A plant that can produce a satisfying harvest without much sunlight is an extremely valuable trait for all kinds of possible situations. For instance:
There are shady places in your garden where you want to grow crops.
There are sunny windowsills in your home where you want to grow crops.
There isn’t a lot of direct sunlight during a particular growing season.
Come on, you want to put something underneath that giant bush zucchini!
What crops do you find most valuable in shady situations?
So far, I’ve found that carrots seem to do just fine in shade, and are amiable about being intercropped underneath big plants. Given that, I’ll probably never grow them in full sun again.
I was also quite pleased with the vining pepo squashes I grew this year. They were in an overcrowded bed, sown right next to the giant bush pepos. The ones that survived each produced a fully mature fruit with ripe seeds, and each fruit had excellent storage life and tasted delicious. Sure, it was only one fruit per plant, and they were much smaller than fruits their parents gave me, but in almost full shade? I call that a win!
I’m planning to be mean and put all my vining pepos in the same bed with my bush pepos again. It’ll make my life much easier if I don’t have to care about growth habit when I sow seeds.
Haha that’s clever!
I have some semi shade in thé garden because a line of oaks live there. I tried to grow salad there. Failed.
Mostly it’s in use for propagation now of cuttings.
I’ve grown herba estrella under a goumi, that worked much better than it’s parent population under the blazing sun.
There are quite some people here who have these differing extreme climates on this landracing forum. It would be so great if they succeed growing crops that thrive. Imagine combining these! Anyone, anywhere could be fed and gardeners in temperate climats could use these differing varieties to grow in all their niche areas!
Worthy of a topic.
I almost always grow bush beans in shade, mostly interplanted with corn or behind block of corn. Can’t say I have noticed that much of a difference in harvest potential that I would grow them in full sun ever. Just need to figure out other places for them too. Brassicas also seem to do fine with lower light. One year I had made little miscalculation with my planting, but even the ones that were on the north side of other plants mostly made something. Not as good as with better lighting, but more than I would have expected. Last year some swedes and kohlrabi got over run by squash, but they did manage to grow in between and had several weeks to grow by themselfes once squash was killed by frost. I think there must be more that would do with less in other climates, but in my climate time is of the essence. Some of the more warm loving plants need all the light they can get.
I’m delighted to hear that about brassicas! I’ve been thinking that I’ll leave them alive through the summer, and put squashes in the same bed. I’m thinking maybe the shade will help them deal with the summer heat and stay alive through the summer. If it works, I would be stoked if they stay alive through many years, and produce flowers and seeds for me every year.
I had four brussels sprouts plants in mostly shade all summer, and they seemed to be quite happy there. Not as happy as the one in full sun (which grew three times the size!), but still healthy, and they seem to be overwintering nicely. I left carrots and beets overwintering in that bed last year, and they did a great job of blooming and going to seed, so if it works again for my brussels sprouts, I may favor that as a nice spot for biennal seed crops in the future.
Do bush beans work in shade for you? That’s hopeful. Mine all died this year, and I suspect it was because I put them too close to the zucchinis, which shaded them out. The same thing happened last year. Maybe it’s just a question of finding (or breeding) varieties that don’t mind being under zucchinis!
Brassicas dont like the heat and drought. Have had trouble with them now that it’s been hot (by our standards) and dry. With enough water they would do better in the heat, but those leaves evaporate so much. Not sure how they fare in your summer, but they might be possible to start under shading plants sometime in summer and crop during autumn. With beans I have had some trouble when there was just too much growing with them. One year I had even squash growing under corn with beans and some beans didn’t like it that much. Even those did produce some, but I think there is certain limit how dense you can grow. Especially if it’s very dry. Last year I had corn too tight for how dry it was and part of corn and beans didn’t produce as much so next year I try to get more from one plant instead of growing really dense. Row of beans that was on the north side of corn (so from mid july till end of august right behind) did really good. They had plenty of room for their roots to grow, but little direct sunlight. So also have to pay attention to competition below ground. Zucchini bush is quite hard competition, not sure if anything really thrives under it. That also could be used as protection for late fall crop.
Carrots do well under zucchinis for me! I think that’s because the leaves are so tall and skinny that they can easily poke up in between zucchini leaves, and neither really shades the other out.
I’ve been thinking I’ll plant sorghum instead of carrots underneath my squashes next year, because I bet they’ll do an even better job of poking up through the leaves. Then if I plant poling beans around the sorghum, hopefully they’ll grow up it, and every plant will get the sunlight it needs!
Of course, they’ll probably all be competing with each other for water, but severe drought tolerance is something I want all my crops to be selected for anyway, so. Heck, maybe if their roots can’t spread out much, they’ll be forced to learn to grow down more, and they’ll be better off with that anyway. Let’s hope so!
I can second mung beans having done fine for me interplanted with corn. I also had pumpkins and bush pattypans do just fine in the shade. Some pumpkins we had growing were so thickly shaded by trees and bushes I was surprised they even germinated and survived, let alone grew. Those didn’t fruit because they started growing too late in the season
Also and surprisingly to me, we have had deer corn grow as a weed in shade the past two years. They never got more than four feet tall but they did flower and put out silks. One of them got pollinated by another one 15-20 feet away. It did not return the favor. We had an ear on it but a critter got into it before it was completely ready. I didn’t save seed despite the appealing improbability of the situation because I figured it’s most likely GMO.
We got the deer corn from Walmart or Rural King, as an alternative for squirrels who were getting into the bird feeder. We bought one bag we used in 2020. The way I see it now we’ll have to terminate any volunteer corn on the property if it’s getting near flowering while other corn is growing, and it’s unclear to me for how long.
Anyway, corn in shade makes me happy since I plan on planting corn under the shade of the trees bordering our property to keep them less vulnerable to running dogs. This would be in less shade than the deer corn that started to yield two years ago.
It’ll make my life much easier if I don’t have to care about growth habit when I sow seeds.