Ten Must-Have Edibles in the South Florida Garden

Well ok, admittedly this is a list of my favorite edibles. However, every item on my list I consider a fast grower and they are edibles that I have been able to successfully grow in our unique weather. So without much small talk lets get right to it.

The list is in order with # 1 being my favorite.

# 10- Watermelon

 

So I have watermelon as my number ten but that is only because it is the most obvious one. I mean, have you ever met someone who doesn't love it?

 Give each watermelon plant enough room to crawl around. A minimum of 4' x 4' I would say. My own Sugar Baby plants seem to like partial light. Specifically the morning light. But they still get plenty of indirect light throughout the rest of the day.

Recommended varieties:
Jubilee/Florida Giant
Sugar Baby
Golden Midget
Sweet beauty

Cool Fact: Watermelon is both a vegetable and a fruit.

#9-Sunflowers

 

Sunflowers have a special spot in every garden. Yes, the seeds are edible but it's much more than that. They have the ability to make people happy. Something about their big smiling faces looking up at the sun all day is very inspiring. There are a lot of varieties to pick from. From tiny ones you can keep on a kitchen pot, to giants like the Russian Mammoth.

Recommended Varieties:
Valentine
Russian Mammoth
Lemon Queen
Teddy bear

Cool Fact: Sunflowers are native to the Americas


#8-Yuca (Cassava)
I f$*#ing love Yuca!!! If you have ever had it then you understand. If you haven't please go and try some before the rest of your life is wasted away.

It can be grown very easily from a cutting and takes about 6 months before you can harvest, although you can let it grow for an additional 6 months for even bigger roots!

The most care free crop I grow. It is extremely drought resistant. You never have to water yuca except when you first plant it.

Cool Fact: Cassava roots will last no more than 3 to 4 days unless coated in wax. Most of the yuca you buy on stores is treated this way.
You can alternatively harvest your cassava and store it in the freezer right away. It should be good for about 6 months this way.

#7- Onions


So useful in the kitchen that it definitely deserves this spot. I like using onions fresh out the garden for my sandwiches, for marinating, and making sauces. They are also useful when blended with peppers to make an organic pesticide. Everyone has a spot for onion in their own recipe. So yes..definitely grow this one.

Cool Fact: Eat parsley to get rid of onion breath.

#6-Strawberry

 

Certain strawberry varieties grow very well in South Florida. They can be grown from seed but start fruiting much earlier when grown from cuttings.

Strawberry will flower year round but only fruit once the weather is cold enough.

Recommended varieties:
Sweet Charlie
Camarosa
Festival

Cool Fact: Strawberries are the only fruit with seeds on the outside.

#5- Peppers

  

My Jalapeño plant. Wait till they turn red for extra spice!

So many recipes that call for this useful plant that it has a very deserving number 5 spot.
So many peppers so pick from! Some mild, some super hot! Some peppers have no spice at all and are used strictly for flavoring. But hey, you know what to do with your peppers, I'm just here to tell you to grow them!

With such a wide range of pepper types it is best if you research the type of pepper that matches the hotness level you want.  I personally love growing Jalapeños. I use them hot things in everything!

Cool Fact: Even though peppers come in many different colors like green, red, black, and white , all the shades are produced by the same plant. The different colors on peppers are mostly due their ripeness.

#4- Sugar Cane 

 
 Sugar cane is as sweet as it gets. I mean this is where sugar comes from sweet. You can chew on the cane with no special preparation, or crush it to extract the juice known as Guarapo. You can also boil the water out of it to make homemade sugar.

To grow it just cut a piece of sugar cane at least 8 inches long and place it on the ground with a light covering of organically rich dirt. Definitely a care free crop.

Cool Fact: Sugar cane re-grows from the roots so you can collect a few harvests before replanting again.

#3- Corn

 

After an extremely successful harvest last week I can do nothing else but recommend this crop to all my friends. I absolutely love it. My friends and family also seemed to love it too as I had very little to myself..but that is ok as I am planning to grow lots more! Remember to keep the very tall stalks protected from wind damage and to manually pollinate the ears

Recommended varieties:
Dent Corn( Field Corn)
Sweet Corn

 

The male flower at the top of each plant must pollinate each hair at the top of every ear. Second picture is of male flower on top of plant.

Cool Fact: Corn will always have an even number or rows on each cob.


#2-Tomato

 Mmmm I love tomatoes. You can grow so many different types it can actually seem a bit overwhelming. Some types are better suited for making sauce, while others I grow to slice up into a salad or just eat them straight up. Whatevr you intended purpose is, tomatoes are incredibly easy to grow.

They like plenty of water, as long as it drains quickly.

