Here in hot, humid, zone 8b, most greens will fizzle and bolt during the first hot day. If we want to grow any type of greens from April through September, it has to be heat tolerant greens. These greens not only grow in warm weather climates, they thrive in hot and humid weather. Some of these grow so easily that they can be considered invasive. I welcome the abundance!

Moringa

My all-time favorite hot weather green is Moringa.  Moringa has a delicious spicy, peppery, nutty flavor that reminds me a little bit of arugula, my favorite cool weather green. With a little bit of kick and a smooth texture, Moringa is a great addition to a salad. Add it to your favorite salad combination or use this easy recipe for Moringa Salad. Moringa can be eaten cooked as well, however some of the other heat tolerant greens taste better cooked, so I usually save my moringa for fresh use. Moringa is a very popular green in many tropical locations and is used medicinally in many cultures. It’s a powerhouse of nutrition and also contains significant amounts of protein.

Moringa starts easily from seed. I’ve had the best luck with scoring the seed or soaking overnight before planting. Like most tropical plants, moringa likes nice, rich soil. It grows well in containers as well as in the ground. In the right conditions, moringa can grow into a tree. The largest moringa plant I grew was around four feet tall. I keep clipping them back to use the leaves and the plant seems to thrive, putting up new shoots each time.

Learn more about the many awesome benefits of moringa, here.

Malabar Spinach

Malabar spinach is another popular heat tolerant green. While it is technically not in the spinach family, the taste most resembles spinach. The variety that I have planted is red-stem malabar spinach and it not only tastes great, it is quite beautiful too. It needs something to climb on and once it gets established, it will vine all over the place.

The tiny flower like portions are pretty as well, although once they produce seeds, they can be a little messy. The dark purple color will stain concrete, and your hands if you are picking them. The seeds look like berries on the stem and are edible, but the flavor is blah, at best, basically flavorless. The seeds are a rich, dark purple, full of anthocyanins, so worth eating if you can get past the lack of taste. I’ve added them to smoothies and never knew they were in there.

The down-side to malabar spinach is that it is slightly mucilaginous. It’s no where near as slimy as something like Okra, but it definitely has a slight slime factor to it. I’ve added it to salads and it is noticeable if I add too much. My favorite way to eat malabar spinach is to use it cooked in traditional spinach dishes. Sautéed with a little garlic is great. Add to pizza, pasta or use in spinach dip. No one notices that I’ve substituted malabar spinach for regular spinach.

If I grow more malabar spinach than I can use, I like to dehydrate it. I dehydrate all sorts of greens and turn them into a powder. When I am making meatballs, pasta sauce, meatloaf, or just about any casserole, I add a tablespoon or two of greens powder for a little extra green nutrition. The taste is not altered, but I’m hopefully sneaking in a little extra nutrition.

Malabar spinach is full of nutrition – high in vitamin C, magnesium, calcium, potassium, as well as other nutrients.

Malabar spinach grows really easily from seed. Just find a nice sunny spot, with something for it to climb on. They do not require a lot of care and will usually propagate year to year from the seeds dropping.

Longevity Spinach

Another heat tolerant green that grows in abundance is Longevity Spinach. This plant does not vine like malabar spinach, but instead grows as a bush. The more it is cut back, the fuller it becomes and is a nice addition to an edible landscape. The leaf has a slightly fuzzy texture, similar to a peach, but it is not too noticeable, especially when cooked. Like malabar, longevity spinach is not actually a spinach, but has a similar taste to spinach. Although it can be eaten raw, I prefer to eat it cooked.

Longevity spinach is also extremely easy to propagate. Simply cut the stem of a branch that has a new shoot, strip off the lower leaves, and plunk it in some dirt. It usually roots quite easily and will quickly become a full plant. It grows well in containers as well as the ground and will spread due to its ability to root easily. Although I have seen longevity spinach flower, I’m not sure if these are used to start the new plants. I started mine from a plant and have easily propagated plants for others from the original plants.

Sweet Potato Vines

Sweet potatoes love to grow in hot weather and the greens of sweet potato plant are edible. The greens are fairly neutral tasting, a bit like spinach, but not as strong of flavor. Because of the neutral taste, they work in many different recipes, taking on the flavor of the dish. The greens can be picked all season long no impact to the roots. When picking the greens, be sure to select the young, new shoots and avoid the older leaves, as they can be a bit tough.

Sweet potatoes are one of the most versatile plants we can grow in a warm weather climate. They are not particular about soil, the whole plant is edible, and both the roots and greens are full of nutrition. Once established, sweet potatoes will come back year after year if some of the roots are left intact. This is fairly easy to do even if you are not purposeful about leaving roots after harvesting. Even little roots will usually take hold and pop back up in the spring. This makes sweet potatoes an ideal choice when trying to increase self-sufficiency through food production.

Find a good source of sweet potato slips to plant. Or, pick up an organic sweet potato at the grocery store in late December or January. Place it in a jar of water (refill as needed) and watch as it forms roots and eventually leaves on the top (slips), which are then plucked off and planted. When you first put these slips in the ground, they look kind of pitiful, all wilted and unhappy. But give them lots of water and they’ll perk up in a day or so.

Check out our video about Heat Tolerant Greens on GabTV. If you are in a warm weather climate, I hope you’ll give some of these greens a try. 🙂