Greens in the Summer Heat

[tlintx]

Just wanted to report that I had decent success with the greens I experimented with this summer.

My goal was to grow "cut and come again" style greens for salads, not heads or full grown plants. In our heat and humidity, most of what I considered salad wouldn't even germinate.

I started seeds for transplant in mid-June in a shady outside spot. When I transplanted those seedlings a few weeks later, I also direct seeded. I used some 6" deep "trough" herb SWCs in afternoon shade, morning sun, and a raised bed in full sun (very little watering).

Komatsuna. The clear standout. Germinated easily, grew well in the trough SWCs or raised beds, and stayed relatively mildew free.

Tokyo Bekana. Germinated well and grew well in the SWCs, but not at all in the full sun location. Otherwise, almost as hearty as the komatsuna, but a lot of the crop was unusuable due to mildew.

"Spicy" Mesclun Mix (from the Sample Seed Shop). A great mixed crop, with what looked like mizuna? Very attractive and hardy, given that I grew it in a 9x13x3 tub over August.

Swiss Chard. I had poor germination, and about half of what did start died. But the survivors are just about ready for harvest. So next year I'll start it a lot earlier, in the spring, and plant a lot more!

Cabbage, Tronchuda. Not sure what this IS actually, but I'm going to try it in a stirfry tonight. Nothing seemed to bother it much -- poor soil, infrequent watering, full sun.

Misc Greens. I put kale, indian mustard, chioggia beets, and 7-top turnips in a couple of the trough SWCs. I'm not sure how well they would do in August, but they were fine for leaf harvest during June and July.

I'm glad to be going into lettuce season again, but it was fun to see if I could keep us in salads over the summer, too! Are there any good, heat tolerant greens I missed?

[mdvpc]

You might try Jericho-it was originally an Israeli Romaine. Seeds of Change have it and so does Johnny's.

[tlintx]

Oh, thanks! I think I had that on my list but disregarded it because it was a lettuce. Will definitely try it for next year. Was also thinking about trying mizuna and possibly some of the other asian greens.

[RobinB]

My climate is vastly different from yours... lots of heat, but very low humidity here in the high desert. The one green I grew this year that lasted even through the heat was Spigariello Liscia. It tasted a little like broccoli, but was sweeter. Definitely a keeper, at least for me. Now, I get to see how cold tolerant it is!

[tlintx]

I googled it, what a lovely plant! A contender for my edible front yard, along with the lacinato!

http://blog.gardeners.com/2009/10/better-than-kale-yes/

Apparently it's also cold-hardy. I'll add it to my "list of stuff I should order in the next few days" list.

[saltmarsh]

Try Purple Top Rutabaga. When I plant, I overseed on purpose. The young greens are great in a salad. A couple of thinnings as salad greens and if you like turnip greens, the rutabaga greens taste even better than turnip greens. I like to cook them mixed with an equal amount of mustard greens. Claud

[Tormato]

How did the Tronchuda do as a stir fry?

What Tronchuda IS is a loose leaf cabbage (aka Portuguese kale, sea kale) mostly used in soups, from what I've read. I have some growing somewhere in my garden. It's doing very good considering the complete neglect on my part.

Gary

[tlintx]

I don't know! Never got out to cut it!

Maybe tonight... it's pretty neglected in my yard too, growing in a small pot and hardly ever watered. Just keeps chugging along, probably not going to be as tasty as if I'd pampered it, but towards the end of summer here, anything green and salad-y is a welcome change.

I also just remembered -- I also have a big pot of amaranth I could cut some leaves from. It's so decorative I forget it's edible as a green too! It wilts a lot during the hottest part of the day but doesn't seem to be suffering any long term effects!

[tlintx]

I didn't want to strip any one plant, with the hope of getting a second crop, so I harvested some amaranth leaves, some tronchuda cabbage, some swiss chard, some komatsuna, and a few miscellaneous greens of mesclun mix.

I did a really simple saute -- a little olive oil, a little garlic, a bucket of washed greens, topped with salt, red pepper, and a splash of red wine vinegar. (Served with pasta and shrimp parmiagana.)

Delicious! Some bites were more spicy, some more mustard-y, some more cabbage-y, some a little bitter. But all good, and really, really easy to grow and very heat tolerant. I've only watered the tronchuda and amaranth pots a handful of times, and most of the mesclun mix is growing under and around other plants like peppers.

My goal is still salads, but it's nice to be able to use up the plants that get a little too big to be tender fresh!

[Davezone5]

Has anyone tried growing baby lettuce during the summer in a hot humid climate like Central Illinois?

I have a restaurant that wants 10lbs spring mix - salad mix a week. The mix is mainly green and red romains and oak leaf lettuces. I was thinking I could maybe get away with baby lettuce, seeded heavily, grown in raised bed mini tunnels with a shade cloth (white sheets) over them during the hottest parts of the day and hopefully get about 30-40 days of growth without it all bolting?

[jmsieglaff]

While not has consistently hot and humid as many of you, I too struggle with summer lettuce. This year I'm going to rig up burlap with tarp fastners above my summer lettuce and hope the shade it provides well keep them growing and from being bitter/premature bolting.

[luigiwu]

This is a very interesting topic, growing green in heat. I have broccolo spigarello growing like a champ but its just starting to get warm. Will keep you posted on what happens.

[Tracydr]

Swiss chard does great for me. I plant full sun, part shade and shade so that I have an endless supply. It even seeded and volunteered all over my shady flower garden!
Amaranth is another heat lover. It tastes amazingly, just like spinach when cooked. My Love Lies Bleeding is over my head and the stalks are bigger around than the rest. We don't eat it quite as much as chard but if I didn't have a lot of chard I would be using it daily.
I use basil as a green, leafy veggie in the heat by making pestis and topping all sorts of dishes with an abundance of the fresh basil.
I picked the last of our lettuce about 4-5 days ago. It was planted in shade, maybe 2 hours of sunshine. We got a lot off a very small patch which I planted quite late. It was also shaded bu the bolted arugula, and I'll collect arugula seeds this week.
Kale volunteers are looking great, despite heat of 112 the last few days. It may be bitter but I might make something with it while it looks so nice.
By using sunny and shady areas, plus some heat lovers, I can have greens all year.

[Tracydr]

Originally Posted by Davezone5

Has anyone tried growing baby lettuce during the summer in a hot humid climate like Central Illinois?

I have a restaurant that wants 10lbs spring mix - salad mix a week. The mix is mainly green and red romains and oak leaf lettuces. I was thinking I could maybe get away with baby lettuce, seeded heavily, grown in raised bed mini tunnels with a shade cloth (white sheets) over them during the hottest parts of the day and hopefully get about 30-40 days of growth without it all bolting?

If you germinate inside, this should work. It's been above 100 for a couple of weeks here and mine just bolted when it started to get over 110 this week.
Baby chard makes great cut and come again and will survive summer in the shade here, even with the record hot summer last year. And when Phoenix has a hot summer, it's really hot!
Baby amaranth greens are good,too!