Warm weather is here to stay! Well, its warmish… it can still get into the 50’s at night. But that’s absolutely perfect for all warm weather crops. Warm, not hot… there’s a difference. Isn’t it crazy that northerners think 60 degrees is warm??? Mind blowing, I know. Basically think of what our northern friends will be growing at the heart of their summers and that’s what we will be growing now. Alright, lets get into what seeds to sow in March.
Growing conditions in March
Since it’s starting to warm up you’ll notice a lot more buggy activity in your garden. Prepare for their arrival by having lots of flowers and herbs blooming. The pests may be a bit overwhelming at first, but with the presence of flowers you can rest assured that the good bugs will catch up to the influx of prey. You may even notice an increase in frogs, toads, lizards, and spiders. All good things!
The average temperatures are about 50°F – 75°F, sometimes a little cooler, sometimes hotter. The UV index will range from 8 up north to 10 down south. If you are growing a non tropical plant, even if it says it needs full sun, give it some shade at least part of the day.
We average about 2.9 inches of rain this month. The south typically receives more rain while the east central part of the state remains drier. Like the previous months, water your plants when needed, but especially now that warm weather is coming.
What seeds to sow in March
Corn
Now is a perfect time to start some corn! If you are growing in a small space and would like a variety of corns to enjoy, stagger your planting or choose varieties with different days to maturity. Corn easily cross pollinates, so you want to make sure that different varieties don’t produce pollen at the same time. Otherwise, you’re sweet corn won’t be all that sweet.
Corn is also a free trellis to grow up some of your vining crops such as…
Legumes
Pole beans such as Puerto Rican black beans, asparagus peas, and Chinese noodle beans do amazing here. They love the heat and humidity so you can even grow these through the heart of our summers. Their leaves provide habitat for frogs, and their flowers are loved by pollinators, even hummingbirds!
Southern peas, or black eyed peas, also love this time of year. They can grow all throughout the summer so enjoy the abundance and ease of growing these plants provide.
Peanuts!!! Guys, I love peanut butter, and boiled peanuts, and really any kind of peanut with my whole soul. They are so easy to grow, love our sandy soils, and looooovvvveee our monsoon summers. They love to be under the hot blazing sun and hardly a pest ever takes a nibble at their leaves. (Their peanuts are another story… critters love those.)
If you notice your peanuts looking a little yellow, that means they are deficient in magnesium. Simply sprinkle some epsom salt around the base of the plant every other week and they should perk right up. If you do notice yellow peanuts one season, grow mustard over the winter and use their leaves to mulch the area where you’d like the peanuts the following summer. All my peanuts grown in mustard mulched soils were darker green than any I’d grown before or elsewhere.
Squash
Summer squashes are probably not worth doing this time of year unless you are in North Florida. Consider growing them in partial shade to keep them from wilting under the intense sun. They do like warmth, and they like the dryness of this time of year, but squash vine borers are a real problem with these guys. If you’ve had success with summer squashes, please tell me your secrets!
Winter squashes, however, will do just fine this time of year. Kinda seems weird with their names being “winter” but that only refers to their ability to store over the entire winter without going bad. These things are hardy, much less likely to deal with a bug drilling its way into the vine or fruit. Caterpillars can come around to eat the leaves. As always grow a diversity of plants to attract plenty of predators to eat the pests.
Seminole pumpkin, acorn squash, or butternut squash will all do well this time of year. You can even grow chayote, which is thought of as a summer squash but it’s fruit is hardier than a zucchini, and it thrives in the heat and humidity of summer. Provide it with well draining soil full of organic matter and you should be able to reap a wonderful harvest of tasty fruits.
Sweet potatoes
So easy to grow, so prolific, and so tasty. Choose any variety you’d like and check out how to grow sweet potatoes to get you started. Make sure you can dedicate a nice sunny spot for them to stay. Their roots are vigorous once established and they’ll try to take over if you want to plant something else where they were growing.
Consider making a hugelkulture bed for them. My sweet potato vine grown over some sticks and branches absolutely thrived.
Okra
Personally, I’m not a fan of this crop. But if you love it, it’ll be one of your pals this time of year. I hear it absolutely loves our summers and grows like a champ. All power to you if you just can’t get enough okra in your life.
Peppers
Peppers are slow growing, but they do well in the heat. Start them either in trays or direct sow them. Just make sure they don’t have any pressure from weeds until they get well established. Hot peppers will do better during the hottest parts of our summer.
Eggplant
Unfortunately, I don’t have any personal experience with this crop. But I know plenty of local farmers who grow this crops through the summer and it performs well.
Gourds
Kikinda and luffa are some of my favorite gourds to grow. You can also grow gourds to make your own homegrown water bottles! They love the weather, produce tasty young fruits, and the luffa grown to maturity makes a great, natural, sponge. The kikinda gourds have fuzzy, velvety foliage that feels so lovely to work in.
They’ll bloom at night and thus will be dependent on moths for pollination. If you don’t have moths in your area, you may need to hand pollinate these guys. Like squash the vine will produce separate male and female flowers. Take the stamen of the male flower (you can use a q-tip, or take the flower off the vine) and rub it all in to the female flower.
Most likely though, you’ll have moths and you won’t have to worry about hand pollinating. Let nature do the work for you.
Not all gourds are edible, so make sure you know what you’re growing before attempting to eat it.
Tropicals
Sugar cane, ginger, turmeric, taro, water chestnuts, pineapples, banana’s, avocado’s, papaya, chocolate (!!!) are all great to get started now. They have long growing seasons and each prefers slightly different conditions. For instance sugar cane loves full sun while ginger prefers more shade. Taro and water chestnuts will need to be grown in a bog.
A lot of tropical plants will also be started with cutting or rhizomes rather then seeds. Research the plants you want to grow to find out more about how to grow them.
Flowers and Herb seeds to sow in March
Calendula, marigolds, sunflowers, echinacea, black eyed susans, coreopsis, zinnia, nasturtium, basil, dill, oregano, marjoram, thyme, are all great to grow now. There’s even more options then what I’ve listed here.
Native flowers will be a great place to start if you’ve struggles with getting flowers to grow in the past. Blue mist flower and bidens alba are some of my favorites. To find more go visit Florida wildflower foundation.
Marigolds, sunflowers, black eyed susans, and coreopsis can take more sun than the others. If a plant or herb needs to be cold stratified before sprouting, that’s a good sign it’ll do better with some shade and maybe only a couple hours of sun a day. Basil is the only herb I can think of that actually likes the heat and sun, so plant those where ever your heart desires.
March is a great time in the garden, it’s a start of the transition into summer. You’ll notice over the course of the next several months that your traditional looking garden will turn into more and more of a jungle. Enjoy the weather and get any big garden remodeling projects done now before it gets hot.
There’s so many more seeds to sow in March then what I’ve listed above. I’d love to hear what some of your favorites are to grow and if you have any other suggestions for what seeds to sow in March.
Happy gardening 😀
Leave a Reply