Gardening is the South presents many benefits to gardeners, such as a long growing season, but high humidity can be a problem. With planning and extra considerations, gardeners can successfully grow and save seeds in this region.
The climate in the South can present some challenges to gardeners. Many areas face extreme summer heat, high humidity, and heavy rains. On the other hand, the long growing season is ideal for growing and saving seeds from most crops.
This region includes much of the South and Southeast, including East Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, southeast Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Kentucky.
The South is marked by long, hot summers and short, mild winters. While heat-loving plants thrive, cool-season crops may be challenging to grow or to successfully overwinter for seed saving. Southern gardeners also face the challenge of high humidity, which can encourage disease and unwanted pests.
Crops that do especially well:
Growing zones in the South can range from 6B and 7A in some of the higher altitude areas to 8A to 9B in much of the rest of the region. Some of the southernmost areas may be in zones 10A or 10B.
The USDA’s Plant Hardiness Zone Map divides the United States into zones according to the “average annual extreme minimal temperature.” Knowing your plant hardiness zone will help you choose crops that will thrive in your location. Your growing zone is especially helpful when growing and saving seeds from biennials (more on that later).
You can find out which plant hardiness zone you garden in here.
Growing Zone Maps
Your first and last frost dates help determine the length of your gardening season. These dates are especially helpful when growing and saving seeds from annuals. Use your last frost date to determine when to start seeds and plant out transplants. Use your first frost date to determine the length of your growing season and which crops will have the time necessary to fully mature in your region. The hottest regions may not experience a frost at all.
Click here to find your first and last frost dates by city/state or by zip code.
Another cool tool is this interactive map of last spring frost dates across the United States.
There are generally two gardening seasons in the South—a warm season that happens over the spring and summer, and a cool season that occurs through the fall and winter. To successfully grow cool-season crops, careful timing is essential. In some of the hottest regions, summers may be too hot for even heat-loving plants to thrive, and timing becomes even more critical.
Transplant or direct sow warm-weather crops outdoors in late winter or early spring, right after the danger of frost has passed.
Warm weather crops include:
Because of the South’s long summer season, you may be able to plant two sowings of warm-season crops.
In areas with extreme summer heat, plant as early as possible to give warm-season crops time to mature before the highest heat of the summer.
Tip: Plant quick-maturing crops
Start sowing cool-season crops once the hot temperatures of summer start to subside, usually in October, and cultivate over the course of fall into early spring.
Cool-weather crops include:
For a head start on even earlier harvests, start cool-season crop seeds indoors in late summer and transplant in October.
Many cool-season crops can tolerate frost, but not all. If your region experiences frost, plant cool-season crops that struggle with frost with enough time to mature before the first fall freeze.
Learn how to extend the cool growing season.
Sow successive plantings of cool-season crops throughout the early part of the cool season to maximize harvests.
You may be able to successfully grow quick-maturing cool-season crops in early spring, such as radishes and looseleaf lettuce.
High humidity is one of the top challenges Southern gardeners face. While all crops need water, humidity can lead to diseases and garden pests, which damage your crops.
Diseases such as black spot and powdery mildew thrive in high humidity:
Pests thrive in humidity and around water sources:
DIY Neem Oil Pest Spray: Combine one gallon of water with one tsp dish soap and one tsp neem. Apply any neem oil treatments in the early morning or evening to avoid burning the leaves in the sun.
Companion planting: Companion crops are plants that help to mitigate pest problems by either deterring pests, attracting beneficial insects, or acting as a “trap crop” that lures pests away from your main crops. Plant companion crops around the border of garden beds, or in between vulnerable crops.
The South often encounters heavy rainfall and high winds associated with tropical storms. This can lead to crop displacement, soil erosion, disease, and root rot.
The South faces some of the hottest summers in the United States. Extremely high temperatures can seriously affect the growth of crops (even those of heat-loving crops), especially during flowering and seed development. These strategies will help you manage the high summer heat of the South:
Tip: Plant heat-loving crops
The long summers in the South are well-suited to saving seeds from heat-loving annuals and long-season crops.
However, regions that experience extreme heat can struggle with saving seeds. Extreme heat can affect the seed development of crops, so a little careful timing is needed to save seeds from annuals. Sow crops for seed early enough so that their period of flowering does not coincide with the hottest time of the year.
Some annual crops, such as tomatoes and winter squash, reach market maturity (ready for eating) and seed maturity at the same time. However, many other annuals reach seed maturity long after they’re ready to eat, such as cucumbers, eggplants, and green beans. When planning for seed saving, be sure to start the crops early enough for the plants to reach seed maturity before the hottest part of the summer.
Biennials are crops that require two seasons of growth to produce seeds. Typically, gardeners plant biennial crops, such as carrots, beets, and cabbage, in late summer and allow them to overwinter until spring, when they resume growth and flower.
To produce seeds, biennials must undergo vernalization, a prolonged period of exposure to colder temperatures. In general, biennial crops need 10-12 weeks of exposure to temperatures around 50 degrees F, without regular temperatures below 35 degrees F.
Because of these temperature requirements, some gardeners in the South are unable to save seeds from biennials. However, if you garden in a region with a cooler climate, you might be able to have success with biennials.
High humidity and frequent heavy rainfall can make it difficult to save the seeds of dry-fruited crops. Dry-fruited crops, such as beans, okra, greens, many flowers, and biennials, must dry completely in the field before their seeds can be harvested and saved. Heavy rainfall and high humidity can cause the seeds of these crops to prematurely germinate.
Tip: If your region is experiencing heavy rainfall, you can try covering the plants with a tarp during heavy rains and at night, and exposing them in the heat of the day to help them dry.
Instructional Video
Join Corbin, SSE farm director, as she explains how her team uses tents to shelter the drying seed pods from rain.
Recommended Varieties
Slow to bolt, holds up well in heat, recommended for planting in the South
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Classic Southern mustard green with resistance to bacterial blight
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