Sale on Seed

[digitS']

Some folks say Johnny's is too expensive. I'm not one of those folks but if you want some $1 packets - there's a sale. That is, I don't think it is just for people with commercial accounts. I know I pay the same price as anyone for regular catalog items.

Johnny's Seed Sale (click)

I've grown some of these!

- Outredgeous romaine lettuce is really, really red. Probably still have seed for this year.
- Grown Space spinach before but can't remember anything about it. I like smooth leaf spinach or, semi-savoyed. Easier to wash.
- Growing Queenette basil this year. Got seed from Richter's I believe.
- I had Raveena eggplant last year. I don't want them to discontinue it ! Real nice green eggplant with a weird name, is all . . .
- (Why would anyone want to grow Common St. Johnswort? It is such a common weed . . . okay, that must NOT be true everywhere. And . . . that makes me sad .)
- I got Picador shallot seed a couple of years ago and continuing with the sets. That's a real nice, big red shallot. Shallots are fairly easy to grow from seed and then keep them going with the sets.

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

Thanks Steve, I just placed an order, I figure at that price I'll have a head start on next year.
One thing I ordered was Lincoln baby bunching leeks, have you ever grown baby leeks? I've never even grown adult leeks, but they looked so cute!

Also got Outredgeous romaine,
Defender baby romaine,
Miniature white cukes
Space spinach,
and Yellow Sprite sanvitalia, I love sanvitalia, like a mini sunflower and blooms all summer!

hmmm... now that I've looked at my list it seems I'm on some kind of baby tear... don't know what that means....

 

[digitS']

A Creeping Zinnia . . . (I had to look that up.)

I've grown leeks quite a few times in recent years. It didn't seem like the country to grow leeks, way back when. I kind of thought of them as a UK vegetable. And, I've little doubt that they do better in a mild, long-season climate but they do fine here and I bet, most anywhere.

Don't remember ever harvesting any real young ones and always hoped to get the ones like baseball bats. I suppose they have come close, at least.

One onion type veggie that I've harvested early was the shallot. Then! I realized what I was doing! They are too valuable to pull up while they are still tiny! Anyway, they are very good that way . .

Steve

 

[seedcorn]

Tell me about the eggplant. I like the long narrow part as I like to slice and fry.

Would help you out and buy a pack but the shipping and handling fee makes a packet way too expensive for me. I'm cheap.......

 

[MotherBrugger]

TY! I'm going to get some of the pac choi tomorrow!

 

[digitS']

Seedcorn, I'm a little put off because there is only one sad green eggplant seedling for me this year :/. I'm not sure if it has enuf vitality to warrant saving. There are 2 other varieties of Asian eggplants but both purple (well, 1 is lavender) and they are new to me. I'm afraid I sowed them so late it might not make any difference, anyway.

If I think a green eggplant called Raveena is misnamed (shouldn't it be "raven black" ? ), how about an Asian eggplant named "Rolecks?" Probably others, but the only East Asian language I can think of that has an "R" sound is Korean. Rolecks is from Taiwan, if'n I remember right.

No doubt, it is really Rolex and someone's idea of a good name for an . . . eggplant!?!

Both of these varieties have done very well in my garden. I have only been successful growing the very quickest bell, Dusky. This year, I neglected to buy the seed for that one. AppleGreen also does fine but it is green and apple-shaped. I have liked the flavor of the greens better than the purples.

The long Asian eggplants are kind of fun to grow and, I've learned, just as useful in a casserole. You can also bread them for the frying pan but they are a little small for that.

Thai Long Green is another one that I've grown and it did well. If Raveena will be discontinued and Rolex, uh, Rolecks won't be reliable - I guess I'd better go back to Long Green. Or, hope this lavender one comes thru for me .

Steve

 

[seedcorn]

I know stupid question but is there any way to describe the difference between the taste of green vs. purple?

I like the shape of the asians better than black beauty.

 

[digitS']

Not much difference, Seedcorn.

I have just found that the green types are much less likely to be bitter. And that is true whether I'm whether I'm comparing them to purple Asian types or purple Italian types.

(AppleGreen would probably be considered a green Italian eggplant.)

There are other factors here: I learned last year that insect stress increases bitterness. It was the first time since I started growing green eggplants that they became bitter :/! Some of them got past this bitterness later -- after the ground was littered with dead potato bugs after weeks of spraying! (This year, Spinosad! With the hope that it has some persistence. )

It could also be that weather stress causes bitterness and the purples are more susceptible. Don't know . . .

Steve