Summer Growing Guide 

In the desert Southwest and Mexico farmers wake up at 3 am to get into the fields before sunrise. Add artificial light if needed. Cool and fresh in the morning. By noon they are done for the day. Eat breakfast, drink some beer, and take a long siesta during the hot afternoon. Early to bed, early to rise; makes a farmer healthy, wealthy, and wise.

Just commenting to say I love this style of video. Dense information + hilarious asides = highly bingeable content.

Dude just keep talking all the science! I nerd out about biology too! Thanks for all you guys do!

I just harvested 220 potatoes from the 32 I planted. I went ahead and left a potato in every hole, hoping to get a second crop before winter. I did use an organic fertilizer as I know potatoes are heavy feeders.

Yo Jesse. I am a small farmer who does both no till and hydroponics. I give you mad respect to stay so pure in your values and still produce for a living. Myself, I won’t scale up doing no till after getting knowledge in hydroponics and seeing the yield and quality . Mad props. We need people like you helping others grow their own food.

It’s 305 Kelvin here at the moment and wild birds are ruining my crops. 😕 My approach is to just plant and sow and plant and sow all summer and hope SOMETHING will survive. So far the score is me 5 and birds 387.

I just want to say, I don't think you talked to much. I love all the explanations of how things work. Love it.

My favorite part of this video was the scientific part that you thought some of us may want to skip. Thanks for sharing your experiences, and such invaluable information, with us in your videos!

I always “like” the video before it even starts🤣. Also, I originally posted this comment in the first minute of watching the video. I’m currently commenting at the 8:50 mark. Wow. Going to continue and come back to this. 14:46 another one I didn’t think of/ know. 17:04 😂😂 has to be the most truth ever😂😂 18:04. Damn. I’m a young farmer and what I can tell anyone else looking to getting into this farm game is prepare to learn. You can’t learn enough. Research articles, random google searches, RU-vid university, books, listening to other farmers and elders, sharing with and being open to learning from other young farmers. Wow. Thank you for this video. I was already feeling motivated about the rest of this season but im so much more after watching this. Priceless. On top of that you don’t have to put these videos let’s be real, you’re a farmer in real life. This is just RU-vid. So thanks again.

every effing week, jesse droppin' knowledge! much appreciated.

Absolute wealth of knowledge. And I’m absolutely nerdy enough to appreciate it. Figuring out what and how to plant when my spring crops die off in the heat has always been a mystery to me. Thank you sir!

Another thing that happens when the stomata are closed is that oxygen free radicals start building up, and that does real cell damage within the plant. The plant does have chemical modes of mitigating this, but it costs energy and is not very many good.

Here in Florida (zone 9b) in the dead of summer I am growing sweet potatoes, Turmeric, ginger, asparagus beans and hot peppers. Tomatoes at this point in the summer are prone to splitting due to too much rain plus the bugs are pretty out of control. Mexican spinach (Chaya) does really well and the bugs leave it alone. This is also our season for a lot of tropical fruit (papaya, mango, figs, bananas and so much more) plus Moringa.

Another vegetable I recommend that is heat and drought tolerant: Moringa. It's stupid easy to grow, and even though it's a perennial tree it grows fast enough that it is often grown as an annual in climates with hard freezes. Plus it's super good for you, and unlike any other leafy green that I know of it dehydrates really well, allowing for long-term storage. It also can be grown for seeds, which I've heard are edible (though, I did NOT like the cottony feeling when eating raw) and produce an edible oil when pressed. Good seed production requires as many leaves as possible to stay on the plant, though, so I wouldn't consider it a dual-crop, more of an either-or crop. You can also eat the immature, green seed pods like green beans, and immature, green, non-woody stems like asparagus. It grows quickly enough that you can actually get some pretty long twigs before they become woody. I have also heard (though haven't actually done it) that the roots can be grated and used like horseradish.

