Adapting To the Heat
The Garden’s Bounty
This year we lucked into ping tura eggplant, originally from Taiwan, that handles heat and arid conditions far better than the usual. The plants weren’t cheap, but their productivity is high, and the flavor is good, without the bitterness often associated with eggplant. In fact, they’re quite sweet. While the “Black Beauty” types we bought when we couldn’t find our usual ichiban have produced two fruit among three plants, the ping tura are so prolific that I picked three fruit off of just one plant.
One thing we’ve been exploring as our summer temperatures have mounted over the last decade (our summer high so far is 113 F) is finding plants that will not only tolerate the heat but will thrive in it.
One of our first discoveries was the liana bean (sometimes called yard-long or asparagus bean). They’re a climbing type, fast growing, and provide the bonus of a very pretty large lavender flower. Two years ago, we found a variety called “red noodle” that is also very colorful. Lianas are the only climbing bean we now plant. We also plant some bush beans. For the eat-fresh variety, we have come to like Contenders or, when we can find the seeds, Matador, both of which handle heat fairly well. (Although not as well as the lianas.)
A couple of years ago, I was researching desert ecosystems for the roleplaying game I was running. (I write the adventures just like I do stories, complete with research; this one was called “The Desert of Nightmares.”) In a book published by the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson, Arizona, I came across a reference to tepary beans. I was intrigued, because they apparently love high heat, and low water. There was one section of our garden bed where anything planted there died, probably due to reflected heat and lack of shade. Why not give these a try?
After some experimentation, I’ve settled on “blue speckled” as my favorites. If you look in the second photo, the tepary beans are planted in the middle row (tomatoes to the left, lianas going up the net to the right). Impressive, yes? Even more impressive is that they haven’t been directly watered for a month… All the water they’ve had is from a few tiny sprinkles.
Tepary beans aren’t meant to be eaten fresh, but they dry well and triple in volume after being soaked and cooked. Since we regularly make both bean soup and humus, they will get used. Added bonus: nitrogen fixing in the soil. Added bonus: all that foliage shades our very sandy, heat-retaining soil, making for a cooler environment for the tomatoes.
Next on my list… I’d like a more heat-resistant tomato, preferably one resistant to curly-top virus, which is common here, but not in enough other places for breeders to routinely breed resistant varieties. Bonus would be a type similar to a roma that can be cooked as well as enjoyed fresh.
I’m also thinking about looking into some different squash, especially summer squash types, since even hardy green zucchini is feeling the heat.
But for this year, ping tura eggplant is my hero! I must remember to reward it with a good dose of compost tea!
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Teparies Down the Middle
