What I'm growing this year

Now that the gardening season is upon us I'll post every day (really). You might want to check out Where to get seeds, and How long can I keep seeds, the two posts preceding this one.  Here I'm going to let you know what vegetables I've got seeds for (will do flowers and herbs in another post). It took me forever to organize all this, which argues for just going down to the store and picking some seeds off the rack. I might not grow all of these varieties. Some are seeds I have that are still viable, but for some reason I've decided to try another variety, or I don't have as many as I need of what I've got left.  But for the most part this is what I'll grow. I'm going to mark seeds I'm buying this year with a colored asterisk, but I'm not going to bother to let you know where I got the old seeds.  If you want to know a source ask in comments and I'll be happy to oblige. 

For some vegetables I'm also going to mark the one or two varieties I'd grow from these if I was only going to grow one, and this doesn't mean they're the best variety.  But I want to emphasize that the time, energy, and money invested in preparing the soil (or in the case of our very sandy soil, feeding the plants as well as the soil) matters a whole lot more than the varieties of seeds.  The varieties you can get from the seed racks are all you need, and there are many of them here. 

* Seeds from Johnny's in 2010
* Seeds from Territorial in 2010
* Seeds from Southern Exposure in 2010
* Burpee seed rack half price 2010 or earlier

The one variety I'd grow if I grew only one

BEANS 

*Fresh pick (bush green)

*Early bush Italian
Derby
Royal burgundy (purple)
*Sequoia (purple)
*Brittle Wax (yellow)
* Kentucky Wonder (pole) (the pole bean of my childhood.  Very "beany")
Fortex

PEAS
Sugar Ann (early snap pea)
Sugar Snap (very tall)
*Super Sugar Snap
*Snow Sweet (snow pea)
*Caseload (shelling)
*Dwarf Grey Sugar (for the shoots)

BEETS
Detroit Dark Red
Merlin
*Forono (cylindrical beet - nice even slices)
*Touchstone (orange beet)

CHARD
*Bright lights
Magenta Sunset
Fordhook Giant (sweeter flavor than the others, which are prettier)

BROCCOLI,

*Green Goliath (ripens over extended period)

Blue Wind

CAULIFLOWER
*Snow Crown
Veronica (romanesco, spiraled and green)

CABBAGE
*Gonzales (early green)
Alcosa (savoy)
*Super Red 80
*Kaitlin (for sauerkraut or keeping)
Minuet (chinese or napa)
*Soloist (small napa)
(the plants of the first 3 can be grown close together for small heads)

ASIAN GREENS
Mei Qing Choi (pac choi)
Bonsai (pac choi)
Red Choi (pac choi)



CARROTS
*Danvers Half Long
*Nantes Half Long
*Red Cored Chantenay
*Deep Purple (yes, purple carrot)

CORN
*Trinity (early bicolor SE)
*Mantauk (mid-season bicolor, synergistic)
*Whiteout (late white SE)

It's important not to grow supersweet corns (also called SH or SHrunken gene) in a community garden, or where you want to grow other corn as well.  All of the corn will end up with very tough kernels.  SE corn (sugar enhanced) are very sweet and more tender than super sweets.

CUCUMBERS
*Burpee Hybrid II (very reliable slicer)
*Sweet Burpless Hybrid
*Tasty Green Hybrid
Marketmore 76
*Bush Champion
Picklers:
County Fair Hybrid
*Burpee Pickler
Pickalot Hybrid
Vertina
*Diamant (parthenocarpic - seedless if not fertilized)

SUMMER SQUASH
Sweet Zuke Zucchini
Anton Zuchhini

*Burpee's Hybrid Zucchini (very reliable)

*Early Prolific Straightneck (yellow summer squash)
Sunray (yellow)
Geode (round zucchini)
*Early White Bush Scallop

WINTER SQUASH
Puritan Butternut
Baby Bear Pumpkin

SPINACH
Emu
*Space
*Beetberry (a spinach relative with red berries)

LETTUCE
Green ice (green leaf)
Black-Seeded Simpson (green leaf)
Ermosa (green butterhead)
Antago (red lollo rossa)
Fireball (red butterhead)
Mottistone (mottled crisp)
*Crispino (iceberg)
*Wild Lettuce Mix
All star lettuce mix

ONIONS
Deep Purple bunching
*Nabechan bunching
*Alisa Craig (large sweet white)
*Red Bull 
*Copra (yellow keeper)

PEPPERS
*{Anaheim
Ancho
Long Slim Red Cayenne
Jalapeno M
Hungarian Wax} (these 5 were in a Burpee Mix)
Golden Baby Belle
Sweet Banana
Red Delicious
Big Dipper
*Ace (reliable Northern variety)
*Carmen

EGGPLANT
*{Applegreen
Rosa Biana
Millionaire Hybrid
Snowy Hybrid} (these 4 were in a Burpee Mix)
*Fairy Tale (striped lavender and white, tiny)

TOMATOES
(I have other seeds. I'm going to try to restrict myself to these this year)
I have opinions about tomatoes, and will do a separate post with detailed descriptions of these varieties and others.