From one science nerd to another, thank you for your “nerd” explanation - I LOVE your comedy you work into it all, you are hilarious as well LOL! Always planting :)

With a weather forecast of 40°C this week, this was perfectly timed for me. Thank you, for all of your videos.

This is so helpful! Malabar Spinach is a vigorous vine that I find grows well trellised. I grow mine using okra as the trellis and they get along fine. The berries taste like spinach. After your Beet video, I went to Johnny's and started nosing around all the short season brassicas. I don't usually grow hybrids, but I'll make an exception if it helps me get a crop growing that would normally be destroyed by the BUGS.

PLEASE never stop your videos, your geek-assumed-side is an underestimate gift for us 🙏 i have to watch twice often cause the amount of information you are giving is so generous. I just LOOOOOVE your videos and especially your funny unexpected comments. I'm awesome, i'm a subscriber 🤟😆 I'll order the book right away! Evelyne, Canada 🇨🇦

Love the science nerd stuff up through minute 6:22. We think of all the complex things we do an assume plants don't do anything but sit there. If they didn't have these whole amazing biological capabilities we just aren't living. Keep teaching!

Oh no; I'm not done yet. Get away from me. OMG I'm a NERD that has watched this video at least 3 times and I've laughed so hard at this each time. Intense heat and mostly drought here thus far in Lansing, MI, 5Bb. THANK YOU!!!

We love growing black eyed peas (cowpeas) in the summer in FL and also hot peppers. Thanks for the instructions- sooo helpful!

I use bubble wrap on seed rows for some crops and also use around tomatoes when planting in May in northern Maine. Normally if plant touches plastic when really cold, the plant will freeze but does not do with bubble wrap because of air pockets. By end of June tomatoes are big and many.

Your finest and funniest work? Kelvin jokes? 😂 Bravo.

Great video again Jesse. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

I love the context and science basis. Keep talking, let the people skip! P.S. I might start using K just for the fun of it. 🤠

Came for the top tips, stayed for the unnecessary digressions. Struggling to mitigate heat here in my part of the world, it's going to be pushing 100F this week, it just seems to kill everything I want to grow for fall/winter... Trying this year to grow things in shade, but full shade doesn't work either, it's quite a balancing act

Louisiana is hot baby! I plant, it burn, i nurse it, plant some more, sun won't let up. I just order a canopy garden shader... otherwise 😫😩 Imma keep planting & keep pushing 💞

If you grow in the South I highly suggest building shade houses of some fashion. I live in a very swampy part of SC and I grow most of my sensitive summer crops in shade houses and lath houses. You can buy cedar lath fencing and conduit to create very cheap lath houses. I do my summer lettuce in a lath house with misters that go off every 10 minutes for 1 minute. Pretty much stick to muir lettuce in the summer but it works great. I'm basically going to build tons of lath houses and farm in them. Pretty novel and pretty AF. If you plan to sell on site build a nice lath house to sell your stuff under.

Love the "Fun Facts"! Thanks!

Jesse, I liked that video so I liked that video!! Just got your book in the mail yesterday. Keep up the great work!

Thanks Jesse.

Thank you so much! Incredible video, v generous of you! 😊🌱💚🙏✨

Just keep planting! I needed that!

Loving the botany lesson!

This is exactly what I was looking for!. Thank you👌🏾😙

Thank you for all the shared knowledge.

Been loving these vids, thanks for the content!

You're the best, Jesse.

I’m at 7,200’ in Colorado, and I appreciate the high altitude shout outs and considerations. Thanks!

Thanks for the encouragement to get out and plant some more!

Brilliant data. So grateful.

Just keep planting*** love it!!

Thank you

I very much appreciate your authenticity, and I absolutely learn something, while laughing. I needed this message today, it's like you intuitively understand what it means to farm/garden in the summer. Loved the kelvin addition and please continue to raise the standards of RU-vid by teaching the soil and plant science. I grow bush beans within my tomatoes, and of course basil and peppers. I sort of shove bush bean seeds in all the empty spaces throughout June.

