What are you growing this year?

I'm always interested to know what others are growing.

For me this year-->

Tomatoes-->

German: After trying about 200 varieties, I've settled on this occasionally oxheart shaped red as the best of the lot, which I grown from saved seed. Wispy foliage, not very vigorous, moderate yields, fruit size variable; but complex, dense, sweet "classic" tomato taste. I take kosher salt to the garden, tear a fruit in half, and munch 'till I'm a sticky mess.

Reif Red: Very close to German, sometimes better. More vigorous, higher yields, beefsteak type fruits.

Pineapple: Almost sickeningly sweet bicolor. My wife's favorite. Fantastic with oil/vinegar and fresh basil on good toast. Very sturdy, disease resistant--still standing last year when most other plants were affected by wilt. Moderately high yields. Really a great tomato.

Fantastic: The best hybrid I've tried. Way superior to the usual suspects like the "Boy" and "girl" series.

San Marzano: First time growing this year.

Not growing Brandywine for this time this year. I've tried all the strains, and though BW is one of the best, I think it's a bit overrated. Can verge on being too tangy/peppery. German and Reif Red are superior, imo.

I've never tried Park's Whopper, Mortgage lifter, and some of the other classics. I think the darker tomatoes like Pruden's purple and Black Krim are mediocre. Too delicate and soft. Completely subjective, of course.

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Other veggies-->

Hale's best cantaloupe. First time for this variety. I haven't grown melons in some years. Previously grew Ambrosia which is so sweet it tastes like it's been injected with sugar.

Pumpkins, Zucchini, Basil, other herbs.

Pole and bush beans. Cascade Giant, Fortex, Blue Lake.

I might do corn this year. Kandy Korn has been the standard, but I might try Silver Queen this year.

DaveH

Reply to
DaveH
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Tomatoes: 90 plants 39 varieties

Onions (walking, egyptian, bunching, "normal")

Jerusalem Artichokes: Clearwater, Jacks Copper Clad

Melons: Horned, Charleston, baby sweet pea Cantaloupe - Grandpa's 26er Victorian Pocket Melon

Purple Ecuadorian Peanuts

Carrots (6 varieties)

Lettuce : Summer Mix

Beets: Panozza, Chioggia, Albino, Burpees Golden, and Detroit Red

Radish: Purple Plums, Dix's, Podding from Pine Tree

Swiss Chard: 5 color sillverbeet, Bright Lights

Millet: Pearl, Finger, Foxtail

Quinoa

Yacon

Beans: Pole - Vingas Bush - Green, Royalty, French, Canadian Wonder, Green Flageolet,

Black/white soybeans

Squash: Golden Scallop, Sunburst Scallop, Woodsbush, 8 ball, yellow

straightneck, Papaya Pear, Canoe Creek Colossal

Corn: Strawberry Popcorn, Baby Corn, Stoles Evergreen, Dwarf Blue Jade, Ruby Queen, Pioneer, Polar Vee, Green Dent, Blue Dent

Cucumbers: true lemon, Cool breeze, sour gerkins, bianco Lungo

White and black sesame

Buffalo Gourds, Corsican Gourds

2 beds of strawberries (a bed is 5' by 30')

2 beds of asparagus (purple and green)

Sweet potatoes (my 3 yo saved slips from somewhere)

Pumpkins (ditto)

Oka Oxalis, Celery, various cabbage, cauliflower, and other brussicas

2 beds of fingerling potatoes (all blue, white, rosa and etc)

a very small orchard, grapes, berry canes and hops.

All to change with notice.

Thanks for asking! Mutti

Reply to
Mutti Pie

Ok, some beefsteak and Matt's wild cherry. Green beans, cukes, english, red peppers, sugar pod peas, squash.

Reply to
MOM PEAGRAM

Wow--an impressive batch of veggies. What do you with all those tomatoes?

Reply to
DaveH

I have over 50 tomato plants (cherry, plum beefsteak, etc.), eggplants, cucumber, bush and pole beans, Italian frying peppers, sweet peppers serrano chiles, summer squash, zucchini, buttercup squash, sweet potatoes, lettuce, onions, radishes, and herbs. I also had a variety of fruit trees, berries, asparagus, etc.

