Without regard to those who had issues with bugs, disease, etc., Tracey, the following are as discussed - a bit convoluted, and in some cases will need spelling adjustments, as I didn’t have a catalog for proper names!
Received an email from Bunny Henderson re herbs: Mexican Mint Marigold (poor mans tarragon), salad burnet, and calendula.
She also liked chocolate cherry tomatoes and Ananas Noire Tomato.
The group consensus on…
Tomatoes:
- Cosmic Bella
- Black Krim (harvest sooner than you might think)
- Black from Tula
- Kellogg’s breakfast
- Cherokee Purple
- Sun Gold (F1 hybrid, highly productive, early producer, very sweet, indeterminate)
- Yellow pear
- Costoluto Genovese
- Pineapple
- Jaune Flamme (heirloom), medium, orange, early maturing, productive and vigorous indeterminate grower
and for containers:
- Silvery Fir
- Siberian (compact)
Eggplant:
- Ichiban (prolific)
- Pingtung (smaller)
Greens:
- Greek cress (tastes and looks like watercress)
- Arugula (rustic perennial bees love – Rocket by Botanical Interests)
- Pala Rosa de Fiocco Radicchio (start early- heads in June)
- Pan de Sucero chicory
- Cardinale lettuce
- Pablo lettuce (red-tipped leaves from Cure Farm or Fedco – a batavian variety)
- Pirat butterhead lettuce (lovely, tender, speckled lettuce)
- Annenue lettuce (sweet, wonderful, takes the heat)
- Merlot (deep burgundy color, a leaf lettuce and quite beautiful and doesn’t bolt quickly)
- Michelle lettuce
- Winter Density lettuce (takes the cold)
- Forellenschluss lettuce (speckled lettuce)
- Webb’s Wonderful lettuce
- Gigante parsley (tall, flat, self-sows)
- Golden Purslane (tender source of omega 3′s; grow in summer – doesn’t like cold)
- Asian greens early and late (they are so easy to grow. They add flavor to salads and stir-frys)
- Tatsoi (easy to grow and can be used as a trap plant for those lovely flea beetles)
Bok Choy:
- Shuko (wants to bolt; can pick early – should be grown in fall)
Kale:
- Narrow di toscana/lacinato/dinosaur (a cross between Kale and cabbage)
- Red Russian (flat and hardy)
- Tuscan
Chard:
- Argentata (mild flavor and versatile as a spinach replacement in the hot months)
- Sea Foam(mild, tender)
- Ford Hook(giant)
- Ruby Red Rhubarb Chard (great grower – more nutritious than others noted by some to have tough stems and leathery leaves)
- Bright Lights (beautiful, prolific, and delicious)
- Lucullus (small but tasty, heirloom, 60days)
Spinach:
- Olympia (nonsavoid so less oxalic acid – slow bolting)
- Tyee
- Space
Broccoli:
- Diplomat (hybrid from Fedco – great initial heads, and then many side shoots until a really hard freeze)
- Tendergreen
- Arcadia
- Pirarcicaba (loose bud habit of the little heads, sweetest and tastiest of all broccoli – stems are even better non-heading large sprouts with superior flavor, 56 days, open-pollinated)
- Romanesco broccoli (cone-shaped whorled light green heading, long growing season)
rabe as fall crop and Riestia (??)
