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#1
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Traditional seed varieties - help needed
Hi, I would like to grow some old traditional varieties of veg this
year. I want them to be based on taste and suitability to my geographical and physical conditions, rather than mass produced stuff. I would like your suggestions as to what varieties I should grow. First, my garden is in SE Scotland, around 400 feet above sea level and is walled (an old farmhouse garden) so it is well sheltered. The last frost can be late May. The soil is good. I am looking for suggestions for the following and any others you think I may enjoy: tomatoes (for greenhouse) lettuce squashes beans beetroot spinach/leaf beet/chard etc potatoes spring onions I look forward to your ideas. Regards Jonny |
#2
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Jonny wrote Hi, I would like to grow some old traditional varieties of veg this year. I want them to be based on taste and suitability to my geographical and physical conditions, rather than mass produced stuff. I would like your suggestions as to what varieties I should grow. First, my garden is in SE Scotland, around 400 feet above sea level and is walled (an old farmhouse garden) so it is well sheltered. The last frost can be late May. The soil is good. I am looking for suggestions for the following and any others you think I may enjoy: tomatoes (for greenhouse) lettuce squashes beans beetroot spinach/leaf beet/chard etc potatoes spring onions In case you didn't know, try http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~nfarl...etty/etty.html for seed. -- Regards Bob In Runnymede, 17 miles West of London |
#3
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wrote in message ... Hi, I would like to grow some old traditional varieties of veg this year. I want them to be based on taste and suitability to my geographical and physical conditions, rather than mass produced stuff. I would like your suggestions as to what varieties I should grow. First, my garden is in SE Scotland, around 400 feet above sea level and is walled (an old farmhouse garden) so it is well sheltered. The last frost can be late May. The soil is good. I am looking for suggestions for the following and any others you think I may enjoy: tomatoes (for greenhouse) lettuce squashes beans beetroot spinach/leaf beet/chard etc potatoes spring onions I look forward to your ideas. Regards Jonny One word of warning - some of the modern varieties are popular because they outperform the traditional varieties. I tried a '4 traditional varieties' pack of tomatoes last year, and three out of the four were a disaster grown outside on my patio. There was very low resistance to rot and I lost more than I picked, although the ones I picked were generally good in flavour. So I would go for 'best flavour/location' and try and ignore the age of the variety. Go for the traditional ones but beware of any weaknesses. Sometimes the reason that they have fallen out of favour is because they are difficult to grow. Cheers Dave R |
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#5
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David W.E. Roberts wrote:
wrote in message ... Hi, I would like to grow some old traditional varieties of veg this year. I want them to be based on taste and suitability to my geographical and physical conditions, rather than mass produced stuff. I would like your suggestions as to what varieties I should grow. First, my garden is in SE Scotland, around 400 feet above sea level and is walled (an old farmhouse garden) so it is well sheltered. The last frost can be late May. The soil is good. I am looking for suggestions for the following and any others you think I may enjoy: tomatoes (for greenhouse) lettuce squashes beans beetroot spinach/leaf beet/chard etc potatoes spring onions I look forward to your ideas. Regards Jonny One word of warning - some of the modern varieties are popular because they outperform the traditional varieties. I tried a '4 traditional varieties' pack of tomatoes last year, and three out of the four were a disaster grown outside on my patio. There was very low resistance to rot and I lost more than I picked, although the ones I picked were generally good in flavour. So I would go for 'best flavour/location' and try and ignore the age of the variety. Go for the traditional ones but beware of any weaknesses. Sometimes the reason that they have fallen out of favour is because they are difficult to grow. Cheers Dave R I'm convinced that if you are growing relatively small quantities for personal consumption and factors such as taste and minmimal cossetting are important, then old varieties are best. We moved into our present house ~5 years ago and have been experimenting with potato varities - we're only interested in early potatoes and we don't want 50 kg. Last year, we went to the HDRA 'Potato Days' weekend at Ryton - were you can buy by the tuber and got 6 tubers each of 6 varieties. Scoring by taste, yield, resistance to pests & disease, and ease of preparation, "Belle de Fontenay", a French variety, first described in 1870 was clearly the winner - in our garden. Tomorrow (Saturday) we're off to this years 'potato days' and we'll get 20 or so Belle de Fontenay plus another 3 or 4 differnt varieties. -- Larry Stoter |
#6
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"Larry Stoter" wrote ((SNIP)) Last year, we went to the HDRA 'Potato Days' weekend at Ryton - were you can buy by the tuber and got 6 tubers each of 6 varieties. Scoring by taste, yield, resistance to pests & disease, and ease of preparation, "Belle de Fontenay", a French variety, first described in 1870 was clearly the winner - in our garden. Tomorrow (Saturday) we're off to this years 'potato days' and we'll get 20 or so Belle de Fontenay plus another 3 or 4 differnt varieties. -- That variety is quite commonly available now, even the RHS at Wisley has it and they are probably cheaper than the HDRA too, although mostly dearer than anywhere else! -- Regards Bob In Runnymede, 17 miles West of London |
#7
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Jonny wrote ... Hi, I would like to grow some old traditional varieties of veg this year. I want them to be based on taste and suitability to my geographical and physical conditions, rather than mass produced stuff. I would like your suggestions as to what varieties I should grow. First, my garden is in SE Scotland, around 400 feet above sea level and is walled (an old farmhouse garden) so it is well sheltered. The last frost can be late May. The soil is good. I am looking for suggestions for the following and any others you think I may enjoy: tomatoes (for greenhouse) lettuce squashes beans beetroot spinach/leaf beet/chard etc potatoes spring onions Depends what you mean by "traditional" and how far you want to go back in time. I've listed pre 1900 spuds (according to the data I have available). Whether they like your neck of the woods or not is probably down to trial and error. First early... Duke of York 1891 Epicure 1897 International Kidney 1897 Royal Kidney 1899 Sharpes Express 1900 Second Early... Belle de Fontenay 1885 British Queen 1894 Maincrop... Nicola 1897 Ratte 1872 Up to Date 1894 Pink Fir Apple 1880 Russet Burbank 1875 -- Regards Bob In Runnymede, 17 miles West of London |
#8
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Thanks to all for your advice.
Jonny |
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