What are some of your favorite varieties?

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carlherrnstein
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Post by carlherrnstein » Sat. Jan. 15, 2022 8:12 pm

I am going to put in a larger garden this year. I normally only put potatoes an a couple tomatoes out. Last year it was a little bigger an I put out green beans.
My favorites are.
Potatoes, kennebec
Green beans, top crop
Sweet corn, peaches an cream or golden bantam

 
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Post by Toddburn » Sat. Jan. 15, 2022 8:55 pm

Big enjoyment in gardening here. Marketmore cucumbers, Celebrity tomatoes, Flat Dutch cabbage, Blue lake bush green beans are always some of my go to plants.

 
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Post by Hoytman » Sun. Jan. 23, 2022 1:45 pm

Been gardening a long time. I raise, at times, more than 1000lbs of potatoes, over 150 pepper plants and up to 200 tomato plants and rows of green beans. I have nearly 150 varieties of tomato seeds I save and over 75 varieties of mostly string beans.

Some of my favorites in order ...
Kennebec
Red Pontiac’s
...are my usual stand-by varieties of potatoes that always get grown here. Two 100 ft rows each. They produce well, keep well, good size, and flavor is tops for many dishes.

Also grow these potatoes...
All Red...taste is great...looks like pieces of ham.
All Blue...hard as a rock keep linger than anything else.
Red Norland...when I can’t get Red Pontiac’s.

Tomatoes...
Kellogg’s Breakfast
Aunt Ruby’s German Green
Yellow Brandywine
Rocky’s Miracle
Climbing Trip-L-Crop (bushels from one plant and fabulous flavor)
Mortgage Lifter Bi-color
Celebrity and other various hybrids
Delicious
Big Mama hybrid

Various cherry tomatoes...
Sun sugar
Red/Yellow pear

Celebrity 50/50 w/Delicious...best tasting juice you ever had.

Cabbage...
Late flat Dutch
OS Cross

String Beans grown on fence...
White 1/2 Runner
Brown Greasy Grits
White Greasy


Stringless beans...not a fan except for...

Kentucky Blue Pole (KY Wonder x Blue Lake Pole cross)...grown on fence...and the only stringless bean I know of that tastes like or as good as a string bean without the hassle of de-stringing. An awesome bean!
Roma II bush bean that also rivals string beans. An awesome bean!


Onions...
Candy
Texas 1015
Yellow Sweet Spanish
Red Candy

Cucumbers...
Homemade pickles (a variety name)
Other various slicing cuke hybrids

Corn...
Ambrosia bi-color for sweet eating and freezing.
NK 199 old stand-by for freezing...old time corn taste.
Silver Queen
Whiteout

 
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Post by warminmn » Sun. Jan. 23, 2022 1:54 pm

Hoytman, have you ever heard of Seed Savers Exchange from Decorah Iowa? They have a website. They deal in a lot of organic and heirloom seeds. Kind of a fun website to look thru. There are seeds there that families have been growing for generations.

I mostly grow fruit trees anymore, pears and apples. But I still plant simple stuff like green beans, carrots and finally got around to growing some beans inside this winter. I want to get some grow lights sometime in the near future and get a little more serious about that. As far as green stuff, its mostly bush beans that I like to eat.


 
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Post by Hoytman » Mon. Jan. 24, 2022 8:34 pm

warminmn wrote:
Sun. Jan. 23, 2022 1:54 pm
Hoytman, have you ever heard of Seed Savers Exchange from Decorah Iowa? They have a website. They deal in a lot of organic and heirloom seeds. Kind of a fun website to look thru. There are seeds there that families have been growing for generations.

I mostly grow fruit trees anymore, pears and apples. But I still plant simple stuff like green beans, carrots and finally got around to growing some beans inside this winter. I want to get some grow lights sometime in the near future and get a little more serious about that. As far as green stuff, its mostly bush beans that I like to eat.
Oh yes. I was a member for a while. Good organization I need to support again. A couple other good ones are Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and Sandhill Preservation Center. Seed Savers is one of my favorites.

A little story about them. I finally found a variety of onions that my grandparents used to grow called potato onions. One of seed savers members, Kelly Winterton, had them. They are supposed to be a large size self-multiplying onion. Plant one onion, harvest 4-8 pants from that one plant. Actually, there are numerous skin colors that can be had from the same variety. I got seeds from him at least three times, would grow them out but for some reason during the growing season they would die out. No clue what the problem was. I may try to get more seeds this spring. The only difference between what I got from Mr. Winterton and the ones my grandparents brought from KY to OH when they moved was that the variety my grandparents had was so hot you could hardly eat them. Pap used to eat them like apples and as soon as he walked through the church house door you could smell he had eaten onions. They were rank, but delicious.