Snow peas:
- Oregon giant (blooms white – let grow until large)
- Sumo (blooms purple start about 3/17)
Cauliflower:
- Graffiti (purple stays purple when cooked – spring plant – harvest when head is tight)
- Plant white cauliflower in the fall
Garlic:
- Chesnok Red garlic (soft necks store well)
- Inchelium Red for storage (mild)
Onion:
- Copra Onion (104 days, hybrid, an excellent storing large yellow onion)
- Cortland (bigger and more uniform than Copra)
- Red bull (very large dependable, good storing onion)
- Sierra Blanca (Seminis/Monsanto seed - does quite well as a white onion, but not entirely uniform)
- Walla Walla Sweet (over-winters under remay for earlier big onions, can be planted close in September, then thin for replanting in the spring)
- Scallions (do well over winter even without the remay)
Leek:
- American Flag Leek (110, a thick leek with whites that can grow to 10 inches, heirloom)
- Blue de Solaize Leek (110, great leek for overwintering-leave in the ground surrounded by mulch and harvest throughout winter, French heirloom)
- King Richard (for a Fall leek)
- Lincoln Leek (75 days, can be harvest young as finger thick baby leeks or left to mature, long and slender, open-pollinated)
Celeriac (plant 8 inches apart; Fedco has sweet celeriac; Brilliant is also good)
Carrot:
- Kurota Chantenay
- Nantes (blunt tip), sweet and a bit easier if you have rocky soil
Potato:
- Peruvian Purple
Beets:
- Lutz Gold
- Detura
- Bull Blood (heirloom, known for delicious beet greens)
Turnips:
- Gold Ball (great as baby turnips, storage turnip, sweet, not too spicy and the greens are delicious sauteed with garlic)
- Oasis (from Fedco)
- Tokyo Cros (Japanese F1 hybrid)
- Oasis (Fedco)
- Gilfeather (wonderful heirloom)
- White Egg (heirloom, Fedco)
- Hakurei
Radishes:
- French Breakfast (heirloom, white shoulders with pink root — very pretty)
Bush beans:
- Masai (yields a lot of skinny beans)
- Jade, highly productive, good taste
- Provider highly productive, good taste
Pole beans:
- Northeaster or Quintas (adaptable, delicious, prolific early)
- Aunt Aidas (from Turtle Tree has short pods that should be harvested early; it’s an Italian hierloom with edible pod)
- Scarlet Runner Bean (gorgeous screening, attracts hummingbirds and gives you a nice bean to eat too)
Musk melons:
- Oka (stays green)
- Halona
- Hanna’s Choice
- Athena (winner by far – tastes like flower; orange flesh, loves s. facing sun)
- Collective farm woman (small dark green Russian melon)
- Noir de Carmes (aromatic, crisp white flesh)
Watermelon:
- Peace (petit yellow, sugary sweet; water every day; watermelon must feel like a water balloon when jiggled to be ripe)
Cukes:
- Super Zagros (prolific – pick before too large or will be all seeds)
- Puna Caras (crispy, Indian)
- Orient Express (may have tough skin)
- Shuko (long Japanese – great for juicing)
Summer squash:
- Tromboncino (climbing – harvest at 15 inches)
- Raven (dependable hybrid – pick small – zucchini)
- Costata Romanesco (giant plant – great for drying or stored for soup)
- Rondenese (straight neck yellow)
- Waltham (long storage – give more time than 105 days – may like heat if one puts a brick under it)
- Sunburst patty pan
- Fedco’s spaghetti squash
- Yellow Crookneck (heirloom, not frequently grown but flavorful)
Winter squash:
- Uncle David Dakota (delicious but not productive, needs room)
- Winter luxury pie pumpkin
- Simsjome tetsukaabuto (from Pine Tree – beautiful outside and in)
- Red Kuri (from Fedco – a red teardrop-shaped squash with dense red flesh, great for soup or pies or just roasting, huge plants that require room to roam)
- Sunshine
- Sweet Meat
Peppers:
- Alma Paprika (beautiful – goes from yellow to red – heirloom, prolific, for making paprika)
- Lanterna piquinte (mild heat, for greenhouse as needs long season – small bell shaped)
- Quadrato d’Asti Rosso or Giallo (red or yellow)
- Jimmy Nardello (sweet, long red)
- Big Jim (mild – If you like green chili)
- Sandia Hot (very hot)
- Ancho (aka Pablano)
- Chocolate (Sweet pepper)
- Pinot Noir (Sweet pepper)
- Flavorburst (Sweet pepper)
- Yum Yum Gold (Sweet pepper)
- Gusto Purple (hot pepper)
- Cajun Belle (hot pepper)
- Czech Black (hot pepper)
- Anaheim (hot pepper for stuffing, highly productive, best for green chile)
NOTES: One person gets their seeds from Plants of the Southwest. Start them early and put them in the hottest part of your garden. OR grow peepers in a pot, the extra warm soil is great for them!
Corn:
- Painted Mountain (beautiful colored ears for fall and then grind the corn for meal)
Fruit:
- Mara des Bois strawberries were an amazement
- Reliance peaches (banner crop after 6 years)
- Toka Plum
- Pipestone Plum
- Montmorency Cherry
- Meteor Sour Cherry
- Anjou pear
- Ambrosia pears
- NOTES: order fruit trees from J E Miller, Raintree, St. Lawrence Nursery, Rainspot Treefarm, Ft. Collins Nursery, Harlequin’s Nursery
- use CSU planting instructions
- dwarf trees are shorter lived