7 Crops You'll Regret Not Planting in Florida This Summer
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Grow Food NOT Lawns. If your garden went quiet when the heat rolled in, you are leaving food on the table. Florida summer is not the off season. It is the window when a whole set of heat loving crops do their best work, and most folks miss it because they are waiting for fall.
Here are 7 crops you can plant in Florida right now. Every one is built for our heat, our rain, and our humidity. I grow all of them here in West Central Florida, and I pulled the planting windows straight from the University of Florida IFAS Extension so you are working with real dates, not guesses. Watch the video below, then read the full breakdown under it.
Short on time? The full written guide below covers the same crops, plus exact planting windows for North, Central, and South Florida so you do not have to take notes from the video.
Why summer is prime planting time in Florida
Up north, summer is the main growing season. Here it is the opposite of what a lot of new Florida gardeners expect. Our tomatoes and squash from spring are winding down, and the crops that take over are the ones that love a Florida July: okra, southern peas, sweet potatoes, and a handful of tropical plants that shrug off the heat.
Plant these now and you get food through late summer and into fall. Skip them, and you sit through the hottest weeks of the year with bare beds. That is the regret. Let us fix it.
Quick planting chart
| Crop | Plant now by | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Okra | July into August | Fast pods all summer |
| Seminole pumpkin | July into August | Storage squash, native to Florida |
| Southern peas | July into September | Protein and healthier soil |
| Sweet potato | Now, last call in July | Roots and edible greens |
| Roselle | Now for a fall harvest | Tart calyces for tea and jam |
| Moringa | All summer | Nutrient dense leaves, fast tree |
| Everglades tomato | Now through summer | The tomato that beats the heat |
1. Okra
Okra is the easiest yes on this list. It wants exactly what Florida hands out in July, full sun and steady heat. UF/IFAS lists okra as a seed crop you can plant in Central Florida through July and August, and in South Florida starting in August.
Direct seed it right into the ground about a half inch deep. Soak the seeds overnight first and they come up faster. Give each plant room, around a foot to eighteen inches, because a happy okra plant gets big. You will be cutting pods in about 50 to 60 days.
Pick the pods young, around three inches, and pick often. The more you cut, the more it makes. Let a pod get long and woody and the plant thinks its job is done and slows way down. Keep the basket moving and okra will feed you until the first cool snap.
2. Seminole Pumpkin
If you plant one thing off this list, make it Seminole pumpkin. This is a Florida native squash that the Seminole people grew here long before any of us showed up. It handles heat, humidity, and the pest and disease pressure that knocks out regular squash and pumpkins.
UF/IFAS has you transplanting Seminole pumpkin with care in Central Florida in July, and into August further south. Give it room to run, because it is a vine that will climb a fence or sprawl across a bed. Plant it where you want a living ground cover that also feeds you.
The best part comes after harvest. A cured Seminole pumpkin stores on the shelf for months, sometimes close to a year. That is real food security from one planting. The flesh is sweet and good in anything you would use butternut for.
3. Southern Peas (Cowpeas)
Southern peas, the family that includes black eyed peas and zipper peas, are a summer workhorse. UF/IFAS lists them as a seed crop for Central Florida in July and August, running through September and October, and into fall down south.
They do two jobs at once. You get pods of protein rich peas for the kitchen, and the plant pulls nitrogen out of the air and feeds it back into your soil. Plant a patch now, harvest what you want, and turn the rest under to make your fall beds richer before you plant greens.
Direct seed them about an inch deep and keep them watered until they are up. After that they are tough. Heat and dry spells that stress other beans do not bother southern peas much at all.
4. Sweet Potato
Sweet potatoes are one of the highest payoff crops a Florida gardener can grow, and now is your window. UF/IFAS lists sweet potatoes as a crop to plant through July, and in Central Florida the boniato type transplants easily this month. If you are planting, get your slips in the ground within the next couple of weeks.
You plant slips, which are rooted cuttings, not seeds. Push them into loose soil or a mounded bed and keep them damp for the first week while they take hold. From there the vines spread out and shade the ground, which chokes weeds for you.
You get two foods from one plant. The roots cure into sweet potatoes in the fall, and the young leaves are an edible green you can pick all summer long, cooked like spinach. Few crops give you that much for so little work.
