Planting some plants for your chickens

My girls don't like marigolds either. They also really seem to prefer weeds over crops for some reason. Except for oats, wheat, and barley. We grow that for winter forage for our cows, and the chickens really like those greens.

I've had really good luck with Romaine as a winter crop. I'm in central Texas. I started Romaine in the spring one year and it limped along through the hot summer. Then winter hit (because Texas doesn't have much of a Fall, LOL) and the Romaine took off. Since then I only grow lettuce in fall/winter. It seems to do just fine covered with a plastic hoop structure during freezes. We have multiple days/nights in a row with freezing or below (even in the teens) temps.

I don't grow many things in the summer anymore. Mostly do fall/winter/spring gardening. I will grow peppers, tomatoes, squashes, and a few other things in summer. Everything else seems to die out or doesn't produce. I imagine the dryness of Arizona poses it's own set of problems.

We treat our summers like northern winters. We do a lot of inside projects.
 
Yeah. Arizona has different types of dirt, depending where ya live. I don't use the dirt here. It doesn't drain worth a Toss. It turns to a concrete mix. I use sand and gravel for drainage, then mix potting soil and gypsum.

Our summers can get over 115 where I am. We never make the news since there's no temp gauges out here. So I bought my own. I run a Misting System in my garden. Keeps the soil temps down, the greens happy, and I get good production. I have no problems with Iceberg lettuce here. Snap Peas - I was but figured out that they need almost full shade to grow and a bit more water than lettuce.

For Texas Summers, a Misting System should do the trick with anything to grow great.

I'll give oats, barley, and wheat - a try. Thanks for that tip.
 
I bred heat tolerant peas... I just collect the ones that do best in the crappy condition and plant those and repeated a few years, now I have peas that preform well in full sun in my greenhouse at high temps of 45C (113f) they are also more drought tolerant
 
What about weed patches for chickens... I like adding dried stinging nettle to my FF, had a lot of the dried stuff for tea. Next year I think I'll grow and dry my own to dry for winter.
 
I bred heat tolerant peas... I just collect the ones that do best in the crappy condition and plant those and repeated a few years, now I have peas that preform well in full sun in my greenhouse at high temps of 45C (113f) they are also more drought tolerant
Wait a sec. Is that all there is to getting a plant that is better at dealing with heat? Just save some seeds from the plants that do well and plant those seeds the following year?

RichnSteph
 
Wait a sec. Is that all there is to getting a plant that is better at dealing with heat? Just save some seeds from the plants that do well and plant those seeds the following year?

RichnSteph

Pretty much or you can go as far as torturing the plants in undesirable conditions and save the seeds from the plants that make it . Then once you get a few generations into your project ( 2 or so ) start selecting other traits like the best producers or tasting plants not just the survivors.
 
Pretty much or you can go as far as torturing the plants in undesirable conditions and save the seeds from the plants that make it . Then once you get a few generations into your project ( 2 or so ) start selecting other traits like the best producers or tasting plants not just the survivors.
Well that certainly makes sense. I just thought it was a lot more complicated than that. Thanks!

RichnSteph
 

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