Another very interesting video. Thank you very much.

Thank you so much for this video inspiration! I need you to know that you've reached this growing farmer at just the right time. Thx

I’m so intrigued by your ways of gardening! Thanks for sharing all your knowledge with us!

Thanks for the tip about the seed company with the high-altitude plant varieties. Our last frost date is typically somewhere around mid-May, and the afternoon highs can also exceed 90°F by that time too. We got a late start to planting stuff in our small home garden this year (2nd week of June), and lots of our seed failed to germinate (soil temp too high), despite lots of watering.

Thanks for all those details.great

Great video, gonna need to watch it a few more times.

I love your long form videos

Great job

Keep being nerdy.. Love these in depth videos. Extreme temps here, so I'm learning from every video.

so much free information! You're so giving

I appreciate all the science stuff as a soil science nerd! Any tips specifically on planting a fall potato crop in heat? We're in SW Oklahoma and are usually in the upper 90's and 100's for July and August.

Just came across your channel and thought you did a great job with this! I'm from a hot part of Australia so, your knowledge can be adapted to here. Cheers from South Aus!

Thank you!

you're awesome, Jesse!

Thanks Jesse. Respect from Africa 🇿🇦

So glad your from Kentucky so am I so I get the advice for my area

Great information!! Will start trying the water methods you talked about with the tomatoes and watering at night and then direct sowing in the morning. Great hat!

great video. here in NorthFlorida we are planting yardlong beans and sweetpotatoes, also gourds and of course cover crops. Going to try to throw some other stuff in the green house, which is uncovered this time of year

Last month or so I been watching gardening channels and this randomly came up this morning. I soon heard your were in located in my home state and that was nice. But damnit 5 minutes in and this has maybe became my favorite channel for learning to grow stuff. Great stuff!

Wonderful video. Keep up the nerd science. Subscribed.😁

Information rich! Humorous (dry and delightful). Thank you.I love how you just give information with confidence and yet also ask for input with humility. Well done. Zone 5B here so we have different planting schedule but the info is solid and applicable.

Love the science stuff!

Nice advice Am New England gardener and planting whatever Seeds I have because weather is excellent here.

love the tecno babel

So good!

A way to help get around using shade cloth is to interplant your beds with tall, long season plants like corn, okra, tomatoes, peppers, peas, ect. The shade shifts around throughout the day when they're tall (as long as you don't plant your tall crops too dense), they're not tall in May (when you want the heat/light), and it allows you to grow things like sweetcorn without losing a bunch of potential revenue off a bed that could have been filled with lettuce or carrots. I plant my sweetcorn throughout my entire field blocks, 5 feet between "hills" (clumps), 5 seeds per clump, 51 inches on center (36" bed, 15" path). each bed is staggered from it's neighbors. I also plant pole beans at each clump of corn, so I can have green beans without devoting much bedspace to them (like you would with bush beans). Peas go where the irrigation heads need to be, and the posts for the trellis support the line and heads above everything. .6 acres of vegetables planted like this have the same sweetcorn yields as if you planted .3 acres in the "way you're supposed to", with 30" centers and roughly 12" spacing yet allow enough light to the floor to grow everything else during the summer (which you can't easily do if you planted on 30" centers).

Heat tolerant (or loving) crops I'm growing in 9b: Japanese eggplant (white and green), "white" currant tomatoes, Sungold cherry tomatoes, okra, Lesya Ukrainian peppers (suffering from sunscald so I added 50% shade cloth), Chinese red noodle long beans, basil, ground cherries (just about finished) all in full sun - it's been high 90s-100 this week - and frizzy mustard + wild arugula in part shade. Beds are super well mulched. I'm having a flea beetle problem this summer but trying some Neem. I took cuttings from my heirloom tomatoes (finished this month) to try a second crop later in the summer for the first time. First frost won't be until at least mid-December. So glad I discovered your channel!

