 04, 2023, 12:43:39 PM ---
--- Quote from: 1rainman on April 04, 2023, 07:46:20 AM ---Peanuts
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Which peanuts do best?
Growing some here, forget the variety.
Green peanuts are the best to me, harvested when still a little soft. Makes the best boiled peanuts.
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Rob, I sent you a few Schronce's Deep Black peanuts, if thats what you are recalling. My Deep Black plants have been thriving, even being mostly neglected. I recently cleared them out for some extra space.
As far as other peanut varieties, I have had success with Fastigiata Pin Striped and Tennessee Red Valencia, not as much with Carwile's Virginia -- these varieties are all supposed to be well suited to the conditions of the southeast US. And they also produce lots of gorgeous flowers.
Might have some seeds leftover of these varieties.
roblack:
Thanks Dan! I have 2 or 3 of those growing pretty well. Need to repot them. What time of year do you harvest? Fall?
mcoambassador:
--- Quote from: Julie on April 02, 2023, 10:22:07 AM ---Share your ideas on what vegetables to plant over the summer that actually taste good & are productive.
Basil - all types. Thai, Genovese are what I've tried. I'm going to try lettuce leaf basil & red basil this summer.
Lemongrass
Mint
Pepper - Habanada & Cubanelle
Eggplant - ping tung long (does not set fruit in hottest part of summer but plant survives & produces after/before the ends of the regular growing season). Tempted to try thai frog egg & chinese string from Baker Creek.
Green Papaya
Okra - tried it before and didn't like the taste/texture, but will try again this year with new recipes
Garlic Chives
Bottle Gourd - tried it last year and it only set one fruit. Anyone know where to get seed that can produce better in the heat?
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My habenada plants were besieged by bacterial spot and fungal rot. Peppers also had a weird plastic flavor too them so I didn’t plant them this year. Meanwhile my datil peppers and Thai bird chilis made more than we could eat and kept alive straight through the winter. Italian banana peppers did well too but were kinda tasteless. I’m growing the datil and Thai bird chilis again, and trying some larger hybrid types from burpee: Chinese giant, Costa Rica sweet, and Big Boss hot. My seedlings are almost ready to plant out.
For eggplant my Chinese string and Aswad did well, while Thai miniature eggplants didn’t produce enough to make it worth growing. I’m adding Cambodian giant and Kamo Japanese eggplant this year.
My yardlong Taiwanese string beans produced well but were tough and nobody loved the flavor. I’ve heard there’s a red yardlong bean that’s much better, but I went with bush beans (burgandy and dragon tongue) this year as I tried a few on my family in the fall and they were a hit. Cool looking too.
For tomatoes Galahad produced but were more susceptible to RKN than advertised. I went with Medusa for mtg RKN resistant type this year, which tastes better than Galahad anyway. Sart Roloise produced well, while Brandywine languished with sunscald, and pineapple tomatoes which didn’t like the cold weather so we’ll see how they do in summer. Adding Green Giant to the mix for a large slicer.
In my non-RKN tomato plot I planted cherry tomatoes, and I tried sunrise bumblebee, rosella, and sun gold select II. The sun gold were fine, sunrise were big and beautiful but just good flavor, nothing amazing. Right now the Rosella are tasting and producing best. I’m adding Green Doctor this year.
mcoambassador:
Late spring updates:
Re: sweet / bell peppers… my Costa Rica sweet peppers are out producing my Chinese giant sweet peppers 4:1, so unless the Chinese taste much better they’ll not make it back.
Re: tomatoes, once it warmed up, the pineapple tomatoes were amazing, but green giant were perhaps even better, though not super productive. I had issues with sun scald and uneven ripening with the Brandywine and Sart Roloise. Definitely won’t grow Brandywine again. Sart Roloise looks so cool, but not sure I’ll grow them again either since everyone loved the green giant and pineapple so much better.
Re: eggplant, my Aswad continues to pump out beautiful eggplants, and carries about ten fruits at any given point. Loving the baba ganoush and caponata, and almost getting sick of eggplant just from a single plant! Given away a half dozen eggplants the past couple weeks and kept a dozen so far this season. Foliage and eggplants are beautiful and disease free too.
I’m going to plant some lime basil (Thai type) this week, and some calypso cilantro (supposedly slow bolting) so we’ll see how those do.
Brian
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