10 Top Plants for a Food Garden in Subtropical Climates- Florida Gardening

Rob: Florida is a state where most people

go to the supermarket to buy their food,

but they don't realize that they can

grow most of their food right at home.

Today, I'm really excited to have

Pete Kanaris on the channel.

He's going to introduce you to

10 different plants that you can grow

that are super-abundant and resilient

for the Florida climate to help you grow

a large amount of your food at home

and be able to skip those trips to

the grocery store.

This doesn't just apply to Florida,

though. Semitropical climates exist

around the world -- the Caribbean,

Central and South America,

southeast Asia, parts of Africa, and

parts of Australia, just to name some

places, are all places where this can

be a super-helpful video to you.

Pete: Alright, what's up, guys?

What's growing on?

Pete Kanaris here with Green Dreams

and I'm coming at you from Tampa,

Florida. I'm about 20 miles north of

Tampa and we're growing in a

subtropical environment here, in 9B,

and I'm taking over Rob Greenfield's

channel today. I'm putting a video

together for you all on our top 10

food crops to grow in a subtropical

environment for self-sufficiency.

These are the top 10 go-to food crops

that are super-easy to grow.

Something I'll tell you guys is we

focus on plants that thrive on neglect,

that grow with ease. Most of these

crops are perennial crops. By perennial,

I mean something that doesn't need

to be replanted every year, like you

would an annual. This is plant it one

time and typically forget it.

Perennial crops are crops that live

two or more years.

The first one I want to talk to you

guys about is actually right here,

behind me, just over my left shoulder.

This is chaya, or tree spinach.

You can see the big, giant leaves off

of this tree. This is a really easy one

to get established in your garden.

This is one that I tell people about

all the time and the first thing that

scares them about this one is that

it has to be cooked. Chaya does

need to be cooked for about 10 minutes.

There's an offgas of cyanide that comes

off of there. You definitely don't want

to use an aluminum pot, but this is

a big-time staple crop in Central America.

This is a really easy one to propagate

and start, so if you wanted to share

this with your friends, you would simply

take a cutting like this, stick it in the

ground, take off the leaves, and it will

start growing. It's really that easy.

The leaves from this are actually

quite delicious. I find this tree

to be really, the flavor of the leaves

to be hearty. They're really filling.

They go really well in a soup, really

well in a dish. Also known as tree

spinach. This is four times as

nutritious as typical spinach and it

wants to grow here. It wants to grow

here, through our hot summer,

our humidity, and our full sun.

The #2 plant I want to talk about that

is a must-have for your garden is

sitting here behind me. This is moringa

oleifera. This one likes full sun. If

you noticed, I had that chaya in a

dappled light, understory situation.

This one wants to be out in full sun.

I look at this tree as like having a

health food store in your back yard.

This one is like 22% protein, by

weight; 68 different antioxidants;

four times the calcium of milk.

I could go off about all the

different minerals and nutrients

that are inside of this plant.

This one is literally one of the

fastest growing trees we also have on

the farm. Commercially, they grow these

trees about a foot apart and they

prune off the new growth every week.

Most commonly, you would dry those

leaves and powder them, but you

could put this fresh into a salad. You

could put this fresh into a smoothie.

You could eat this fresh, like this.

The tree is also known as the

horseradish tree. That's because the

leaves can be a little bit on the spicy

side. I prefer this as a supplement.

I prefer this in a smoothie. I find

it to be a little bit on the strong

side, but it grows so well and is so

nutritious. The powder from

this tree goes for $30-40 -- I remember

when it was $60 a pound.

So, super-nutritious.

My #3 must-grow crop for Florida would

be what Rob would like to call yucca

or cassava or manihot. We got a

lot of comments on that one from

the videos we did together.

This is a must-grow crop, a super easy

to grow crop down here in Florida.

This is what they would make tapioca

pudding from. Cassava is a root crop

and it's really easy to get started in

the garden. It's one that you

literally, just like I showed you on

the chaya, you take a cutting of,

so probably something a little older

than this. You want three nodes above

and three nodes below the soil.

You just stick this guy in the ground

and it'll grow. Usually, cassava is

about an 8-9 month crop. You'll get

a root crop off of that. I just did a

specific video on cassava, on cooking

it, on harvesting it, on growing select

varieties, with my good friend, Josh,

from Hart. If you want more detail

on that, head over to my channel and

you'll see more specific stuff with

Josh -- how they cook it, how they

prepare it. I had cassava bread while

I was there. There are many different

ways to eat this.

