My top 10 heat loving fruits and veggies

Potted eggplant with petunia

Sunday, August 10, 2025

  

We are breaking heat records left and right in our Midwest edible garden this summer.  There are many crops that thrive in this weather as long as they get adequate moisture.  For some edibles like Mediterranean herbs, they'll do well even without watering.  Others like squash, cucumbers, eggplant and beans will produce much more with supplemental watering as needed during dry spells.    

My Top 10 Heat Loving Edibles

1. Herbs.  Most Mediterranean herbs thrive in this heat.  Rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano, chives, and basil all do well being left on their own.  Watering and fertilizing will increase basil growth.  The other herbs have more intense flavor without watering and are best harvested in the late afternoon when their oils are at the most intense.  I have found a heat loving substitute for cilantro-papalo.  It grows over 3 feet tall so I only need one.
2. Greens.  Heat loving greens in my garden are Red Malabar spinach that is a vine with maroon stem and flowers, all varieties of amaranth, cockscomb, orach and Giant Blue Feather lettuce.  I am growing a chard that is doing great and will keep as a standby in my summer garden-Barese Chard.  For salads and sandwiches, I'll add lemon balm, sorrel, plantain, and herbs with the greens.
3. Peppers.  I grow most of my peppers, both sweet and hot in pots.  They seem to do well in pots.  They do appreciate being on the north or east side of the house when the temperatures are in the 90's for weeks on end as they have been here.
4. Eggplant.  I am growing all my eggplant in pots.  They do very well even in the intense heat in pots.  They are from India so evolved in hot, humid conditions.  You just have to make sure you are giving them enough water and pick the fruits when they are young to avoid the bitterness that more mature fruits can have in extreme heat.
5. Vining Beans.  I have grown my beans in large pots or in the garden bed.  This year I am growing all but winged bean in the ground.  Winged bean and Yard Long bean plants seem to be thriving in these hot days.  Both will produce until frost.
6. Cucumbers.  My cucumbers are also from India and are producing well.  I have way more cucumbers than I can eat from 2 plants of Bush Champion and that includes making pickles!
7. Okra.  Okra is a real heat lover.  They are beautiful plants with lovely flowers.  I am growing Red Burgundy which always does well in my garden.
8. Zucchini.  I am growing Trombetta again this year.  They seem impervious to squash bugs and powdery mildew.  They produce a couple of fruits a week and continue right through frost so you are never inundated with too many fruits.
9. Melons.  Melons are heat lovers.  I have 2 different varieties growing and both seem quite happy and have fruits.
10. Goji berry.  Goji berry bushes get into their groove in late summer and will produce berries until frost.  You can pick and eat fresh or I like to freeze them and add to my morning yogurt.  Very high in antioxidants.  You have to leave them on the stem for a bit after turning red for them to sweeten up.  

 Beat the Heat Strategies

Aside from planting crops that like the heat and humidity, there are strategies for keeping summer maintenance at a minimum and maximizing the harvest.  The requirements for growth and fruiting of edibles are enough sun, adequate moisture, the right varieties, nutrition, and pest avoidance.

In the cooler days of spring, giving your plants as much sunshine as you can, stimulates growth.  As the mercury climbs, plants appreciate some shade, particularly in the hottest part of the day.  If you are growing in pots, you can just move the pot from a full sun location to one that provides some afternoon shade.  If growing in the garden bed, you can grow plants that grow taller on the sun side of your edibles to provide shade as summer progresses.  You can also move pots of sun lovers in front of your edibles or use a sun shade.

Most edibles appreciate about an inch of water each week if they are planted in the ground; double that if grown in a pot.  To keep the moisture in the soil, use a soaker hose and cover with a mulch.  This keeps the water in the ground where the plants can use it.  Keep a log of when it rains and how much it has rained.  You don't need to water your garden bed if you have gotten 1" of rain during the week.  You can also buy a timer and set it to water once a week so you don't forget.  

For edibles in pots, use larger pots that hold more soil and therefore more moisture or buy pots that have a water reservoir (also called self-watering pot).  Cover the soil with mulch to keep the moisture from evaporating.  You can also use lighter colored pots and plastic or fiberglass pots that keep moisture in.  Moving the pots to a shadier location will also decrease the watering needs.  

Also look for varieties that are grown in your area or under similar conditions to your garden.  You can google where the seed company grows their seeds or buy from companies that specialize in garden varieties that do well in your conditions.  For me, Baker Creek grows many of their seeds in southwest Missouri and Southern Exposure specializes in varieties for the south so both are good fits for my garden conditions.

Look at the seed packet or internet description for the variety you are buying.  Terms like "drought tolerant", "heat resistant", "disease resistant" are all good ones for our hot and humid summer conditions.

Keeping your plants well fed so that they have everything they need to grow well also helps plants stay strong and produce as much as possible.  For greens, they use a lot of nitrogen.  For fruiting plans, they need all 3 of the NPK combo.  You can use a general fertilizer for greens and a tomato fertilizer for all fruiting vegetable plants.  Typically for fruiting plants, you fertilize when you transplant, again when the plant flowers and then monthly thereafter.  For greens, I fertilize at planting and then monthly.  

You can buy all natural fertilizer stakes that advertise to be good for the whole season so you can fertilize once.  

Harvesting frequently also stimulates that plant to keep producing.  I pick beans, eggplant, squash and cucumbers when they are fully ripe.  I pick tomatoes and peppers just when they start to turn.  If I leave tomatoes on the plant until they are fully ripe, the birds and raccoons start sampling before I get them picked!

Last is pest avoidance.  There are a variety of ways to practice pest avoidance.  You can companion plant so one plant deters another's pests like tomatoes with basil and marigolds.  You can time your planting to avoid a pest like waiting until mid June to plant squash to avoid the vine borer or harvesting broccoli as soon as you see the cabbage worm moth fluttering about.  You can plant two crops of tomatoes and squash so that as the early crop is losing steam, the second crop is just getting going.  

Take a walk around the garden on a daily basis looking for any big changes in your plants.  If they are drooping in the morning, they may need a watering.  If the leaves have turned from dark green to a pale green, they may need a nitrogen boost.  If it looks like something has been eating the leaves, look to see if there are caterpillars on the undersides of the leaves.  And, of course, harvest anything that is ready to be picked and enjoy the pleasure of watching your food grow!