I’ve got a couple old apple trees to chop down that are over 50 years old that my grandma planted from seed. I hate to cut them but they have reached the end of their life span I think. They are getting rooted spots in the wood, so time for them to go. No idea what type they are. I need to take some cuttings from them and learn how to graft them to other trees. Not something I know much about. I love Honeycrisp apples...or any long keeping crunchy and sweet apple. Not much on tart apples. I think Seed Savers, or maybe another catalog I can’t think of at the moment, offers cuttings and such from others members. Fruit trees are something I’ve been trying to read more about. I love apples, peaches, and fresh pears. Been wanting to plant some trees here after I cut these old ones down. Also wanting to save some cuttings from these trees just so I can graft them and have my grandparents apples again.

On the grow lights.
Don’t waste your money on expensive grow lights or special “grow bulbs” or any high pressure sodium type bulbs or any metal halide types. A couple of cheapo 4ft lights (<$25) with T8 or T5 bulbs in them in the 6500K color spectrum will work. There are bulbs called “Sunlight” and those called “Daylight”. I have the best luck with Daylight bulbs and if you seen them plugged in side-by-side you’ll understand what I mean. They grow really nice starts and I use them right up to hardening off outside. Used to you could get them cheap, so I bought more than I’ll use. No idea what they cost now. Now, if you could find some LED’s in that same color spectrum 6500 and Daylight, then those might do ok as well.

I grew 5000 tomato plants one year and sold them in town. All out of a one car garage. Yep...I informed the village police that I was growing tomatoes, not pot. LOL!

 
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Post by warminmn » Mon. Jan. 24, 2022 9:22 pm

Thats a lot of tomato plants! Lighting has came a long ways the last 10 or 15 years. Im going to start real small with that and see how it goes. I did manage to grown green beans by my east facing patio door this winter. I didnt get a lot of beans but got some. I'll just keep playing with it a few years before I jump full bore into it.

 
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Post by Hoytman » Mon. Jan. 24, 2022 9:53 pm

warminmn wrote:
Mon. Jan. 24, 2022 9:22 pm
Thats a lot of tomato plants! Lighting has came a long ways the last 10 or 15 years. Im going to start real small with that and see how it goes. I did manage to grown green beans by my east facing patio door this winter. I didnt get a lot of beans but got some. I'll just keep playing with it a few years before I jump full bore into it.
If you’re trying to grow indoors enough light becomes an important issue. South facing if you can do it is best. Otherwise you’ll need more light. One little 4ft light, a couple cheap bulbs and some of that reflective bubble insulation material found out box stores can help a lot.

Also, variety can have a lot to do with the amount of harvest as can the lack of space to grow more. Try a 1/2 runner variety. Something that comes about 4 feet. Growing up can be easier than growing out.

KY Blue pole or Fortex pole (both stringless) are high producers as well.

Strike is a Bush variety known for high yields.

 
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Post by warminmn » Mon. Jan. 24, 2022 10:06 pm

Hoytman wrote:
Mon. Jan. 24, 2022 9:53 pm
If you’re trying to grow indoors enough light becomes an important issue. South facing if you can do it is best. Otherwise you’ll need more light. One little 4ft light, a couple cheap bulbs and some of that reflective bubble insulation material found out box stores can help a lot.

Also, variety can have a lot to do with the amount of harvest as can the lack of space to grow more. Try a 1/2 runner variety. Something that comes about 4 feet. Growing up can be easier than growing out.

KY Blue pole or Fortex pole (both stringless) are high producers as well.

Strike is a Bush variety known for high yields.
Strike, I will remember that. I dont really want to grow pole beans in my house. I was actually surprised my beans did as good as they've done with only 4-5 hrs of direct light a day at the most. Less when cloudy of course.


 
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Post by Hoytman » Mon. Jan. 24, 2022 10:16 pm

As much as I like tomatoes, I have a fondness for beans and bean seeds. Beans are delicious, most any type. The seeds are colorful and really remarkable how they vary in size, color, and the designs or markings on them.

When the poop hits the fan, and seed supplies are depleted, they make pretty good bartering items as well.

To me there’s something about the tending, harvesting, stringing and/or breaking of the beans that offers a “peace” of the old times, pun intended, that isn’t often shared with friends and family like they used to be. Spent many a night with my deceased grandmother stringing and snapping beans...way into the early morning hours. I wouldn’t trade those memories for love nor money.

 
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Post by warminmn » Tue. Jan. 25, 2022 8:21 am

I like eating them fresh, never get sick of them, not so much cooked, but have helped can a lot of them with my Mother. She liked me helping because I ate about every 5th one so she didnt have to can so many, lol I like fresh peas too but there doesnt seem to be much return on the labor involved.

 
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Post by Hoytman » Tue. Jan. 25, 2022 9:44 am

warminmn wrote:
Tue. Jan. 25, 2022 8:21 am
I like eating them fresh, never get sick of them, not so much cooked, but have helped can a lot of them with my Mother. She liked me helping because I ate about every 5th one so she didnt have to can so many, lol I like fresh peas too but there doesnt seem to be much return on the labor involved.
:lol: Yeah they're a little harder to get at, for sure.

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