What should i grow?

[Community Table Garden]

I run a community food bank garden in Memphis, zone 7, right now it’s full of tomatoes, pepper, eggplant, okra, cucumbers, cantaloupe, watermelon and pumpkins just getting started, BUT I have three empty raised beds from pulling my onions and I’m trying to decide what to put in there right now. Still too early for fall stuff but not tons of time left on the hot end (I say that and it will now be 85 at thanksgiving )
So does anyone have suggestions for quick crops to throw in my empty space that only need 60-75 days? So far collards (because they’ll take the heat and the cold) and more okra are topping the list. I wanted to try to get tomatoes in but they’d be starting from seed.

 

[Meadowlark]

Crowder peas would be my choice. 60 days to maturity. Even if you have an early fall and don't harvest any peas you will still be way ahead because they are a legume and will help build your soil for your next crop. The sooner you plant them the better.

 

[DirtMechanic]

I was literally looking at 70 day crops myself today. Here is a link. I would caution backing up 30 days from the low temp threshold changes, because not only the angle of the sun but also its intensity weakens dramatically more so that you will see on paper leaving you with growing but non-productive plants.

 

[Community Table Garden]

Crowder peas would be my choice. 60 days to maturity. Even if you have an early fall and don't harvest any peas you will still be way ahead because they are a legume and will help build your soil for your next crop. The sooner you plant them the better.

Will they handle the heat ok?

 

[DirtMechanic]

Germination LOVES the heat. That will not be the problem. June 21 was the longest day and we are a month out from that on a downhill slide to the shortest day Dec 21. But a fall garden needs to pay attention to Sept 23, the fall equinox. Product of summer plants will be severely impacted past that date in a rapidly decreasing curve. I roughly figure winter growth is at a rate 1/4 of what I experience in our Alabama summer. One reason is the 17 degree shift of the planet to the sun allowing the atmosphere more angle to absorb and reduce Infrared heat energy as well as uv energy. The blue and red spectrum lighting touted by led grow light sellers are indicative of what plants need but we cannot see. It is easy to miss the importance of this energy to a plant as a result.

 

[Meadowlark]

Will they handle the heat ok?

They absolutely thrive in the heat!

 

[Community Table Garden]

Awesome! Never grown em before so now I’m super excited! Thanks for the idea!

 

[headfullofbees]

French beans and zucchini (courgettes).
Courgettes give a bumper crop and are nutricious, just the thing for those with financial difficulties.
I don't know if calabrese will take the heat, perhaps other members can advise, but it really is, after potatoes THE SUPERFOOD.

 

[DirtMechanic]

French beans and zucchini (courgettes).
Courgettes give a bumper crop and are nutricious, just the thing for those with financial difficulties.
I don't know if calabrese will take the heat, perhaps other members can advise, but it really is, after potatoes THE SUPERFOOD.

Engage English to English translatorbot:

That would be a broccoli to some, not the grape.