Strange New Garden Plants: Perennials, Drought Resistant, etc...

I found this article online today and thought it had enough meat to offer to everyone on here; there was plenty in here that I didn't know.  Drought-resistant food plants, perennial or not, are I think an important focus for anyone growing their own food; you never know, nowadays, when the water won't be there.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/diet-for-a-hotter-climate-five-plants-that-could-help-feed-the-world?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Betsy, thanks for sharing.

Which food did you feel has the best potential?

Which are best for the home garden?

From personal experience, Amaranth is a very resilient and easy to grow plant, although it gets pretty full of bugs. The grains make excellent flatbreads, tortillas or porridge.

I'd like to grow cowpeas this year. I'm pretty far north but our summers have been really hot the last few years and my runner beans didnt set more than a few dozen pods because of it. I think cowpeas might withstand the heat better.

Hi Anne, I thought Kernza sounded amazing, since it is a perennial.  However, these are just ideas that should lead people off the beaten track.  I am myself allergic to wheat and so kernza wouldn't be my bast personal choice.  Drought IS a significant problem everywhere at some time or other though, and so the drought-tolerant crops like quinoa and amaranth, which also like heat, are good for me here in the Deep South.  You actually either have to do more digging or just start trialing different things; crops that yield well in one portion of the country will not do so everywhere maybe.  With the Kernza, my question would be: what happens to yields, quality, etc over the long term?  Another: what pests are attracted to this, since it is perennial?  That would be something to know.

I once planted some Job's Tears seeds sold for edible grain...they converted over time into the hard, make-a-rosary type.  You have to know your plants, as many of us are looking for reliable, long-term crops.  And we are looking for them for our own soil/climate/area.  So I guess that's not a pat answer but it is what it is XD

Some interesting ideas are: hulless oats, dual-purpose sorghum (you can make sorghum syrup with the stalks after you have harvested the grain); sorghum is extremely drought and heat tolerant, as well; and millet.  I am in love with millet!!!  It is "birdseed" mostly, here in the US (where most are overfed and undernourished); it is the only grain that is alkaline-forming in the body, AND its nutritional profile is amazing!!

Thank you, Betsy!

Sounds good to me.

I grew cowpeas for the first time last year and I'm sold. I like them dry and green (dry, they're like a black-eyed pea, green, think edamame), they like absolutely crap soil and dry weather, and the beans ripen in a different season from the other dry beans I grow. The plants take a long time to get rolling, but they are apparently perennials where I live (9b). I have two trees I pruned severely after harvesting in maybe September (southern hemisphere, end of winter) and they have recovered their size entirely. I will have cowpeas growing in every "marginal" wasted space from now on, I love them (and the rabbits love their foliage).

#cowpeaproselytizer

I'd love to get some kernza seed. It shows promise in its nitrae mitigation properties as well as being a perrenial grain.

For small scale home growers, I think pearl millet is awesome. I know they mentioned fonio in that article, but it's more labour intensive to harvest (compared to the big heads of pearl millet) and needs hulling. Pearl millet can be eaten as is and it's sooooo delicious. The millet you buy in the store, around here anyway, is proso millet. I love that millet, too, but pearl millet is waaay tastier! It also grows like a weed, even in heat and drought and poor soil.

I think terpary beans are worth a look for drought areas.

Daniel Sillito wrote:From personal experience, Amaranth is a very resilient and easy to grow plant, although it gets pretty full of bugs. The grains make excellent flatbreads, tortillas or porridge.

I'd like to grow cowpeas this year. I'm pretty far north but our summers have been really hot the last few years and my runner beans didnt set more than a few dozen pods because of it. I think cowpeas might withstand the heat better.

Daniel, last year I grew a variety called Potawatomi Rabbit Cowpea, that was developed by the Potawatomi people in the Great Lakes region. It needs warm soil to start, but then produces very quickly, so you might get them to mature in Alberta. You can get them from Great Lakes Staple Seeds

Mk Neal wrote:

Daniel Sillito wrote:From personal experience, Amaranth is a very resilient and easy to grow plant, although it gets pretty full of bugs. The grains make excellent flatbreads, tortillas or porridge.

I'd like to grow cowpeas this year. I'm pretty far north but our summers have been really hot the last few years and my runner beans didnt set more than a few dozen pods because of it. I think cowpeas might withstand the heat better.

Daniel, last year I grew a variety called Potawatomi Rabbit Cowpea, that was developed by the Potawatomi people in the Great Lakes region. It needs warm soil to start, but then produces very quickly, so you might get them to mature in Alberta. You can get them from Great Lakes Staple Seeds

well that site is amazing, thank you for the recommendation. I'll have to see what other goodies are there as well!