June

Reply to
ShantiP1

Hm, for us, we couldn't get organized enough to get seed so we had to settle with store brands (sigh) Tomatoes . . .

Bonnie--well Bonnie says it's their best tomato

Supersonic--Apparently my Dad grew this once, so when he saw it he had to buy it. :)

Pink Beefsteak--until this year, I had had no idea tomatoes came in more than one color than red. This was the only different-color tomato at the store. It had to come home.

Husky Cherry Red--Cherry tomato. 'Nuff said.

Carrots

Long Orange--Nothing exciting, but my friend has horses. Horses and carrots go well together. Well. . . . At least, horses like carrots. Carrots seem to be silent on whether they like horses.

Bush beans--limas and green beans.

suger baby watermelons and suger pumpkins. Pumpkin pie, can't wait.

We haven't tried either of those yet but one of our favorite corns (that you can find in stores) has been "peaches n' creme" which has both white and yellow kernels. The name we found it under in Southren States is "Bilicious" Although online there are even more varients. :)

And I think that's it, although I'm eyeing a lot more lawn for next year. :)

Reply to
Liashi

Most of these are still in the basement waiting to be set out this weekend:

Tomatoes: Stupice (seeds saved from last year), and Super Marmande. One of the Stupice plants has normal leaves instead of potato leaves, so it must have crossed with the Better Boy that was nearby.

Peppers: Aji Limon Peru, Longhorn, Dundicutt, Thai. And one Fatalii that *just* came up from seeds I planted in March. The dundicutt and thai pepper seeds were harvested from peppers bought at ethnic markets.

Tomatillos

Beans: Cranberry (for snaps)

Tyfon (a.k.a. "Holland greens")

Cucumbers: Diva and a dwarf pickle variety I can't remember

Rattail Radish

Squash: haven't picked a variety yet. Maybe tatume.

Onions: Red Burgermaster (Should have been planted 6 weeks ago, but I'll plant them now anyway and use like scallions.)

Basil, cutting celery, and other stuff if I have room.

Best regards, Bob

Reply to
zxcvbob

Maters, sweet taters, yeller squash, okra, purple hull peas. Got a right good stand comin' 'long too. :>)

Reply to
Bob S.

It will be interesting to see how that accidental hybrid turns out. Stupice is a great early tomato.

Reply to
DaveH

I'm sure you'll get some good eatin' out of these old standards.

I've tried the yellow version of the Husky series and it was very good--incredibly stout and vigorous. The only yellow I've really liked. DaveH

Reply to
DaveH

Weeds :)

Bermuda grass from horse manure took over the old garden and no one got around to digging it out or moving the fence and digging a new spot that would involve less exercise (we have to fence against the Starving Attack Rabbits, and the sand packs hard enough that it really has to be turned before roots can penetrate). And we had summer in February and winter ever since. So I think this year it's limited to the two tomato plants in the back garden.. thought I'd try 'em there cuz nothing else will grow there (too hot) and it's safe from rabbits.

Tho I suppose I could still start some zucchini, they grow fast enough to have a chance of producing by midsummer. (Assuming summer ever arrives??)

~REZ~

Reply to
Rez

Sounds like here! (I can't remember who is in Idaho,) but yeah it was warm too warm Feb, March, and part of April, then it cooled off to "normal" temps.

I'm mostly growing weeds too. Stuff in the barrels was doing pretty well, flowers came up out there and in the strawberry barrels, and now.. I'm growing ELM TREES!! There was about an inch of seeds stacked up around the place, they were getting tracked in and if someone spills water on the carpet somewhere, and light accidentally reaches them I'd not doubt if they'd start growing in here too! Wouldn't be surprised, bind weed has found its way into the house more than once where ghostly pale yellow green vines that blended in with the cabinet color so didn't notice them until they were half way up the front headed for the window in the kitchen, and in the laundry room it came in the dryer vent hole and grew around the power line along the floor to the dryer, and up the fishing pole and was headed for the string that you pull to turn the light on! Guess it knew what to do!