Cassava? Must grow it.

The fourth crop I want to talk to you
about today are sweet potatoes.

Many people, when you think sweet
potato, you think of that typical orange

sweet potato, but there are hundreds

of heirloom varieties of sweet potato.

There are white sweet potatoes, purple

sweet potatoes, typical orange sweet

potatoes, but what a lot of people

don't know is you can eat the leaves

and the roots of a sweet potato.

Sweet potatoes just happen to be

one of the most nutritious crops in

the world for that reason.

What I really like to do is pull all

of these young leaves off of here.

This isn't a very good example of a

sweet potato patch. I just have a

couple of slips that we planted here

maybe a month ago, that are starting

to take over, but I can tell you, if I

came back in this area in just a few

weeks, this would be a solid sea of

green. The leaves are just starting

to fill in. You would start sweet potatoes

by buying just organic sweet potatoes

at the grocery store, sticking them in

some soil, letting the sprouts come

off and you break those off and that's

what would be called a slip. If you

don't start it from a potato, you

actually order slips in spring from a

sweet potato company. Like I said,

there are many different varieties

and types. Not only do you get this

awesome potato at the end of the
season, which is really fun to dig up,

to pull them out of the ground. You
don't have to eat them right away.

They can last 6-9 months inside of
your house, but during that entire time,

you can eat the leaves off the sweet
potatoes. So, sweet potatoes are

super-exciting for me because I love

the flavor of the greens. They're great

sauteed with just a little salt and

pepper on them, make a great side dish,

and then you get potatoes at the end

of the season. Digging up sweet

potatoes is one of my
favorite events on the farm.

My #5 favorite perennial vegetable

to grow down here in the food

forest is sisso spinach or Miami spinach.

This one makes a really nice ground

cover. It can take full sun or dappled

light. You can see I accidentally

ripped a little bit of that root out.

I can stick it back in the ground.

It will easily grow. This is one

that doesn't need to be cooked.

It can be eaten raw. It really has a

nice texture to it, not too slimy, goes

really great in a salad, goes really

great just eating it fresh or in

any type of dish. This is a great

perennial vegetable that I planted

one time and it's been here for

multiple years, that's here all

summer long if I want to come outside

and have something to add as a

green in a salad or to a plate, so

sisso spinach is definitely worth

growing if you're in a subtropical

environment. We've got one or two

varieties of this one. It is just

great. Like I said, it has a nice crunch

to the leaf, it's not too slimy. It makes

a great perennial vegetable to add

to your landscape, so #5.

My #6 must-have for a sustainable

garden in Florida is definitely going to

be katuk. Katuk is an awesome

perennial vegetable, super-high in

protein, very similar to moringa,

where it's like 20% protein and it

tastes delicious. It literally tastes

like raw peas. It's one that really

has a nice flavor raw. Kids like

it. Everyone I've given it to is like,

wow, that tasted pretty good.

I have a variegated variety and

a green variety. They both thrive on

neglect. These plants never get

watered. These plants never get

fertilized. There is no irrigation here.

They live and thrive on neglect

all year long. With a lot of these

perennial vegetables -- sisso spinach,

moringa, katuk -- that young growth,

that new growth that's coming off

the top is going to be the most

tender, the softest. So, as I work my

way down the plant, these bottom

leaves are going to be a little

tougher. They're still great to eat.

They can still go in a dish. Probably

better in a cooked dish to break

them down a little bit, but for

eating fresh, I find the raw tips are

always best. So, katuk? Grow it.

My #6 food crop to grow here in

Florida, which probably would not

typically be looked at as a vegetable,

is papaya. Papaya was something that

I really enjoyed, spending time with

Rob. It's something he commonly made

in his dishes. I think my favorite was

his Thai coconut curry with the papaya

in it. I love green papaya. I think

it's great as a vegetable. I love

papaya salad at a Thai restaurant

and I love the flavor of a good, ripe

papaya as a fruit. Papayas don't have

to be eaten ripe; they can be eaten

green, like a vegetable. We're starting

to get some little papayas here and

you can get these while they get

larger and they're green, or you can

wait until they get ripe and eat it

as a fruit. This one doesn't

have a lot of fruit on it right now.

The other ones I have are tall and I

need to cut them back. You can cut

your papayas back every couple of

years. One of my mentors, a guy I

feature a lot on my channel, is

Jim Kovaleski. He's got a papaya tree

in his front yard that's 5-6 years old,

so these trees can last a while.

