What to plant this time of year in the dry tropics??

[lovingmygarden]

Hi everyone,
I live just below Townsville and it gets very hot and dry from now until our wet summer arrives (hopefully). I have really well mulched and composted gardens and still have lots growing in them right now but I am wanting to hear from anyone who lives close to me (or in a similar climate) who might beable to give me advise on what else I could grow over these hotter and drier months. I have just been out and planted lots more watermelons, cucumbers,pumpkins, tomatoes and silverbeet, as they did well last year.
Any more ideas.....they need to be pretty sunhardy types of plants as most of my shadier areas are planted out already.
Thanks ahead for you input.
lovingmygarden :mrgreen:

[gardenlen]

lmg,

as you are more likely than us to be getting some wet when the season starts and it can get pretty wet at that up there an as you can't realy grow a crop between now and when that may be i'd say plant the normal things tomato's, capsicums, snake beans, cucumbers, melons still need to be in raised beds if the area isn't well drained for the wet, and mulch them heavily and until the rain comes use all you used water out of the house to water them.

all our summer stuff is in with no wet season in sight, full sun.

len

[ho-hum]

A question for me... [and others]. This is the dreadful time of year to plant anything, unless it has rained . In the vegie garden you can start off most tropical legumes.... pigeon pea, snake beans, most legume trees, most grasses, [lemon, vetiver, ponderosa], most pastures, sesame seed and certainly any of the sweet potato. Sundry Ipomea vines, pinto pea, peanut, papaya, mango, langosteen, rambutan, sriwijaya, 5 corner fruit, arrowroot, leucenas, all the gingers/cannas/heliconias and tropical alliums. Those little carrots do well, as do small cabbages - no hearts but a lot of leaf etc. Telephone peas are great and some snowpea varieties. They wont look like the packet but you will get a decent feed.

This is a careful time of year here, timing is everything. Plant out any of those lil pot things that have survived and keep a bit for your pot garden. Pile up all the dropped leaves and start them mulching. Tropical gardens in the Wet Season dont do well with too much mulch, so now is the compost season and it is easy.

Cherry tomatoes, mustard, kang kong, malabar spinach, black/green pepper, vanilla orchid, tatsoi, senposai, sweet bush, mother & hen - wait a few weeks before you try the melon family. Capsicum and chillies will get away with NO MULCH and good drainage. If you have dry season survivors cut them back, de-mulch them, feed them and ''let em go''.


Anything can be started off when it rains. Bananas, corn, sorghum, sesame, asparagus[direct] and dont forget rocket and lots of amaranth. Amaranth is a wonder weed that will do a lot to save you from fighting weeds & beating the whatnots outta water couch.

Get ready, wait for about 75mm of rain and go for it... and hope the rain continues. Anyone in the dry/wet tropics knows, the more you plant the less you weed.

Remember, it will never look like Yates Garden Guide and every plant needs shade meaning put in a big plant next to a little one. If you dont plant heavily, weeds will overtake a lot of crops - but if they are the shade, it is not all bad.

Dont transplant seedlings and all weeds need to be kept back about 4 feet if ya wanna go away for a weekend..

cheers,
ho-hum

[lovingmygarden]

Thanks for the suggestions Len and Ho hum,
I went out the other day and built a lovely solid but moveable shade cover to go over my cucumbers, which has worked a treat, they were getting a bit wilty with these very hot days we are getting(and zero rain since the last wet season). I also grow things like okra that is a bit more hardy so that gives the plants plenty of shade to where they need it. I have lots of pawpaws about too which are wonderful for shade and they are loaded with fruit too....bonus!
There are some interesting plants in your list Ho hum which I might give a try too. I have the malabar spinach growing, it grows like a weed here, great for the chooks too. You have sesame seed on your list, I have never thought to grow that, how is it grown? I have never seen that plant before, but I use the seeds a lot in my cooking. I wasn`t sure if I could grow carrots this time of year here, so i will give it a try now that you have said they do...thanks
lovingmygarden

[gardenlen]

don't think hot and dry will suit carrots even getting the seeds to germinate is going to take a lot of water, we juSt planted lebanese cuce' seedlings they will be fine with plenty of mulch and a bit of water until they settle and start to grow. the seedling were a bit gangly but strong, so that gave us the opprotunity to plant the root ball deep there by more help in keeping it moist and cool.

got some seedling from seed we planted from those tomato's they have in green grocer shops along the line of cherry tom's but with their own name, soon as theya re ready they will be transplanted out be nice if there is some rain about but still got to planted.

no good rain on any horizon(when it does we is ready) but a gardeners life must go on hey? in the face of adversity we rise to the call(one of you others can blow the bugle lol).

len

[eco4560]

ABC's Gardening Oz did a story on Spring in the subtropics last week and it is on their website. I know that ain't the tropics but it might be useful...
Jerry was planting things that I had never seen before that did well in the dryer weather.

[sun burn]

I found this thread via google and figure it will be useful for me. Although i live in the wet tropics, our patch is drier.