What Vegetables Are Suitable for Planting in Hot Weather? Recommended Heat-Tolerant Varieties

Vegetables are one of the essential foods for humans, supplying the vitamins the body needs, and they come in a great many varieties. So, do you know which vegetables are suitable for growing in high temperatures?

Vegetables suitable for high-temperature growing include cucumber, cowpea, tomato, water spinach, ice plant, okra, asparagus, broccoli, arugula, lettuce, green beans, and eggplant, among others. When growing them you need to water frequently, and for some vegetables you should add a shade net.

1. Cucumber

Cucumber is a plant that likes warmth and cannot tolerate cold; its most suitable growing temperature is 20-25°C, and even at a high temperature of 35°C it can grow normally without its photosynthesis being affected. When choosing a variety, however, it is best to pick an excellent one that is disease-resistant, heat-tolerant, and high-yielding. If you run into continuous hot, dry weather, you will need to put more effort into watering.

2. Cowpea

Cowpea, also called black-eyed pea or long bean, is not strict about environmental conditions, so it is divided into spring-sown, summer-sown, and autumn-sown types. Cowpea is also a plant that likes high temperatures and has very strong heat tolerance; even in the height of summer at above 35°C it can still set pods normally and does not drop its flowers. The beans it produces come in crop after crop, enough to feed a whole family. Whatever you cannot finish eating can be taken to the market to sell, which will also bring the family some income.

3. Tomato

In China, tomatoes are mainly divided into spring crops and autumn-winter crops. The autumn-winter crop is generally started from seed in July or August, then cultivated after autumn, so that harvesting can begin around mid-to-late November.

4. Water Spinach

Water spinach is a very heat-tolerant leafy vegetable; it can grow just the same even in the hottest weather, and like chives, once you cut a crop and wait a few days, it grows back again. It is also an amphibious plant that can be grown both in dry land and in paddy fields.

5. Ice Plant

It is a plant vegetable that tolerates dryness and has very high salt tolerance. One advantage of growing ice plant in summer is that it sprouts quickly and abundantly, because the most suitable temperature for its sprouting is 30°C.

6. Okra

Okra is a premium nutritious health vegetable popular around the world; it has a unique texture, smooth and not greasy, crisp and juicy, and is deeply loved by people. In many African countries it has become the vegetable of first choice for athletes.

7. Asparagus

Asparagus is most suitable for planting in summer, because its seeds need high temperatures to sprout; if the temperature is low, sprouting is slow or does not happen at all. So whether in the south or the north, summer is a good time to plant asparagus.

8. Broccoli

Its growing cycle is relatively long; raising the seedlings alone takes more than 20 days, so if you raise seedlings in summer, autumn is exactly the period when broccoli heads form, and you can harvest in autumn.

9. Arugula

Arugula's heat tolerance is also quite outstanding. High temperatures of over 40°C do not affect its growth, and it has no diseases or pests at all. In addition, arugula's cycle from planting to harvest is very short; quite a few gardening friends have reported that it sprouts the day after planting and can be picked in about 20 days. Gardening friends can try growing some in summer.

Summer weather is hot, so you should choose vegetable varieties suitable for high-temperature planting. The nine vegetables introduced above are all suitable for growing under high temperatures, and I hope they are helpful to everyone.