What's in, What's out for next year?

[veggiechicken]

Although there are lots of veggies that haven't matured enough to pick, I'm already making decisions on which ones I will or won't grow next year.

Tomatoes
IN - Rambling Red Stripe - absolutely laden with fruit although none are ripe yet. If they meet the taste test they're in.

OUT - Tomberries. So small, about the size of peas. Not worth giving GH space too - they've been turfed out to fend for themselves.

Mangetout

IN - Bijou . Huge pods the size of my hand that stay sweet and stringless - and a heavy cropper

OUT - Goldensweet. Looks good with bright yellow pods but they quickly turn from flat and tasty to fat and tough.

OUT Shiraz - Again looks good with purple pods. Supposed to be a mangetout but the pods harden and fill quickly with the most tasteless peas I've ever eaten.

How about you?

[Hazel at the Hill]

Too early for me to decide, but I'm paying attention to you 'tasting notes' in particular.

I haven't found a purple podded pea that isn't mealy - and yet they look so pretty! Sso if anyone has any recommendations on that score, I'd be grateful.

[mothhawk]

Tomatoes
IN - garden peach - not a heavy cropper for me, but very thin skinned and sweet, best picked and eaten at once, which suits me.
OUT - red zebra - thick flesh, tough skin, probably OK for cooking and freezing, but I don't have the space, I want salad toms.

Peas
OUT - mangetout of any sort, although they are better value of edible crop per plant, I really prefer the taste of 'proper' peas.

Cucurbits and squash
OUT - marketmore cucs, can't get them to grow more than 12" tall, then their leaves curl up and die.
IN - honey bear squash, nice neat plant, yellow courgette - so easy to spot the fruit.

Fruit bushes
OUT - jostaberry I think. It takes up more room for amount of fruit then any other fruit bush I have.
IN - not decided - WTS

[Penellype]

Thoughts on some of the crops I have harvested so far:

Tomatoes

IN
Old faithfuls Sungold and Shirley, the former because they are about the only fruit that I will eat in preference to chocolate and the latter for all the year round tomatoes

OUT
Bajaja - fruit too small

Too soon to say
Chocolate Cherry, Belle, Tumbling Tom

Peas

IN
Reliable old faithful Hurst Greenshaft - still the best for flavour and peas per pod
Meteor - small crops but nice and early and 100% germination under the same conditions as Early Onward (see below) and nice flavour

OUT
Early Onward - desperately poor germination (about 10% on 4 separate attempts) and pods filled with mostly air, including some completely empty.

Mangetout Shiraz - attractive purple pods had me desperate to taste one, but when I did I was bitterly disappointed. The pea shoots I grew indoors in the winter had more flavour than these.

Too soon to say
Geisha

Lettuce/salad greens

IN
Marshall's Provencale salad mix (if I can get it - they seem to have changed the recipe ) - a very pleasant mix of pak choi, rocket, red mizuna, red mustard and komatsuna rapido. Grew well for baby greens over Christmas in the grow light garden.

Lollo Rossa - always reliable

Salad Bowl lettuce for cut and come again (and again and again...)

Nasturtium flowers - I've previously been put off by these being described as "peppery" (I don't like pepper) but they have a lovely flowery taste and brighten up a salad no end.

OUT
Little Gem lettuce - IF I can get them to germinate they either succumb to aphids or go tough and bolt before they form any sort of heart.

Beetroot (I don't like the roots, but I do like the leaves) - leaves go tough and leathery almost immediately in the sort of conditions I can provide.

Courgettes

IN
Green Bush - boring, I know, but sweet, tender and delicious when young, and utterly reliable.

OUT
Piccolo - only bought to try as a novelty to make up buy 10 get the cheapest free (I wanted the other 9 packets). The first 2 fruits didn't set despite being hand pollinated. The 3rd one did and was eaten young, alongside a similar aged green bush fruit. It was almost unpleasantly bitter in comparison.

Too soon to say
Goldmine

Peppers

IN
Snackbite orange - beautiful sweet pepper, bought for its small size (because I can't usually manage a whole pepper). Grew to about 3 inches long before turning orange, a size I would normally struggle to eat in one meal, and left me wanting more. I made the mistake of eating one of these green, when it had less flavour - I won't do that again!

Spinach

IN
Tirza, Bloomsdale - both very nice tasting and decent sized leaves

OUT
Reddy - supposed to be ready in 4 weeks, but however long I left it the biggest leaf was only about an inch long. Too much like hard work.

Brassica

IN
Calabrese Sakura (subject to tasting) - from 2 plants stuffed into a 9 inch x 20 inch trough in the shade I was expecting nothing much. The heads are 3-4 inches across and still growing.

OUT
Cauliflower Snowball - I got these seeds free with 2 other packets, and they are looking odds on to prove a complete waste of time and space.

Too soon to say
Red cabbage Kalibos - grown in even more crowded conditions than the calabrese (5 to an 18 inch square pot) they are producing huge plants. No hearts yet, although they appear to be starting to form.

