What crops grow well in Hot Dry Desert climates?

Question

I am looking for information to try and grow my own food to be self sufficient.

Answer 1

From what part of the country you reside is not stated.

Hot dry desert climate is not suitable for cash crops unless you have reasonable water resources to spare and the soil is suitable for the same. If the nights are cool with mist leaving droplets of precious water may prove beneficial. The mechanics of the situation is that you will have to cover the Patch during day time from the hot sun and expose the same after sunset. A small section be worked as a trial basis.

The best guidance that you can have is from the Agriculture University adjecent to your residential center or its equivalent organisation who will assist you in the subject matter including soil testing for irrigation purposes. The university or the source may be 100 kms from your residence but they have statics and resources to give you the desired advice.

Answer 2

I live in the high mountain deserts of Idaho, at 4700+ feet elivation.  This is sagebrush and prickly pear scrub land.

Potatoes love to grow here.  I'm in the very heartland of Idaho's famous potatoes.  Potatoes love to be hot during the day, and cool off at night.

The other crops they grow here that do well, are wheat, sugar beets, barley, and alfalfa hay.

You need to be able to irregate your crops.  Learn about water rights, and what they are in the area you are looking to buy.  Water rights are a BIG DEAL in the desert!

Around here, because their is a drought, going into it's 7th year, there was a "water call," to 1970.  That means if we didn't recieve enough snowfall, every single farmer, whether their livelyhood depended on it, or not, who had water rights dating back to 1970 -1979 was going to be shut off.  Zero water would have been supplied for them to grow crops.  Every farm with water rights 1980 or more recent has already been shut off.

If I were purchasing a farm in a desert enviroment, I wouldn't purchase on that didn't have AT LEAST 1930's water rights, and preferably water rights dating back to the 1800's!  

That goes for your private home also.  If you are only talking about a household garden, then you need to realize that watering of lawns, and gardens can be forbidden during water short years.

The desert is NOT the place to try and have a self sufficient lifestyle.  It's just one of the reasons we are moving back to the Pacific Northwest.  You really need rain to fall from the sky, to water your garden/crops, if you want to be truely self sufficient.

~Garnet

Permaculture homesteading/farming over 20 years

Raising 90% of the food we eat for our own table

Two years of food storage

Answer 3

Cacti. Not much else unless you irrigate it. That's why people don't have farms in the dessert!

There are edible cacti but you'd struggle to survive on them I think. There are some drought tolerant crops but they tend to just tolerate a dry spell, not be able to grow with hardly any water.

Answer 4

Corn, if irrigated. That's kind of the point of a desert. Nothing except cacti and a few other native species grow well. Too hot and dry.