They can be perennial. They can

die back if you're further north,

but you can start them in your

greenhouse and get them outside

right after that last frost and

potentially get a green fruit in six

months, so papayas are worth

growing. Find a good one, grow the

seed. Easy to get started.

Highly suggest growing it.

#7, I've been really busy the last

couple of weeks with the nursery

business and all of my plants out

in the ground for these last three have

been cut down for cuttings and

propagation, so I'm over here, in

the nursery, where I have some

better examples. What I want to

talk to you about now is edible leaf

hibiscus. That's this big-leafed plant

behind me. This can be used as a

wrap. It can be eaten raw, chopped

up in a salad, be used as a green.

This is one that might be a little

bit more on the mucilaginous side,

maybe slightly slimy, some would say.

That's really good for lining our

insides. This variety is actually less

slimy than the variety I have over here,

on this side. This one definitely has

a little bit more mucilaginous to it.

I have a couple of different varieties.

I have this skinny-leafed variety. I

have this fat-leafed variety. There are

a couple of different names for

this one. I like to just call it

lettuce leaf hibiscus. I really like

this one as a wrap. If you wanted

a green wrap, something that's

gluten-free, you can grow this

for your wrap.

The #9 must-have for the sustainable

garden in Florida, this is one that the

kids really like: cranberry hibiscus.

The leaves are beautiful, nice deep red.

Some people call that like a mahogany.

These are sweet. They're sour. They're

delicious just raw. They go nice in a

salad, if you chop them up. My favorite

thing to do is, if I'm making a sandwich

or packing something for the day, I'm

going to be on the road, I come out and

get a handful of fresh leaves and,

just like I talked about with the

katuk, the younger leaves, the fresh

growth, like this is a really fresh

red one. You can see this is an

older leaf. You can see a color

difference. You see how that one

is pale and that one is dark red?

The younger growth is always going to

be the most tender and the sweetest.

Nothing wrong with the old growth; it's

just not going to be the best,

flavor-wise. So, cranberry hibiscus is

not only a stunner in the landscape,

a pretty-looking plant, but it has a

really nice edible factor and I

guarantee if you give it to one of the

kids, they're going to enjoy it too.

This one has been a perennial

here. It will set flowers. All hibiscuses

have edible flowers. You can eat the

flower on this, but after it's done

setting a flower, it's going to set

seed that you could save to replant

if you're in a more northern type

climate. So, cranberry hibiscus is

another must-have.

If you're into gardening down here,

in Florida, and you don't have it,

this is one to add to your system.

Last, but not least, must-have perennial

for a sustainable garden

in Florida or in any subtropical

climate is Okinawan spinach.

This is one that we've been propagating

really hard the last few weeks. This is

also one that the squirrels like,

that I have a hard time keeping

going in the beds, but I really like

the flavor of it. It's really nice to

eat raw. It's nice to eat cooked. It's

nice to put in a dish. It's very

similar to the longevity spinach,

which is right here, behind me,

but I think the longevity spinach

is a little stronger, a little

more like a medicine. The squirrels

don't like it as much, so it

grows here a lot better.

I've noticed that we plant these two

for clients all the time, longevity

spinach and Okinawan spinach. The

Okinawan is a little prettier. It's got

some purplish-red to the underside

of the leaves. It's hit or miss.

Sometimes the Okinawan does better

on your site, sometimes the longevity

does better on your site. I would say both

of these are a tie for #10, but this

one tastes a little better.

I hope you guys enjoyed this

video. Thank you, Rob, for the

opportunity. It's been a blast.

I can't wait to work with you

again. I can't wait for your next

challenge. I can't wait for you to get

back to Florida so we can do some

fun stuff. Thank you guys so much

for following. What we like to do

around here is pound dirt!

Rob: I hope you got a lot of

inspiration and education out of

this time with Pete. He is a wealth

of knowledge. He is an expert in

growing food and he helps a lot

of people to do this, both in person

and through his YouTube channel.

Make sure to subscribe to his

channel. The links to follow him are

in the description. If you got a lot

out of this video, make sure to

subscribe to this channel as well,

where I'll have many more

guests to come, as well as videos

led by me. Also, share this, comment,

and like it to spread it out into

the world and get this information out

there to people who need it, but

don't know it's there.

I love you all very much and I'll see

you again real soon.