But, I have solid elm tree seedlings in all the half whiskey barrel planters, and they're in the walkways, anywhere there was dirt to grow in because it started raining and it's rained just enough to keep the soil damp enough for them to sprout. *sigh* I hate them sooooo! I also have evil nasty asters all through the lawn in the back. I don't know how it got there, as I actually managed to pay someone to keep everything mowed back there. Grape vines are too close to be spraying around them. Should have just reseeded lawn .. had I known it was going to rain so much.. it'd eventually choke them out! Well I can dream can't I?!

I hope to get a few tomato plants, a few buttercup squash vines since the stores don't seem to carry them much these days, and when they do, they want meat prices for them, and some peppers, zucchini, maybe some yellow crooknecks, lettuces, and whatever else I can get someone to plant, since I can't do so. Need to use all weed and water saving methods possible. Newspaper and mulch I guess.

Janice

Reply to
Janice

The lemongrass I bought on May 2nd rooted quickly in water and was

*delighted* to be put into a pot of dirt a week ago. All 3 stalks are growing new leaves like crazy.

A gift of two "generic" tomato plants seem happy and have flowers, A California Wonder pepper has some little teeny peppers started. Must watch for sun-scald. After having 1 old packet of dill seed, and some equally old seed I'd saved fail to germinate, I invested 10 cents in a new packet, and sprinkled dill everywhere. It's all coming up. Parsely is in its 2nd year and 3 flower stems in bud will soon give me plenty of new seeds. The little rosemary appears to be becoming bushier and looks well. I was able to separate 4 stems of basil (K-Mart over-seeding in a single pot) into 3 plants. One is quite handsome and vigorous; 2 are looking a tad yellow. Ohmigod -- I forgot to water the chives! Fortunately, we've just had a series of every-other-day t'storms, so they should be OK. Oregano is flourishing. And horseradish, of course. Yes, it's in a pot. My taro/Elephant Ear has produced one perfect leaf on an 8" stem.

Two of the Kaffir Lime seeds I tried to start indoors in the dead of a freezing winter survived and have put out one tiny leaf each. I *must* saw off 3-4' of camellia so they get more light. All the Thai basil seeds I planted germinated. Am waiting for true leaves before I transplant.

So far, no sign of bugs except one missing basil leaf.

The weather has been ideal for plants, 'though very uncomfortable for humans. 15 degrees above "normal" for nearly a month now, owing to the Bermuda High which set up early this year. There was a dry (no rain; plenty of humidity) 2-wk period, but we've had some good t'storms this past week. Side effect has been power outages -- I'm getting tired of setting clocks and the phone answering msg every other morning.

Reply to
Frogleg

did you put them out already? I did ten days ago, in my new full full sun garden (sunrise to one hour before sunset). I guessed the continuing wet weather would help with both temperature and moisture (it sure helped with moisture, and so far it has not gone below 48F). Also, what do you do with all those toms and veggies in general? I am already giving away lettuce to anyone who is willing to eat it, and I know I will be doing the same in august with tomatoes, and I only have

30 plants.
Reply to
simy1

Only 30?!? The mind boggles ;-) Our garden is confined to the upper deck. Everything is in pots so the deer and other critters can't eat it all. We have....

4 kinds of tomatoes - 7 plants total bush cucumbers bush beans two kinds of lettuce sugar snap peas lots of herbs though as usual the basil looks terrible, sigh.

Maybe someday we'll have a fence and a moat and who knows what else and will be able to plant a garden in the actual dirt ;-)

marcella

Reply to
Marcella Tracy Peek

Yes, but my peppers and eggplants are still inside under the light. I had started weaning them outside last week, but mostly it's been cool and cloudy.

The corn we eat. I grow only the SE types, which are sweet, 'corn-y' and TENDER, unlike the crunchy (only) supersweet (sh2) types that seem to have flooded the markets. I might have a meal of sweetcorn, tomato and pepper salad, and yogurt. The peppers we eat and freeze (and give some away). I also lose some most years to the !#!@! pepper maggots. The extra tomatoes (I only have 16 plants total) are dried, or processed into concentrated puree (chunked and frozen after I have enough puree). I give away some of the salad tomatoes. (But one of my best friends HATES fresh tomatoes! Weird!) 8^)

The winter squash I cook, puree and freeze. (LOVE multigrain 'pumpkin' waffles!)