Grow varieties that can take our heat in growing in full summer, there are plenty of Florida hybrids.

Recommended Varieties:
Beefsteak
Cherokee Purple
Small Red Cherry

Cool Fact: Tomato seedlings have been grown in space before.




#1-Bananas

I go bananas for my number one pick. This is the slowest growing of the bunch, but still manages to win the gold. There is a pretty wide arrange of choices in the Musa family; from the plantains which can be fried into amazing chips to the small but super sweet Latundan Banana which is nearly impossible to eat just one of.

 

This is one of those where I can't recommend a specific variety. Most bananas and plantains will do well in our climate so chances are you can grow the perfect one for you right on your backyard.

Cool Fact: How about a cool picture?

This is an African Rhino Plantano that my good friend Sam harvested  on his yard.

I hope you enjoyed my picks. Did I miss your favorite fast growing edible? Let me know in the comments below.

Keep on learning!

Wind Damaged Your Corn? Get Creative!

So my dent corn has really taken off and I couldn't be more proud. It grows so fast that I can come home each day after work and there is always new growth for me to see:

This is my corn on September 3rd:

You can see my beans also starting in the background, they are huge now!

September 17th:

Knight/Scarecrow only tricked the birds for about 2 weeks

September 24th:

All this fast growth sounds great but there is a downside...

Most plants can be placed in either of two categories: Slow growing but vigorous(for example a Mango tree) or fast growing but fragile ( for example CORN!!!)

So when I got home yesterday I found my beautiful corn plants looking like this:

NOOOOOOoooooooOOOOOOOooOOOOO!!!  =(

Turns out we had a lot of rain and wind that day, The rain water collected on the corn plants makes them heavy. It only took a few minutes of a moderately strong wind to topple my beautiful plants.

But eventually I had to dry my manly tears and get to work!

I couldn't find much information online on protecting corn from wind. At least none that was useful to me. Since most corn is grown commercially the methods used by that industry don't really translate to my small backyard operation.

So I got creative:

Yes that is weed-eater line

A string tied from one fence to the opposite fence now holds my corn in place.

Notice that I have to rows of corn. Each row was fitted with two strings. One string to support the base of the plant and one to support the top portion:

In each row, the upper string travels behind the plants while the lower string runs through the front. This method gives the plants added stability.

I suppose support stakes could be used too. I didn't have any stakes that were tall enough so I went with my string method instead. If you do use stakes make sure to bury them on the ground early; corn doesn't respond well to root disturbance. 

The point is to be creative and use what we already have whenever possible.

I have some cool projects to show you very soon, but until then...

Keep on learning!

Planting Corn this Season? You Should Try Dent Corn

September is here and you still have time to start your corn plants.

I've noticed however that most folks in South Florida grow the sweet corn variety.

This post is my plead to get you to try dent corn, also known as field corn, or yellow dent corn.

But first I think it's important to give you a brief background:

While dent corn makes up about 90% of all the corn grown in the US, it is mostly used for animal feed. For this reason many people know the variety as "cow corn". It has many other uses, like making tortilla chips, or even making ethanol fuel.

Because of it's importance in animal feed production, this type of corn has been labeled as "animal corn", while sweet corn is dotted with "people corn".

That makes me mad. I actually prefer the taste of dent corn!

Dent corn also has more nutritional value that the sweet kind. Besides tasting great, each dent corn kernel is completely "meaty" and not filled with the sugary liquid like the sweet type. No more spraying the person in front of you with corn juice!

So how can you tell them apart? Well as the name implies dent corn has a dent in each kernel while sweet corn doesn't. I took a pic of both for comparison, you can see the dent corn on the left:

I  picked the biggest seed I could find from each pack, the dent corn kernel looks way more impressive!

On the pictures below you can see the difference in corn ears, notice how sweet corn is more pale:

Dent Corn

Sweet Corn

So now that you are convinced, how do you plant it? Easy!

Plant the kernels about 1" deep in good loose soil. Space them 8 to 12 inches part, and space each row 24 to 36 inches.

I usually put two kernels per hole to increase my odds. If any don't come up you cant always go back and replant.

Provide plenty of water for your corn. After all, corn is part of the grass family!

 In about 5-7 days your rows will pop up and your corn will grow very fast from there.

When the plants reach about 6 to 8 inches it is a good idea to mound some soil around the base of the plants to keep them from bending during strong winds.

When corn is planted in large fields the outer plants provide wind protection for the rest of the field. In small beds however it is a good idea to mound soil around their base for extra support.

Corn ears will be ready to harvest about 100 days from time of sowing.

Have you tried dent corn? Let me know what you think, 

 Keep on learning!