Seed List 2014

Here's the complete list of vegetable seeds I'll be attempting to grow in 2014. As in previous years, most will link to the seed company descriptions.

I'll do a separate post for the potatoes I've chosen in my continuing quest for the perfect baker.


CHILLI PEPPER
Basket Of Fire
Bulgarian Carrot
Hungarian Hot Wax
Chenzo
Fresno

TOMATO
Bloody Butcher

PARSNIP
White King

SPRING ONION 
Ishikura
Matrix

CARROT
Royal Chantenay 3
Amsterdam Forcing 3
Nantes 2 (French seed)

RADDISH
Sparkler 3

BUTTERNUT SQUASH
Metro

PUMPKIN
Hundredweight

SORREL
Red Veined 

SWEETCORN
Lark

CABBAGE
Kalibos
April

COURGETTE
? (French seed)

BEETROOT
Detroit 3 Elna (French seed)

CLIMBING BEAN 
Blue Lake

POTATO
T.B.A.

Victory?

It's been difficult to evaluate any new varieties sown this season with any degree of confidence, as the weather has made this a fiendishly difficult growing year.

One bed I was really looking forward to was the the winter squash. Although I'm in the south of the country, I still struggle to get squash to set and ripen sufficiently in the relatively short summers we have, so I'm always looking for new varieties to try.

This year I planted three. An acorn squash,'Honey Bear' and two types of Butternut, 'Victory' and 'Barbara'.

So how did they get on? To be honest, none excelled. The best was the Honey Bear - they at least produced fruit which ripened in time.

The downside to these squash is that they are small - each fruit only sufficient for one adult portion and they don't have the sweetness of the butternut varieties. We've grown these before, and while we like them, we were probably more looking forward to seeing how the new butternuts got on.

Sadly, the 'Barbara' failed to produce. Although set back by the enormous slug population this year, the plants lacked the vigour of the 'Victory'. Even allowing for the atrocious growing conditions, I wasn't impressed and it's not one I'll pursue again next year.

Slightly more promising was 'Victory'. The plants at least produced fruit, albeit too late in the season to mature sufficiently. I'm willing to overlook this in view of the difficult year and there was definitely more promise to be had from their general appearance than the other variety, so we'll give them another shot next year in the hope of kinder weather.

So, for our efforts this year we do have squash to eat, plus a degree of promise for the butternuts next year. We've not won the war, but maybe a small victory on which to build. And if anyone has a favourite Butternut variety that does well over here, please let me know as I'll give it a go next year.

Squash - Honey Bear

A Bit Of A Squash

I've been growing two different varieties of squash this year (not including little'uns pumpkin), both new to me, and it's been interesting to see how they've done as the season's gone on.

I posted HERE about the varieties. One's an 'Acorn Squash' called Honey Bear and the other is an Italian heirloom variety 'Marina di Chioggia'. A bit of a mouthful. I'll refer to it as the ugly squash.

Both types germinated well, but it was the Honey Bear which looked most promising once transplanted into the squash bed, forming fruit nice and early.

This picture was taken in the first week in June. As you can see, the plants are very compact for squash - they don't trail everywhere, they're more bush like.

The disappointment was that these fruits did not set properly. I'm guessing they were not pollinated so the baby fruit didn't develop.




After this, the plants seemed to have a bit of  set-back. They lost their vibrant green colour and sulked. It took quite a while before they picked up - lots of watering and feeding, and I honestly thought we wouldn't get a harvest.

I've read somewhere that it may be advisable to apply lime to the ground where you intend to grow squash so I'll try this next year.

In the meantime a couple of the plants have decided to bear fruit. They are very small, probably just enough to serve two.

Much will depend on the taste, but given that the small bushes do not take up much room, I'll probably give them another go next year and plant more of them.


As for the ugly squash, they didn't form fruit quite as early as the acorn type, but spent their energy in careering off all over the plot. They are very big plants, but the fruit they eventually set all grew well and we have several of these knobbly looking things swelling up a good'un.

  

Finally, my youngest wanted a picture of his Pumpkin.This also shot off everywhere, even through the pallets I had protecting the young sweetcorn...

  

He's dead chuffed and can't wait until halloween.

Winter Squash

Just to expand on my previous post, I'm growing two varieties of winter squash this year. I've haven't done either before, so I'll be interested to see how they compare to those I've tried in the past.

For this early sowing I've only sown two seeds of each and will select the strongest plants of the pair, with the intention of having just one early plant of each variety. I'll sow the remainder later this month.

To give them the best possible start, I simply sow the seed in large pots (seeds on their ends, as they can rot on their flat sides before having chance to germinate), then cover the pot with a plastic freezer bag, stretched tightly across, before sitting them on a warm windowsill. The plastic bag acts like a propagator, keeping the temperature and humidity up.

To be honest, I've struggled a little with squash in the past, as I find the fruits set quite late and then struggle to fully ripen in our short summers. I've given up with Butternut varieties completely - the most prolific harvest I've had before came from a 'Hubbard' type - Uchiki Kuri, and I'll probably include that one again next year, depending on how this year's come along.

The one I'm most looking forward to this year is Honey Bear, an 'Acorn' type squash.

They're a relatively small squash, ideal for two, and have won awards in America where they were bred. Of exceptional eating quality (always a bonus) and under ideal growing conditions, sowing to harvest can be as short as 100 days. I guess it will be longer on this side of the pond, but well worth a go.

The second variety I chose simply because they look so damn ugly. 'Marina di Chioggia'. Apparently an Italian heirloom variety, with very sweet flesh and good keeping qualities. I think with squash, when it says 'exceptional keeping', you can read 'exceptionally difficult to get into', but that's half the fun.
If nothing else, this one will make a great Halloween lantern for the kids - a damn sight more ugly than your average orange one, that's for sure.