"Gold Standard" varieties

[kirsty b]

that list is an excellent idea Piglet. As I'm allotmenting for the first time this year I went a bit mad with varieties, so now I'm making a list of what did well/what we particularly enjoyed to do next year in perhaps slightly larger quantities.

So far
Early pots: pentland javelin & red duke of york
Lettuce: webbs wonderful, mixed leaves, salad bowl
Spring onion: white lisbon
overwinter onion: got it from Dobies but can't remember name its good though
spring sown onion: sturon
Shallots: red sun
Beetroot: Boltardy


This is whats doing well so far, have not decided on stuff still growing until it starts cropping and I can taste it

[sewer rat]

Here is what I am growing this year - those marked with asterisk have been grown before and come recommended
Potato - Lady Christl*, Charlotte*, Edzell Blue, Nicola, Maris Peer, Maris Piper, Rooster*
Onion - Jagro
Carrot - Paris Market Horn*
Spring Onion - White Lisbon*
Garlic - Printanor
Celery - Golden Self Blanching ( if the rabbits leave me any)
Celeriac - Prinz
Runner Bean - Lady Di*, Enorma*
Climbing French Bean - Blue Lake*
Dwarf French Bean - Cropper Teepee, Orinoco
Courgette - Defender*, Taxi*
Cauliflower - Freedom, Rafale, Igloo*
Cabbage - Golden Acre Primo*, Tundra*, Protovoy
PSB - Early PSB*
Kale - Black Tuscany
Sprouts - Diablo, Bedford Fillbasket*
Lettuce - Little Gem*, Saladin*, Charita, Amorina, Green Salad Bowl, Red Salad Bowl, Clarion
Calabrese - Marathon*
Swiss Chard - Bright Lights
Beetroot - Monopoly
Florence Fennel - Ruby
Pak Choi - Ching Chang
Chinese Cabbage - The Blues
Radish - Tarzan
Parsley - Champion Moss Curled*
Leek - Musselburgh*, Tornado
Tomato - Ailsa Craig*, Alicante*, Shirley*, Golden Sunrise*, Black Cherry, Tumbling Tom Red, Tumbling Tom Yellow, Gartenperle*, Yellow Pear, San Marzano, Kimberley, Alaskan Fancy, Jersey Devil, Sunsweet
Cucumber - Topsy*, Femspot, Pepinex 69
Pepper - Bell Boy, Poseidon
Chilli Pepper - Apache, Cheyenne, Jalapeno
Peas - Kelvedon Wonder*, Onward
Broad Bean - Witkiem Manita
Turnip - Purple Top Milan*
Swede - Brora*

[leona]

i change varieties every year but so far this year cherry tom - snow white has produced loads and the 3 that have ripened have been yummy. iv been trialing different strawberrys and the 2 varieties that have really shone are honeyeye (early) and aromel which might be a mid.

[Flummery]

Whoops! Forgot toms!
Cherry - sungold
Baby plum - tropical Ruby
Larger toms for flavour - tigerella and green zebra.
Trying others as I always do but they are so far my faves.
Outdoor - red alert - a little bush toms which crops like blazes and tastes fantastic. Don't have room for it now but if my name ever gets to the top of the village allotment list --- it'll be back!

[leona]

oh im glad to hear that about red alert because iv had 3 tom plants forced on me (id said no as i already had 15) and one of them is red alert. il look forward to it cropping!

[leona]

the other one i thought of is lettuce 'freckles'. its a semi cos which has done really well. no slug or snail damage, heart didnt rot like my cos lettuces did and hasnt bolted like the others have. i really dont like dark lettuce but this is spotted as the name suggests and only has a hint of bitterness which i quite like.

[SarzWix]

I'm having success with Iceberg Lettuce - Set from Suttons this year, it's germinating whatever the temp, survived near drowning and started hearting up nicely. Also a mixture of loose leaf called Colour Shades Mixed from T&M is doing well, with a nice mixture of leaf colours

I've not bothered with French Bean - Tendergeen ths year, only got about 2 pods per plant last year, and they weren't that tasty either...

[Snadger]

Just bumping this thread as anyone like myself who is establishing a seed list for 2016 might be interested!

A few additions from myself that crop well and taste good are Japanese onion 'Troy' and second early (I think) potato Elfe.

I'm gutted to find that Ball Headed Spring Hero cabbage is an F1 variety so if anyone knows of a ball headed spring cabbage which isn't, please let me know as I am trying a season without F1's

[Penellype]

What a great thread!

From over 100 varieties I grew this year, my "Gold Standard" list are just 9 varieties that I can't imagine an improvement on (although I am happy to be proved wrong). I've grown most of these for years, tried alternatives and keep coming back to them - I've noted roughly how long I've been growing them. These all score highly on taste and reliability and have other attributes listed below.

Carrot Nantes Frubund Fastcrop (10+ years). Fast growing and cold tolerant.
Onion Sturon (sets) (20+ years) store very well, nice firm, sweet onions.
Pea Hurst Green Shaft (20+ years) lovely long pods with plenty of peas
Pepper Snackbite Orange (2 years) small, very sweet pointed peppers
Potato Charlotte (2 years) large crops with lovely flavour and texture
Potato Desiree (20+ years) brilliant masher and good for chips and roasting
Strawberry Marshmello (2 years) trumped my old favourite Elsanta, making it taste bland and uninteresting.
Tomato Sungold (5 years) early and hugely prolific
Tomato Shirley (20+ years) best indoor variety

[unclefudgly]

Great thread, have been slowly building up my gold standard library over past 7 years and I know I've still got a way to go, but here is what I have learned so far

A few of my Good varieties are as follows.

Pumpkin..................Crown Prince & Blue Hubbard
Courgette............... Cocozelle
Shallot................... Zebrune
Beetroot................ Chioggia & Burpees Golden
cherry tomato........ Gardeners Delight
Beefsteak tom........ pink brandywine
maincrop tom......... Black Russian
Plum tom.............. Roma
Sweet pepper........ Marconi
Chillie................... Thai long Green
Carrot.................. Atomic Red, Cosmic Purple, Solar Yellow
Pak Choi............... Tatsai, Kuro
Komatsuna........... Purple
Swiss Chard.......... Fordhook Giant, Rhubarb
French Bean.......... Cosse de Violette, Blue Lake
Long bean............. Un Metro Ramp