5. Roselle (Florida Cranberry)
Roselle is the crop your neighbors do not know about, and it is one of the prettiest plants in the summer garden. It is a hibiscus, sometimes called Florida cranberry, and UF/IFAS Extension grows it as a heat loving edible right here in the state.
Get plants in the ground now. Roselle grows all summer into a tall shrub, then blooms and sets its fruit as the days get shorter in the fall. What you harvest is the red calyx around the seed pod. It is tart and cranberry like, and folks use it for tea, jam, and sauce.
Plant it where it has room, because a single roselle plant can reach five or six feet by fall. Full sun, decent soil, and steady water are all it asks. Then in October and November you are harvesting bright red calyces while the rest of the yard is settling into cool season crops.
6. Moringa
Moringa is the miracle tree, and Florida summer is exactly when it wants to grow. It thrives in USDA zones 9 through 11, which covers most of our state, and it grows fast enough that a planting now becomes a real tree by the end of the season.
The leaves are the reason to grow it. They are packed with protein, vitamins, and minerals, and you can eat them fresh, cook them like greens, or dry them into a powder for smoothies. Keep the tree cut back to shrub height and you can harvest leaves within easy reach instead of climbing.
Plant it in full sun in well drained soil. Moringa does not like wet feet, so pick a high spot or a mound. If you want the full walk through, read our guide to growing moringa in Florida.
7. Everglades Tomato
Here is the answer to the question every Florida gardener asks in July, can I grow a tomato in this heat. The Everglades tomato says yes. It is a tiny wild cherry tomato that UF/IFAS Extension recommends as a summer tomato for Florida, and it keeps setting fruit in heat and humidity that make big slicing tomatoes drop their blooms and quit.
The plant is small in fruit but huge in growth. Give it a cage or a fence, because one plant can sprawl six feet or more. The tomatoes are pea sized and sweet, perfect for popping in your mouth in the garden or tossing into a salad by the handful.
Plant it once and it tends to come back on its own from dropped fruit, so you often get volunteers season after season. For a state where summer tomatoes are supposed to be impossible, that is a win worth having.
How to help these crops beat the Florida heat
Planting the right crop is most of the battle. These few habits carry them through the toughest weeks:
- Water early in the morning. Deep water at sunrise so plants are ready for the afternoon. Watering at night in our humidity invites fungus.
- Mulch every bed. A few inches of mulch keeps roots cooler and holds moisture through a hot afternoon. Bare Florida soil dries out fast.
- Feed the soil, not just the plant. Compost and the nitrogen from your southern peas do more for a summer garden than any quick fertilizer.
- Scout for pests weekly. Catch caterpillars and stink bugs early by walking the garden with your morning coffee. A few minutes now saves a crop later.
Where to get your seeds and slips
Start with a local nursery or feed store when you can, especially for sweet potato slips, moringa, and roselle plants that ship poorly. For seeds, here are easy places to start:
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Frequently asked questions
What can I plant in Florida in July and August?
In the heat of summer, plant heat loving crops like okra, southern peas, sweet potatoes, Seminole pumpkin, roselle, moringa, and Everglades tomato. UF/IFAS Extension lists okra and southern peas as seed crops for Central Florida through July and August, with more heat tolerant options going in down south into late summer.
Is it too hot to plant a garden in Florida in summer?
No. It is too hot for cool season crops like lettuce and broccoli, but it is prime time for heat lovers. The trick is matching the plant to the season. The seven crops in this guide are all built for Florida summer.
Can you grow tomatoes in Florida in the summer?
Standard slicing tomatoes struggle to set fruit once nights stay hot, but the Everglades tomato, a small wild cherry type, keeps producing right through the heat. It is the most reliable summer tomato for Florida gardens.
What is the easiest crop to grow in Florida summer?
Okra and southern peas are the two easiest. Both are direct seeded, both love the heat, and both keep producing for weeks with very little fuss.
Get growing with GrowFitFL
These seven crops are your ticket out of a bare summer garden. Get them in the ground this week and you will be harvesting while everyone else waits on fall.
Want the deeper playbook for growing food in Florida year round? Come inside the Southern Grower's Hub for member videos, tools, and a full masterclass, and start with a 7 day free trial. You can also grab my books, Grow Food NOT Lawns and The Florida Perennial Garden, at growfitfl.com.
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