Carrot

IN
Nantes Frubund Fastcrop - fast maturing, hardy, good flavour small to medium sized roots.

OUT
Eskimo - from a whole packet of seeds sown over 2 seasons, yet to have a carrot that has grown big enough to taste properly, grown under the same conditions as Nantes.

Onions

IN
Sturon (sets) - I am still eating last year's crop harvested in August (stored on strings in the garage) and the few bulbs left are still not sprouting, although one or two did. Quite remarkable.

OUT
White Lisbon - I have yet to get anything bigger than a chive plant from several years of trying to grow these from seed.

Fruit

IN
Strawberry Marshmellow - simply the tastiest strawberry I have ever eaten. Vastly superior to my previous favourite Elsanta.

Blueberry Bluecrop and Dixie - laden with fruit although not yet ripe, well worth their space in the fruit cage.

OUT
Strawberry Vibrant - early variety given the most pampering and the privileged position of the top of the tower (= most sun). Beautiful big strawberries ripened unevenly, succumbed to botrytis in the rain, and tasted very disappointing. Even my Mum, who usually showers compliments on my home grown produce, could only come up with "a bit variable".

Raspberries - I've tried and tried to grow these in pots, but they are most unhappy, and I really don't have the space in the open ground. Last year almost every fruit had raspberry beetle maggots (too early to tell this year).

[Nannysally99]

Potatoes

Sharpes Express prone to mashing and not that good a taste

Tomatoes

African Queen

Huge things that I am proud to have grown from a tiny seed, but the tomatoes don't look that good, will be surprised if they come to anything

Peas

Either got to grow three times as many, or none at all

[Nannysally99]

The above are all OUT

The IN'S are still being decided

[Greenleaves]

Much too early for me too have a long list but just because of pure frustration with them

Radish......any varity

[GrowMoon]

Early Onward - desperately poor germination (about 10% on 4 separate attempts) and pods filled with mostly air, including some completely empty.

Completely agree, only got two plants come up and they are both flops!

OUT For me it's radishes- no one is keen on the taste of the actually radish and when I let it go to see to try the pods the whole plant falls over! Garlic too, just not doing well for me.

Definitely IN are the "Cosse Violette" french beans. They are all flowering well now despite the cold shock they had from me planting them out a little too early (tricked by the bad weather) but can't wait to taste them.

[Mumbles]

Not really the point of the thread but just as exciting (for me anyway)

OUT

Everything in the garden and replaced by sturdy non edibles that won't be trampled by the hound and feline trying to find somewhere comfy to sleep

IN

Everything I can get my hands on in the allotment.
Next year will be a great year for experimenting and I can't wait. Just need to crack on with all the hard graft that will make all the experimenting possible getting the allotment looking less jungle like


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[Bill HH]

IN

Leeks, mussleburg, Do well, taste great and last all through the winter, what more could you want.

Radar onion sets (Only one went to seed out of a hundred, grew well both in the soil and pots)

Sarpo Mira potatoes, irrespective of the taste which is yet to be tried, these have grown up with stunning unblemished foliage and are blight resistant.

OUT

Rocket potatoes, very early, good yield, taste like polystyrene balls.

Cauliflower, One cauliflower out of ten plants and a lot of "Faffing about"

Courgettes, no one likes them, cant give em away, and they always get mildew yet up to now I keep planting them. Why?

[Green Gerkin]

OUT
Radish - any variety. I thought they were meant to be easy!

IN
Gerkins
Strawberries



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[Martin H]

OUT
Anything that has to be direct sown. Except carrots, I have to keep trying those, it's in my marriage contract.

IN
Onions "T&M First Early".
Garlic
Whatever potatoes end up doing the best. I'm currently betting on Charlotte and Cara.
Sweet Peas on cordons. They have been brilliant this year.

(As an experiment I sowed a 10 inch pot with radish seed 1 inch apart in the greenhouse a month ago. They are just now ripening, the cleanest, nicest radishes I have ever grown. This is the way forward for me. No flea beetles on the greenhouse shelf!)

[Nicos]

Out at the moment are onions...there will always be a place for red ones though

[Bill HH]

The trouble is when deciding what is out or in is that something that does really badly one year may well shine in another year. Frinstance I grew good little gems lettuce last year but this year they have just gone to seed before they had properly matured. Same with pak choy the damn stuff is going to seed whilst still at the seedling stage.

[Penellype]

The trouble is when deciding what is out or in is that something that does really badly one year may well shine in another year. Frinstance I grew good little gems lettuce last year but this year they have just gone to seed before they had properly matured. Same with pak choy the damn stuff is going to seed whilst still at the seedling stage.

Agree absolutely, which is why I tend to give things a 2nd chance, unless I really don't like the taste. My first experience of Sungold tomatoes was an attempt to grow them on the sitting room windowsill. They produced normal sized bright yellow tomatoes that tasted of water and I only persevered because I had already grown some sideshoots to plant outside. Quite how cloned plants could produce fruit that looked and tasted so different I have no idea!