Choosing suitable varieties

 WHAT VARIETY TO GROW?

 Vegetables - results of trials here on different varieties over many years

Choosing a variety that suits your needs and meets your desires can make all the difference to whether you feel rewarded for the time and effort you have given to growing vegetables.

I have a clear example in front of me every time I go into my garden this autumn, where two varieties of celeriac are growing completely differently. Prinz (from many suppliers) is a compact plant with healthy leaves and fair sized roots. Bianco del Veneto (from Seeds of Italy) is a much larger plant, with an abundance of dark green leaves, and small, stunted looking roots. Rather like a celery plant whose roots have swollen unexpectedly, with much less that is edible compared to a better variety.

Celeriac grown in the same bed, sown at the same time - Prinz above, Bianco de Veneto below

The following is a sample of some striking differences I have noticed over the last decade or so.

AUBERGINE

My favourite is Orient Express, for its high yield of lovely long fruits, but it is now apparently declassified and unobtainable. This year Moneymaker has done well, and one I avoid is (green-leaved) Black Beauty which takes ages to develop any fruit.

BEETROOT

For early sowing, Boltardy has good resistance to bolting and its flavour is excellent. White beetroot has perhaps the sweetest taste, Barbietola with the pretty pink rings is rather earthy and yellow beetroot is mild but a little prone to fungal rots.

BEANS BROAD

I have always enjoyed Aquadulce Claudia for overwintered and early spring sowings, for its steady growth and fine flavoured beans which grow large before becoming hard. Violetta from T&M has, on two consecutive years, produced green rather than purple beans, a disappointment which they have failed to address.

BEANS FRENCH

Cupidon is a high yielding dwarf bean with lovely long, thin fruit. Sonesta is still my favourite yellow bean, fast into cropping and over in about a month. I know of no reliable tall yellow beans but Westlandse green climbing bean (Stormy Hall) has done well and has an especially sweet flavour.

BRUSSELS SPROUTS

F1 hybrids tend to grow the tightest buttons, but it is difficult to have good quality harvests in late winter. I grow Noisette for a steady supply through the winter season: its sprouts are of variable size and tightness, and of good flavour.

CALABRESE

For large, tight heads try F1 hybrids such as Sukaru and Marathon. Later harvests of smaller shoots are given by open pollinated varieties such as Green Sprouting

CARROTS

Early Nantes types are useful all season long and generally of good flavour, especially in lively soil. Berlicum or Autumn King are best for keeping, but be wary of special ‘rainbow mixes’ which may contain a lot of yellow carrots (average flavour) and/or very few seeds. I have had a fair amount of root fly damage to varieties such as Resistafly.

CELERIAC

See above, most varieties on offer are good except for Bianca da Veneto.

COURGETTE

Many F1 hybrids are relatively compact and productive, such as Defender and Patriot which has smooth stems, while older varieties are often more sprawling and unpredictable. This year I found that Striata d’Italia and Fiorentino, both from Seeds of Italy, have grown well in a sprawling way, but the latter has spiny stems which prick when picking fruit.

CUCUMBER

For indoor cucumbers, Passandra F1 and Melen F1 are extremely productive of small fruit, Femspot F1 is reliable for long fruit, and sow those expensive seeds carefully!

FENNEL, BULB

Be wary of sowing too early, there is little resistance to bolting. Many varieties do well from sowing June and early July and Zefa Fino F1 has been reliable for me.

KALE

Often easier to grow than cabbage, more hardy and with many interesting varieties, too many to name here. I suggest you buy a few different seed packets, maybe shared with friends, to grow a few of each - red or green, tall or short, curly or flat leaved. The latter such as Sutherland, Red Russian and Jagallo Nero are more tender as salad leaves.

LEEK

There is a huge choice and I recommend growing at least two varieties, one for before Christmas and one for after, as the faster growing early ones - sown by early April to have large harvests - are more likely to suffer in hard frost. My favourite is Swiss Giant for large early autumn leeks, Autumn Mammoth types for late autumn and into winter. For later cropping until April I suggest Bandit; Musselburgh is hardy but sometimes of shorter stem and its quality varies.

LETTUCE

Many shops, nurseries and catalogues offer a disappointingly limited range of the usual salad bowl, iceberg, lollos and butterheads. Have a look in Real Seeds, Tuckers, Seeds of Italy, Mr Fothergills et al for varieties such as Amorina, Bergamo, Chartwell, Freckles, Grenoble Red, and Rosemoor which all have beautifully different shaped leaves, colours and tastes - for picking as leaves, see Harvesting tips. Heritage varieties may be worth a try but, to date, I have found them lacking in vigour and longevity.

SALAD LEAVES

See other posts on this huge topic, suffice to say here that for spring sowing I recommend lettuce, spinach, broad leaved sorrel, tree spinach and herbs such as dill, for summer sowing (autumn leaves) try endives, lettuce, chicory, orientals and basil, for autumn sowing (before mid September outdoors) try lambs lettuce, land cress, endive, chicory, orientals and chervil.

SWEETCORN

I have been impressed year after year by Sweet Nugget F1, whose cobs are consistently sweet, fat and dense, more so than any non hybrid I have grown.

SQUASH, WINTER

Read the small print to know if you are buying a trailer or a compact plant. Blue Ballet is compact and has good flavour, Butternut trails a lot and is often late maturing, difficult in cool summers, while Orange ones such as Red Kuri mature early and reliably.

TOMATO

Beefsteak - stunted, often loses leader, highly susceptible to blight

Dometica F1, medium, matt, light red, flavour good for larger-fruited tomato, vigorous, prone to blight

Floridity F1, small red pum, less sweet than Rosada and a little more floury texture

Gardeners Delight, cherry red of good flavour, susceptible to blight

Lido F1, round, red, large, shiny, of fair flavour and firm flesh, susceptible to blight

Rosada F1, plum, red, small, shiny bright red and exeptionally sweet, fair yield, tall growing

Sakura F1, cherry red of medium size, pleasantly sweet and with excellent flavour, good vigour, average blight resistance

Sungold F1, orange cherry of great flavour but prone to splitting and to blight, vigorous and early, makes a tall plant so it needs room to grow

Sweet Million grows large trusses of red, cherry fruit, susceptible to blight

Velocity F1, round, matt-red, very large, high yielding, grows keenly, some susceptibility to blight

Fruit - ongoing assessments, mostly of apples on 35 varieties planted in last ten years