I can't possibly list all the fruit and vegetable seeds that we will be ordering this year in a blog post. If you are curious and want to see our full list of choices, then it can be found here.
Instead I'm going to restrict myself to writing about just a selection starting with the greenhouse fruit (some of which may also be tried outdoors).
Let's go alphabetically and start with aubergines. We don't really have much success with aubergines. The plants grow, they produce flowers and often that is about it. Sometimes they manage to set mini fruitlets but we have only rarely ended up with a fruit that we can use.
We usually grow the plants in our garden greenhouse and maybe more attention is paid to the tomatoes than anything else. Maybe the tomatoes shade them out. Whatever the reason we refuse to give up. This year we are trying a mini aubergine variety called Jackpot from Plants of Distinction. It claims to be a prolific cropper - we will see!
Next choice is a melon. We have tried melons in the past and even managed to harvest a couple of fruits.
I know they were on the small side but they were perfectly formed. Anyway we're having another try with a variety called Alvaro also from Plants of Distinction. It claims to be the only melon to ripen outdoors in the UK. Again we will see - if we have a repeat of last year it will be struggling.
Then we haven chosen four varieties of Sweet Peppers. (We do have some freebie chilli seeds Mark but will we dare plant any?) We have grown the long thin varieties for a few years and these usually produce a reasonable quantity of fruits - that was until last year.
This year's choices all from Plants of Distinction includes Jimmy Nardello - the red one pictured above but we are adding three new choices, King of the North which claims to be 'arguably the best cool season cropper' - stand-by for a heatwave next year, Palladio, a long thin yellow pepper (apparently they are called bulls' horn pepper) which is supposed to be exceptionally high yielding and Solero a mini pepper which is supposed to be happy in a 9" (23cm) pot.
Then we have along list of eight varieties of tomato. Some are old reliable favourites - Alicante, Amish Gold and Gardeners' Delight but there are also some newbies. These are all from Plants of Distiction. Firstly a beefsteak variety, Pink Wonder which is supposed to be equally at home indoors or outdoors. Next is Sioux, this is said to be prolific and was bred in 1944 for extremes of climate. The final choice is Brandy Boy which is supposed to be an improvement on Brandywine giving five times more fruit! When we have grown Brandywine in the past we have ended up with some monster fruit as shown in this post.
Posts
Good luck with the Tomatoes Sue, none of mine ripened last year :(
ReplyDeleteI'm having go with Melon too this year. Do you grow yours outside? Any specific kind of compost?
Mine will grow in the polytunnel but I've never done it before so I'm a bit sceptical.
Do you prefer Plants of distinction seed? I've never heard of them but am always looking for alternatives to the usual.
Thanks for posting.
Linda
http://thetenaciousgardener.blogspot.co.uk/
I'm not the best person to give advice about growing melons, Linda, as I said we've only ever managed a couple of small fruits. WE grew then inside in pots of multi-purpose compost.
ReplyDeleteForgot to add - we order the more unusual things from Plants of Distinction
DeleteI have noted the sweet peppers you are trying Sue, as I plan to give them a go this year as I have a second greenhouse. Am off to cadge a look at the Big List...
ReplyDeleteMore details from the big list will be coming up over the next few posts, Janet
DeleteI didn't bother with peppers last year, but I think I'll give them a go again this year. I haven't heard of any of your new tomatoes so it will be interesting to hear how they perform.
ReplyDeleteWe're hoping for a better pepper year, Jo
DeleteGlad to hear that you will be having a go with some chillis, Sue. This year I will be growing some Sweet Peppers too, which I have not tried before. This is because I was so impressed with the paprika I made from the peppers sent to me by Stephen Shirley from Victoriana Nursery.
ReplyDeleteI buy lots of seeds from POD. They usually have a very good selection - particularly of the more unusual plants, and a wide range of tomatoes.
Chillies aren't a definite yet Mark and if we grow them it may be just a decoratives!
DeleteChillies, sweet pepper, aubergine, melon & tomatoes I will be growing this year all from seed. I have viewed your impressive seed list & will steal the idea if you don't mind for my little blog. Naturally with my small plot it will be much much shorter.
ReplyDeleteSteal away, Jo
DeleteThose photos are making me drool! I am interested to hear about how the outdoor melons fare. I grew some when I had a greenhouse, but they didn't really earn their space in there, so outdoors ones may be the answer if they perform.
ReplyDeleteDon't you love aubergine flowers? They're so pretty. So are okra ones. I HAVE to get a greenhouse!
If we have enough seeds germinate to risk one outdoors I'll let you know GS.
DeleteYes aubergine flowers are lovely - just hope this year they go on to produce fruit
I am still procrastinating as to what to grow this year - definitely sweet peppers and definitely not aubergine - that's as far as I have got.
ReplyDeleteWe did a fair bit of procrastinating too Elaine
Delete