RED

*Burpee Big Boy (Wonderful aroma and flavor)
Supersonic
*Delicious (very large)
Rutgers (standard - great flavor)
New Girl (very early and exceptional flavor for an early tomato)
*Glacier (early. a new variety to me this year)
*Beaverlodge plum (hanging basket size)

PINK

*Brandy Boy (I love these, but they don't ripen as reliably as I'd like)

ORANGE

Jubilee (I make marmalade with these)

YELLOW

Lemon Boy
*Yellow Bell (my long lost favorite)

PASTE
Big Mama(red)
*Roma (red)

CHERRIES
Sun Gold (Orange.  I eat more of these by volume than any other tomato)
Super Sweet 100 (red)
*Yellow Pear (maybe. I have a mix)

APARAGUS AND RHUBARB

I've bought Jersey Knight Asparagus seeds from Johnny's and Victoria Rhubarb seeds from Territorial.  For the Asparagus I'm not really sure it's worth it to grow from seed because you lose a year, and maybe two years if you start them in the spring instead of late winter.  But I know I'm not going to have a bed ready for them in time to buy roots to plant.   I had a beautiful bed of red rhubarb that has died out from neglect, and apparently I can grow rhubarb from seed for some picking this year, and then let the plants die out.  I could also plan to put them in a permanent location and not pick any this year.  I'll see how they do and decide.  I'd love to be able to just grow them as an annual.

How long can I keep seeds?

I like to grow lots of varieties of many vegetables, but certainly wouldn't want to buy that many new packages each year.  So I store them carefully in a cool dry place to optimize their life, and then pay attention to the "usual seed life" for different vegetables.  I mostly pay attention to experience, but also to what Territorial Seed company says is the usual seed life, in their catalog.  This is especially true for plants I invest a lot of time in, like tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants, and for plants that take too long to replace if the seed isn't really viable, like onions. So I'm likely to push the limit only on seeds that I plant in the ground and that I can replace quickly if I get poor germination, like carrots, lettuce, beets, peas and beans - especially if I'll be happy with varieties I can get locally.  I'll also push the limit with a few varieties I might want one or two plants of, when I don't want them enough to buy a whole new package. And, since this is "usual" seed life, you can count on some well-stored seeds exceeding this.

Being able to count on some seeds germinating for 3 years means that I can buy in larger quantities.  In 2006, I bought a one ounce package of Mammoth basil from Johnny's for not much more than a package with 100 seeds, and I've grown 50 feet of basil from those seeds for the last 4 years.  They germinated so well I think I'm going to count on them again this year, but I've also bought a new package (Italian Large Leaf) to see if there's a difference. So not only did I pay a lot less than if I'd bought a new package every year, I had so many seeds I could grow a lot more than I would have from a package. 100 seeds for 2.95.  17,700 seeds for 4.00. Hmm, what to do.  (My community gardeners should let me know if you want basil - I always have extra seedlings)

Germination is not the only game though.  Sometimes seeds will germinate but not have the vigor a fresher seed would.  I try to balance the cost of the seed with the time invested, the fertilizer, etc, and my experience

I started out thinking I'd replace all my 2007 seeds, but that was going to be too expensive, and I know that some can be relied on to grow, even though they're 4 years old.  So I'll grow 2007 lettuce, maybe some beans and squash and beets - but those aren't the only seeds I'll be relying on.  I'm confident that 2006 basil is going to do just fine, at 5 years old.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained.   If you don't mind the expense of replacing seeds every year, then of course that's fine.

Territorial considers parsley, spinach, onion and corn to be seeds that need to be replaced every year, but I find I can usually depend on 30 - 50% of them germinating in the second year. A lot is going to depend on how carefully they were stored.   I grew year old corn last year and wasn't happy with the germination.  Because you're counting on pollinating with the wind all your corn in a stand really needs to be about the same age, so you can't fill in.  I won't do this again with corn.

Another advantage to keeping seeds for 2-3 years is being able to grow several varieties without having to buy that many packages every year.  I usually grow about a dozen varieties of tomatoes, but buy only 3-4 packages of seed each year.

Usual seed life as listed in Territorial's catalog:

1 year - should be new seeds for 2010
corn
onions
parsley
spinach

2 years - can use 2009 seeds in 2010

beets
eggplant
chard

2-3 can try using 2008 seeds in 2010

beans
peas
peppers

3 years - can use 2008 seeds in 2010

edamame
broccoli
carrots
cabbage
cauliflower
celery
cucumbers
kale
lettuce
melons
pumpkins
tomatoes

3-4 years - can try using 2007 seeds in 2010

brussels sprouts
squash

4 years - can use 2007 seeds in 2010

radish