We have been blessed with some good rain over the last couple of weeks, and gardens are blooming and producing great right now. My biggest problem right now is making sure I beat the squirrels to my tomatoes.
June is a fun time to garden because of all the harvest coming in right now. Tomatoes, blackberries, squash, green beans, and many more crops are ready right now. June is also a good time to start thinking ahead to a few other crops like okra, sweet potatoes, and pumpkins.
Okra loves the hot weather of a Texas summer, so it’s not too late to get it planted. The biggest hurdle for growing okra in the summer is being willing to go out and pick it in the heat of July! Some good varieties for Williamson County are Clemson Spineless, Hill Country Red, Burgundy, Emerald, and Stewart’s Zeebest. Plant seed through the first week of July, and the days to harvest is 55-65 days.
Sweet potatoes are a fun crop to grow, and you can plant the slips April through June. Sweet potatoes like hot days and warm nights, so we can grow them in the summer in Texas. Sweet potatoes grow from slips, pieces of the stem with a few leaves from the mother root. This is different from white potatoes that we plant from pieces of seed potato. Sweet potatoes need 10-20 inches of water throughout the growing season, so be sure to provide plenty of irrigation water through the growing season. Plant varieties such as Beauregard, Centennial, and Georgia Jet. Sweet potatoes take 120-140 days to grow, so plant now to enjoy in September or October.
Pumpkins are another crop that you can plant in June for a fall harvest. Small Sugar, Orange Smoothie, Jack-B-Little, and Connecticut Field are recommended varieties for Williamson County. These varieties have a range of 90-110 days to harvest after planting. Pumpkins also need a lot of water to produce a good crop, about 25-30 inches of water. An irrigation system is helpful to apply water consistently for good fruit development.
Texas A&M AgriLife Extension has a great set of Easy Grow Guides for fruit and vegetable crops. Visit aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu to find the guides. For more information about lawn and garden questions, contact Kate Whitney, Horticulture Extension Agent for Williamson County at 512-943-3300.