Thanks so much for this it was really helpful

Woow so much knowledge dude 🙏🏻

Great video, just what I needed to hear when struggling with labour shortage and needing to prioritise jobs. Not so hot in U.K. still a critical time to sow autumn/winter crops as need good growth before short day length becomes an issue. Time is running out to sow Radicchio and parsley for winter.

Loved the comment below about the sheer curtains. Imma try them too. With misting the sheers, I bet it will work.

This is the first video Ive seen from you. Outstanding work. I found this very informative.

More than EXCELLENT.

Egyptian or molokhia spinach is growing great in Central Florida heat and I'm looking forward to pickling the seed pods.

I LOVE your channel. You're like the Alton Brown of agriscience ❤️

Súper valuable like always, thanks so much... Big hug from the Argentina mountins

I’m having excellent results with tarping carrots after seeding. Enjoyed the video as usual!

Thanks for all the info for high altitude growers. 4500 feet here and any advice helps. Will be looking into Wild Mountain Seeds.

Lol short video. I love the digressions Jesse. Thank you for sharing.

You’re speaking to my soul sharing the science behind the growing. This is the first video I’ve watched on your channel. Immediately subscribed!

I finally have some space to grow stuff. I'm growing it, but i planted way too much all in the begiining of the season. Now I know to start fewer plants so I'm not completely swamped finding different spaces to plant them. and I wont have way too many of one item at once time. THANKS A BILLION

I enjoy your various bumper music! Oh ya the info is good too. That’s a good fog ya got there. Good Fog here’s a biscuit!

Greetings from Columbia, Ky! I bet you've forgotten more about growing than I'll ever learn 👍

Thanks 4 sharing. I do malavar spinach at 1150m in the mountains in pyrinees. Summer but sometimes i mid-shade. Also did it in autum and woks well. Then winter under glass cover i plant giant winter spinach. Sometimes without cover and under snow, but it gets more damage depending on the weather.

ThankQ

Good video for my area. Thanks. I am also in zone 6b but in an extreme drought area at this time and should next summer be as hot as last we will be fighting drought problems. I think you covered it all very well. Havagudun Jess.

Input! More input! Need more input!! Lol thanks for all the tips man. Now, to start some seeds! 🤩

Great episode with great wealth of information. #ILoveThisChannel Keepupthegreatwork

Malabar spinach is so easy to grow. Here in the tropics, I have grown this using plastic tumblers. It does make a tasty salad.

Thank you for your nerdiness! rubisco sounds like a chocolate drink or soft drink company 🤣🥤😋

A classic mid summer crop in the Deep South is Field Peas. Alternately called Southern Peas, Cowpeas, etc. Latin is Vigna Unguiculata and Long beans are a subspecies of this plant. Absolutely loves heat and while very drought tolerant, it really thrives and produces when keep well watered. Nitrogen fixing legume, so fertilize, but lightly. Delicious varieties abound and while it is often grown in long rows it works just fine planted densely in patches or beds. Just leave space to walk in and pick. You can plant it right now in the South and still get crops in September-October timeframe. Try Pinkeye Purple Hull. Absolutely delicious.

Saudações do sul de Portugal, Algarve. Agora estamos no verão com 36° centígrados. Tive rede verde até junho na área virada a sul, mas retirei para cultivar tomate. Manjericão e alface na sombra dos tomateiros. Na fila ao lado tenho milho, batata doce, e chufas, ou como é mais conhecida junça (tigernuts). E na terceira fila, funcho, boldo, videira moscatel, chuchu e Silva mansa, melão andino ( Solano muricatum) . Apenas 50m² horta comunitária. Amei tua apresentação e continua com o teu excelente trabalho.

Nice shirt! Frith Farm... Despite living in Italy, I have both of your books...

Kelvin! Ha! I subscribed right then and there.

souther peas do well (purple hulls)

I love the nerding