Varieties for Dryfarming/ Drought-Tolerant Varieties

[TheSeedObsesser]

I'm looking for some good drought-tolerant or hardy varieties, in particular tomatoes (beefsteak or paste/canning types) but also of most of anything else (already tolerant crops like okra do fine). I don't have much time to water the garden before it heats up and gets very sunny. I'm working on mulching the whole thing with straw, but I don't really have enough time or straw to do that. Drought tolerance would be a very useful trait in my garden, as I rarely water it. I'm planning on trying some Native Seed corns this year, if I can get the seed ordered .

Any suggestions?

 

[seedcorn]

Getting late for dent or flint corn to mature correctly. Go with 100 day or less.

 

[digitS']

There seems to be something like a cottage industry of growing Early Girl tomatoes as a dry farm crop for the northern California restaurant trade. No, if I understand correctly, it's true! It seems a little whoop-de-do but, it's okay.

You are limited to what is available at this time in the garden center so I doubt if you can come up with any heirlooms, SeedO. It probably serves little purpose to suggest 2 that I've often grown that have noted drought-tolerance: Thessaloniki and Porter.

This might not help very much: TAMU, Veg, water needs.

Table IV-1. Relative Vegetable Water Needs - Seasonal water demand in inches

Watermelon 10 - 15
How about watermelon?!

 

[baymule]

I planted Oaxacan green dent corn 5-24-14 and it is already coming up. Here is a link for seeds

http://sustainableseedco.com/heirlo...flour-flint-corn-seed/oaxacan-green-dent.html

http://www.seedsavers.org/onlinestore/corn/Corn-Oaxacan-Green-Dent.html

It is known for it's green color and drought resistance.

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

Thanks for the suggestions!

Baymule, I'll be ordering Oaxacan Green dent from Victory Seeds now that I see that I have it. I do like the the green color and that it's drought resistant. I don't think that I'll be planting much corn this late.

Steve, the nearby greenhouse actually has quite a bit still available, including heirlooms. I don't think it would hurt to take notes from next year when I'm not working in this year's garden. And as long as they have the desired traits, I would not mind doing the work to dehybridize a hybrid. I have not had good results with watermelon in the past but this is a completely new area, I will try again. Thanks for the link, I'll have to take a look at that one later.