Things that aren't worth growing

[karstopography]

My barber bought a house in town and the previous owner was some kind of master gardener that had transformed the backyard into oasis of fruits and vegetables. He said these amazing purple asparagus popped up last spring, he didn’t realize they were even there. So I know asparagus can grow and thrive on the coast here.

[Tormahto]

Asian long beans would likely do well in the Texas. I have a bush variety for the asking (PM me).

[karstopography]

They do, thai red noodle and the green yard long beans. I’ve got both those in pole types, they thrive after the European ones quit in the heat.

[worth1]

The long beans are cowpeas they grow all summer long in Texas.
As a plus not much bothers them.

[Tormahto]

The long beans are cowpeas they grow all summer long in Texas.
As a plus not much bothers them.

Humans seem to be their greatest pest.

[PlainJane]

Things from my garden I don't see mention of:
eggplant
basil
sweet potatoes
asparagus
parsnips
garlic
rhubarb
Texas is not PA, I don't know what would grow there, not the last four I suppose.

Yea, asparagus is difficult in the Deep South, and I haven’t had much luck with garlic either.

[Harry Cabluck]

For the most part, here's agreement with TX Travis.
Okra, tastes great and easily grown, takes up too much room.
Basil is a good companion to tomato plants and with the harvest.
TxGal, try broadcast planting carrots after the tomato crop is finished. Carrots wintered over despite the recent snowmaggeddon.

[stone]

Personally, I think Worth's post about growing it if we planned to eat it... made sense... but for some different reasons than anyone seems to have considered in this thread.

For instance... I grow carrots, and leave them alone... use as needed... At my house, carrots keep very well in the garden if not disturbed... those store-bought ones, ick... throw out after a very short time.

those taters that we can buy so cheap... saturated in dangerous toxins... even the organic ones soak up poison from the storage bins!

Fairly easy to go out and pick something and prepare a meal within minutes out of the garden... try getting anything that fresh from the store!

As far as growing food that I wouldn't eat?
I used to plant a few okra for the pretty flowers... I grow enough other hibiscus and mallow that I don't bother with okra...

I can't grow asparagus at my house, but I've grown it in Georgia.
Greene Dean suggests that smilax tips can be prepared as asparagus substitute... We don't even have to plant it!

smilax1.jpg

Personally, I like them raw...

Ok, this entire thread seems to be about avoiding work...

Gardening is very good exercise... Instead of looking for ways to avoid gardening.... Maybe find ways to garden more effectively?

I haven’t had much luck with garlic either.

Have you tried elephant garlic?
Plant and ignore.

[Texgal]

TxGal, try broadcast planting carrots after the tomato crop is finished. Carrots wintered over despite the recent snowmaggeddon.

Thanks [mention]Harry Cabluck[/mention] , I will try that for my next round of carrots.
I agree okra takes up a lot of room. Grew a few plants of the Jambalaya variety last year. Grew 3-4 feet and put out lots of okra. Doubling up on them this year.

[fluffy_gumbo]

Well, I don't mind putting in the work if I get a good yield. Tomatoes take a lot of work but they reward me for at least two months. I also got very limited space so I think it's natural people like to be efficient with their time and space. When the squash I plant grows for a month then get demolished by squash vine borers overnight, that's a waste of time and space in my already small garden.

Spinach won't even germinate so I'd rather grow other greens than trying to find out why they aren't germinating, but that might be because we don't care for spinach that much anyway. There are always species that work and don't work for your growing regions. If I can grow something that we enjoy and get a good size harvest, like beans and peas, I will grow them, regardless if it is cheap at the store.

[karstopography]

What tastes better fresh out of the garden versus what’s available in the store could be one test.
Tomatoes would be a prime example. Easily obtained and not necessarily expensive at the market, but at a cost of inferior taste, texture, etc..
What might be something you particularily like but is hard to find or expensive at the market in a fresh form could be another.
Shishito peppers, as an example, are something I particularly like but are seldom available at our markets so that’s a motivation to grow those.
Then there’s the produce you like that simply and generally thrives without too much extra effort in your particular garden. Green beans and spinach would be on that list. I still think the garden version of those are more tasty, but is it infinitely more delicious from the garden, no, I’d say no.

Nice if all of the positive factors or attributes combine, then that’s a home run grow your own vegetable.

If it’s hard or marginally productive to grow in my garden, not especially more tasty than a store version, is a space hog and is commonly available and relatively inexpensive, then those vegetables get struck from my grow list.
I put summer squash and broccoli among others in that category.

Of course, people’s ideas on taste vary. Gardens vary. Climate, hard to fight that. That’s why our lists vary so much.

[Labradors]

I don't think that we tomato growers are afraid of hard work. When I think about it, raising a tomato from seed is a LOT of work and takes AGES! By comparison, growing lettuce and chard (for example) is so easy. Toss the seeds on the ground, wait, water, harvest. I think that beans are delicious and I never see runner beans at the grocery stores here. Then there's the freshness of growing our own veggies .

[Dawn]

Potatoes are grown here, there are signs when you enter the county "Number one potato producing county in the world", or something like that. So I don't plant them. I do have some growing, of course, because I made a garden bed from kitchen scraps, used up rabbit bedding/hay, grass clippings, and a couple inches of dirt on top. Potatoes and winter squash are coming up in there from the scraps. Onions are also dirt cheap here, but I always buy a bag of onion sets for $3 (for 100) when Walmart gets them in, because they're easy to throw in the ground, and require 0 maintenance. I'd never grow them from seed, though.

[stone]

I grew up with taters... acres of them!
Spent plenty of time picking the bugs and hilling the plants...
Unfortunately, between the voles, fire ants and nematodes... taters are pretty much out of the picture in middle Georgia...
I've found that striped cushaw squash tastes like taters, is easy to grow, and... fried or in soup, or even tater salad... works fine as a substitution... and... takes way less cooking!



