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Food growing · What to plant, where and when · food-26

Choose crops for your climate and household

Pick a short list of crops that suit your climate and that your household will actually eat, weighted towards calorie crops that store well plus a spread of nutritious greens, herbs and fruit. The planting table in this module filters crops by climate.

How

  1. Open the planting table, select your climate, and shortlist crops your household eats every week. Texas A&M AgriLife gives row lengths or plant numbers per person for fresh use and for preserving, so you can size each crop.
  2. Cover calories first with the easiest stored staples: potatoes in cool climates, sweet potatoes and cassava in warm or tropical ones, dry beans, cowpeas and winter squash. Size them with the calorie plan (food-31). FAO gives mid-season Kc of about 1.15 for potato and dry beans and 1.20 for field maize, so check water before you scale up (food-23).
  3. Add nutrient diversity: dark leafy greens (kale and collards, amaranth or moringa in hot climates), legumes, alliums, and fruit. FAO describes home gardens as a source of dietary diversity alongside other food.
  4. Split the list into cool-season and warm-season crops, as Texas A&M does. Cool-season crops tolerate frost and are sown before spring warms; warm-season crops go in after the last frost.
  5. Check climate limits before you buy: day length for onions (long-day storage types need 14 hours or more of daylight, per Minnesota Extension), winter chill for fruit trees (food-9), and frost sensitivity for mango, banana and citrus.
  6. Prefer varieties bred for your conditions, such as heat-set tomatoes where summer days exceed about 29 C (85 F) (Alabama Extension) or low-chill fruit in mild winters (Arizona Extension).

Do these first

Sources

  1. Planning a Garden (E-289). Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, accessed 2026-11
  2. Crop evapotranspiration (FAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper 56), Chapter 6: ETc single crop coefficient (Kc). FAO, accessed 2026-11
  3. Livelihoods grow in gardens (FAO Diversification Booklet No. 2), Foreword. FAO, accessed 2026-11
  4. Growing onions in home gardens. University of Minnesota Extension, accessed 2026-11
  5. Blossom drop in tomato (ANR-2717). Alabama Cooperative Extension System, accessed 2026-11
  6. Deciduous Fruit and Nuts for the Low Desert (AZ1269). University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, accessed 2026-11

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