Hot weather salad greens

[George]

Daytime temps will be 85-95F here for the next few months.  Our Romaine is strong tasting already and is relegated to the chickens. 

Could you recommend varieties of salad greens which retain mild taste in hot weather?

thank you

[TCLynx]

The vine tips and young leaves of sweet potato and certain beans are good summer greens.  Purslane is a hot weather salad ingredient.  Swiss chard and kale can often keep going into summer heat provided they get enough water and you keep the aphids away.  Do baby lettuce using some of the summer crisp varieties available form Johnny's.  See if you can develop a taste for Malabar spinach or New Zeland spinach (we never could)  Perhaps grow some moringa trees.

Grow some shoots or sprouts that you can do indoors where the heat won't have the same effect on them.

Biggest trick with lettuce is it just doesn't like the heat.  If you can provide some shade and harvest very young you may manage to keep it from going bitter but there really are not lettuce varieties that I know of that "like" HOT weather hence why I'm recommending mostly lettuce and spinach alternatives.

So far my encore lettuce mix seems to be doing well for harvesting small size and eating it young.  The butter head and romaine have been going bitter on us more since there is a tendency to try to let it head up even though it usually won't in my climate.

[George]

Thanks.  Good timing on the sweet potato tip - I just ordered some yesterday, bush type Porto Rico. 

[Jimi Subgum]

Burpee has a heatwave summer blend that I've used with good success in july.

other than that the oakleaf lettuce has done well. I agree with the shading too.

if its real strong tasting you may have waited to long to pick.

I'd say grow some peppers though.

[George]

You're right about that.  I have peppers in the ground but none in the AP yet.  Romaine still producing after all others have gone to seed.  The smaller leaves are ok and any big ones go to the chickens. 

Jimi Subgum said:

if its real strong tasting you may have waited to long to pick.

[AJ Grottke]

I second TClynx, try chard, toscano kale, collards, broccoli leaves, etc; they are able to take some heat, and i like them better in salads than lettuce anyways.  Also my dog loves the large kale and chard stems, so i grew em from him (though we do have to fight over it sometimes; i love my stems too).  Good luck with the heat.  Also eating seasonally helps, less salad, more vegis in the summer.