When the squash run out.... I've discovered that sweet potatoes in the soup taste even better than irish taters!
And... they're dual purpose! When the lambsquarter bloom & can't be used, I can switch to using sweet potato leaves!

Beans are also good in soup... and... when grown in teepees, really don't take that much space for food provided...

[TXTravis]

If it’s hard or marginally productive to grow in my garden, not especially more tasty than a store version, is a space hog and is commonly available and relatively inexpensive, then those vegetables get struck from my grow list.
I put summer squash and broccoli among others in that category.

This seems to sum up my rationale pretty concisely. Except for Okra, which has no place anywhere, as far as I'm concerned.

[worth1]

Okay I'll be serious.
Most peppers where I live aren't worth growing.
Yes I grow a ghost pepper plant ever now and then but that's it.
The rest are practically free where I live.
Potatoes not gonna happen.
Expensive herbs fresh are where I'm at mostly.
Even tomatoes are getting hard to grow here.
Okra practically grows itself.
Onions are fun.
Garlic same thing as above.
Carrots are easy if you know what you're doing.
Things are about to change in a big way in my little area but I can't really talk about it.
Plus it saddens me.
I will gladly tell anyone in a PM.

[Tracydr]

Must grow:
Basil several types
Parsley
Thyme
Oregano
Garlic chives
Asparagus ( tastes nothing like store bought, purple is my sweetest)
Tomatoes
Hot and sweet peppers
Eggplants (again so much better then store outfit)
Long beans-make the best pickles and very productive in hot southern summer
Okra-so good air fried
Cucumbers
Malabar spinach is my go-to summer green for sautéed with eggs
Summer squash
Cucuzza-makes a great filler in soups, almost total bug resistance and loves heat
Seminole pumpkin-again totally heat and bug resistant
Garlic
Sweet onions and scallions
Sweet potatoes-easy and can grow varieties not found in my stores
Blueberries
Not worth much effort:
Corn
Watermelons
Winter squash except for Seminole pumpkin and Anna butternut
Brussels sprouts-can’t get my timing and weather right
Irish potatoes-love fresh new potatoes but have a wire worm problem

In cool weather I grow lots of greens,beets,chard,
I’m still trying to figure out how to get fruits and strawberries without being wiped out by bugs and weather
I grow a lot of foods that are either expensive or taste so much better from the garden, less of the things that bugs,weather,space or good local sources don’t require
Being in a very small town, anything used in ethnic cooking such as long beans,fresh herbs and pepper varieties I grow because otherwise we don’t get to enjoy them.
I would love to grow more of our own food. We eat dry beans and peas almost daily but so far haven’t been able to grow enough. I think space would be a factor in addition to wet,humid late summer weather. My dried limas and cow[eas mostly got destroyed last year due to rain/rot.
Finding varieties that thrive in your climate is a big key,then figure out how to grow the more challenging things. Long beans,Seminole pumpkin and cucuzza gourds are a no-brainer for me as I plant and basically forget. They provide a ton of good food for little work. Same with sweet potatoes.

[slugworth]

A sub-set of the original question;I saw corn plants for sale at more than one place.
You would go bankrupt buying enough plants to make it worthwhile.
I also saw potato plants for sale vs. just seed potatoes.

[Tormahto]

What tastes better fresh out of the garden versus what’s available in the store could be one test.
Tomatoes would be a prime example. Easily obtained and not necessarily expensive at the market, but at a cost of inferior taste, texture, etc..
What might be something you particularily like but is hard to find or expensive at the market in a fresh form could be another.
Shishito peppers, as an example, are something I particularly like but are seldom available at our markets so that’s a motivation to grow those.
Then there’s the produce you like that simply and generally thrives without too much extra effort in your particular garden. Green beans and spinach would be on that list. I still think the garden version of those are more tasty, but is it infinitely more delicious from the garden, no, I’d say no.

Nice if all of the positive factors or attributes combine, then that’s a home run grow your own vegetable.

If it’s hard or marginally productive to grow in my garden, not especially more tasty than a store version, is a space hog and is commonly available and relatively inexpensive, then those vegetables get struck from my grow list.
I put summer squash and broccoli among others in that category.

Of course, people’s ideas on taste vary. Gardens vary. Climate, hard to fight that. That’s why our lists vary so much.

"but is it infinitely more delicious from the garden, no, I'd say no.""

You've likely never tried Supermarconi romano beans. I do not recommend them for Texas, as they are the least heat tolerant bean that I've ever trialed.

[Donnyboy]

Most years, I grow between 400 and 600 onions. I only grow them when specific varieties are available as seedlings. I only grow sweet yellow or white onions. My preferred variety is "Texas Legend". I also grow some purple onions because they are much stronger and pungent in some dishes. I love 3/8" thick onion slices cooked on my 350 degree grill until almost black on both sides. The thick slices help hold them together as they are flipped on the grill. I use spray, butter flavored oil on the slices to make them cook easier instead of burning. The oil also lets them flip easier. I no lonnger grow summer squash. I gave up due to the SVB bugs and the fact that the squash plants are not good neighbors with other plants. I grow a lot of carrots and tomato's and peppers. I also grow a lot of spring lettuce simply because I prefer it early in the season over store bought lettuce. I've discovered that if I carefully pull all my lettuce when it starts boltlng without disturbing the soil to much, I can get a shorter warm season crop by watering the bed and keeping it damp. Ungerminated seed from the spring planting germinates and grows quickly.

(I grow Texas Legend onions because I can plant them in mid March instead of mid January and they mature when tops fall over in late May or early June. I've never had one bolt before harvest.)