The onions and garlic I use (though I lose some of the onions in storage due to less than optimal conditions). We eat the leeks. (I loved leeks baked with butter.)

Sometimes I end up giving away lettuce. Oftentimes I give away cukes. Generally I pick the summer when squash really, really small which keeps it under control. Else we have (whole wheat) zucchini bread.

Gave up growing melons, as they seemed to inevitably get bacterial wilt. (The cukes are seedless, grown in a screened in box so they are safe from the beetles that carry the wilt.)

Reply to
Pat Kiewicz

The German tomato sounds very good. I will look for seeds or plants!

I'm growing: potatoes (20), strawberries, beans (golden wax wax, royal burgundy), herbs (oregano, rosemary, thyme, sage, chives, parsley, mint), peppers (California wonder, Bell boy, hot, jalepeno, haberanero), tomatoes (beefsteak, brandywine, sweetie, roma), brussel sprouts, lettuce (bristro blend, Grand rapids), mesclun mix, corn salad, onions (spanish, green), swiss chard, beets (Detroit red), peanuts, carrots, radishes (Cherry belle, gourmet mix, zucchini, cucumbers (straight eights, burpless), peas (Lincoln homesteader), cantelope (Hale's best), broccoli, and watermelon. I may sneak in a couple extras if I find plants that strike my fancy. Most of the above were started from seed so I haven't seen what the nurserys have to offer yet. The only loss so far seems to be the newly planted rhubarb.

Reply to
nutNhoney

We can never have too many tomatoes. This year I planted 12 plants (brandywine, beefsteak, roma, sweetie) and I get all the free tomatoes I want from a relative who grows tomatoes for a cannery. I can and freeze tomatoes whole, stewed, in sauces, in salsas, and in complete dishes. During the growing season, we eat them freshly picked from the vine for fresh salsas, salads, sandwiches, and sauces. There are very few days we don't eat tomatoes in one form or another. Other vegetables are eaten fresh, canned or froze. The trick is growing enough to eat off of and have enough to preserve. Lettuce is a little difficult in that it doesn't preserve well so we eat it daily when available from the garden. This year when the weather threatens frost, I'm going to transplant the lettuces into containers for the greenhouse and windowsill.

Reply to
nutNhoney

I put up an electric fence around my garden. Five strands of wire, the bottom one 6" above ground and the top one about 7'. I haven't had deer or rabbits in the garden since I put it up. However the coons crossed it for the corn but they didn't bother anything else. I hear all kinds of stories about how high deer can jump, but I guess they don't want in my garden bad enough to expend the energy. (no snide remarks ;>) )

Bob S.

Reply to
Bob S.

A fun thread!

Tomatoes, a variety of hybrids and heirlooms:

German Johnson, Celebrity, Park's Whopper, Brandywine, another heirloom I can't recall (Matice?), Fourth of July, Early Girl, generic plum, San Marzano, and Sun Sugar cherry.

Eggplant:

Dusky, White Beauty, Black Beauty, Classic, and the sampler from Cook's Garden.

Peppers/Chile:

Ancho, Anaheim, Lilac, Whopper, Golden Summer, Large Hot Thai, Long Cayenne.

Herbs:

Basil, Dill, Italian Flat leaf parsley, slo-bolt Cilantro, oh and how can I forget, GARLIC

Corn:

First block is Seneca/Daybreak and the rest of the season I plant Silver King (really really good!).

Pumpkin/Gourds:

Howden -- excellent for carving... good size, wonderful shape Speckeled Swan gourd, Turk's Turban, various small varieties. I didn't get my dipper or bottle gourds going in time this year. :-(

Flowers:

Various sunflowers, zinnia, dahlia, gladiolus.

I'm sure I've forgotten some. :-)

Mary

Reply to
Mary McHugh

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