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Index : Miscellaneous Gardening Topics
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- 28. Monsoon Planting Season Begins - Top
- The monsoon season is a good time for garden and landscape planting. With the higher humidity, cloud cover and rainfall, plants have an easier time getting established after planting.
July is the month to continue the planting of summer squash and sweet corn. It's also the time to plant winter squash, bush and pole beans. Winter squash are warm season vegetables, just like summer squash, but they're harvested in the fall and can be stored and used into the winter months. Where summer squash are harvested when small and immature, winter varieties are grown to maturity, with ripened seeds and a hardened, tough rind.
Winter squash includes acorn, buttercup, butternut, calabaza, delicata, Hubbard, spaghetti, sweet dumpling, and Terk's Turban. Most are vining types needing lots of room to grow; about 50 to 100 square feet. Some are available in bush and semi-vining forms which take less room. All need improved garden soil and abundant moisture to produce well. Depending on the variety, fruit matures in 70 to 100 days from planting. Winter squash can be planted throughout July and into early August. Just remember that the fruit must be mature and harvested before our first frost, which usually occurs around Thanksgiving.
Bush and pole beans have a shorter planting to harvest period than winter squash, usually 50 to 70 days. They can be planted now through the end of August. The best varieties of bush beans for Tucson include; Blue Lake, Early Contender, and Top Crop. and Romano. As for pole beans, recommended varieties include; Asian Yard-long, Italian Romano, and Kentucky Blue. Numerous native varieties of beans are also available locally from Native Seed Search.
Herbs can be planted in the garden during the monsoon season but will do best with some afternoon shade. Mint, thyme, oregano, chives, sage and rosemary can all be successfully planted now. Basil can also be planted and can be continually harvested until it freezes back in the Winter. Dill, fennel, and cilantro should be planted in the cooler weather of early spring.
The best annual flowers for hot weather planting are Madagascar periwinkle, zinnia, and portulaca. You can get quite a variety of flower colors and plant sizes and shapes with the cultivars of just these three flower type. The key to success with planting of flowers or herb is to purchase the largest plants available. Pots should be at least 3 inches in diameter; but larger pots, up to one gallon are better. The larger the pot the more soil and roots, so they don't dry out as fast between watering. Even so, these plants must be watered twice daily until they get their roots out into the surrounding soil.
If you notice a wilting of garden plants during mid-day, hose them off with a shower of cool water from the garden hose. Be sure to let the hot water run out of the hose on the ground before turning it on you plants. The cool water shower drops the internal temperature of the plant, dramatically reducing moisture loss through transpiring leaves.
All sizes of trees and shrubs can be planted during the monsoon season if careful attention is given to watering. To be sure water will penetrate the root ball, thoroughly hydrate the roots. Just prior to planting, water the pot until water runs out the drainage holes.
After planting trees or shrubs, shape a ring of soil several inches high around the outside of the root ball. This will create a basin for watering. Fill the basin with cool water in the morning. The contained water in the basin will absorb down through the root ball and surrounding soil. Fill the basin daily for the several weeks after planting. Then, gradually lengthen the intervals between watering, from daily, to every other day, to every third day, and so on.
By October, these new landscape plants can be placed on a regular schedule of irrigation. For desert plants, that's watering every 10 to 14 days in hot weather and monthly during cool weather. For non-desert plants water once or twice weekly during hot weather and every 10 to 14 days during cool weather.
Finally, monsoon season is the best time to plant cacti, succulents and palms. All establish from planting and grow best in hot weather. After an initial watering at the time of planting most cacti and succulents can get by just on rainfall. Palms will need continued regular irrigation after planting.
Written by John Begeman, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the University of Arizona,
520-626-5161. - Updated: July 4, 2004
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