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Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Seeds are here

The seeds from Totally Tomatoes arrived yesterday, the last of the mail-order seeds.  Last year I was able to mostly 'coast' on seeds from the previous year, but this year the seed supply was very much depleted and a larger than usual order was called for.  Most years I try to order from as few suppliers as possible, trying to keep shipping costs down, but this year that was out of the question.  The seeds came from Peaceful Valley (cover crops), Pinetree, Johnny's, and Totally Tomatoes.  Later I'll place an order with Planet Natural for some anti-fungals and other supplies.

Here's what came in:
Cole crops (* denotes a new variety):
Green Magic broccoli.  An early broccoli that has done well for me.
Imperial broccoli*.   A mid-season variety that is supposed to have good heat tolerance.
Point One cabbage*.  This will be the first pointed cabbage for me.  If anything the novelty makes it worth a try.
Golden Acre cabbage.  An early cabbage with great flavor.
Minuteman cauliflower*.  An early F1 hybrid that I'll grow along with Snow Crown.

Beans:
Provider.  My favorite bush bean.
Fortex.  My favorite pole bean.
Musica pole bean*.  I really lucked out here.  While ordering cover crops from Peaceful Valley, I saw that they offered Renee's seeds, which carries this variety.  I've been wanting to try Musica for some time but did not want to place a separate order for one pack of seeds.  Maybe this bean will be the one worthy of growing alongside Fortex.

Peppers:
Bastan ancho pepper*.   Dave at Our Happy Acres grew this pepper and it looked like a good one. I have been growing Mosquitero anchos, which is also a high quality ancho, but a bit late for this zone.  Bastan looks to set peppers a bit earlier.
Magyar paprika*.  This is also from Renee's, another find.
The remaining peppers are bought as seedlings from May's greenhouse in Bloomington, which carries nearly 60 varieties of pepper seedlings.  Since the garden is not large it doesn't pay for me to start peppers from seed, with the exception of the hybrid anchos, which are much better than the OP varieties.

Tomatoes:
I'm growing more tomatoes this year, using the space that in the past was planted in potatoes.  Hopefully some varieties will survive the blight and septoria leaf spot.  Some of the varieties are heirlooms or older F1 hybrids that Totally Tomatoes claim have some blight resistance.

Better boy*.  An older F1 large slicing tomato that is supposed to have great flavor.
Black plum*.  Not sure if I'll grow this.  Supposed to be one of the better tasting sauce tomatoes.
Ferline*.  This F1 is blight resistance.  I did not notice until the seed packet arrived that it takes 95 days to mature, which will be late August here.  If there's space I'll plant one, but that is a very late maturity date.
Mountain Magic*.  This campari type tomato is blight resistant and reviews say it has great flavor.  I'm not a fan of the small salad tomatoes but a good flavored one may win me over. Worth a try.
Old Brooks*.  An OP heirloom that TT claims has some blight resistance.
Plum Regal*.  A determinate sauce tomato that is blight resistant, although reviews on flavor were lukewarm.
Roma VF*.  Another determinate sauce tomato that TT claims has some blight resistance.

Cover crops:
Biomaster field peas.  I've grown these several years.  When inoculated their roots develop numerous white nodules that harbor nitrogen fixing bacteria.  I sow them in the squash bed in March, then plant squash into them in late May.   The cut foliage is great forage for the rabbits.
Red cowpeas*.  A heat loving legume.  This will follow crops like onions and cole crops that are pulled out in the summer.

The rest of the seeds:
Reflect spinach.  I first tried this last year and really like it, very early and tasty.
Pontiac onion*.  A yellow storage onion from Johnny's.  I've been growing Ruby Ring for several years but this year have had more than the usual number of sprouts.  Time for something new.
Nantes carrot.  An old standard.
Red Ace beet*. Claimed to be the best all-around beet. 
Vertina cucumber*.  A smooth-skinned pickling cucumber from Johnny's.  It's parthenocarpic, so it won't need a pollinator.  Will replace Calypso this year.
Metro Butternut squash.  A mid-sized butternut that has done well here for years.
Buttercup squash. Just hope it doesn't succumb to the borer.
Javelin parsnip.  It just doesn't pay to plant the old OP varieties.  This one is much better.

Along with the seeds carried over from years past, it looks like I'm ready to start seeding.  I'll seed lettuce in about a week, then start onions a week after that.  In the near future I'll post on my seed starting setup and lights.  Happy gardening 2017.

1 comment:

Margaret said...

Once again, a list of tomatoes where most are varieties I'd not heard of before. I grow Mountain Magic and agree - it is, in fact, quite a nice tasting tomato - it was a pleasant surprise the first year I grew it. It is definitely more resistant to blight than most other varieties and that, together with it's taste, is why I include at least one in the garden each year.

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