What's your favorite vegetable variety?

[AMKuska]

@baymule has opened my eyes to the world of vegetable "Varieties". Instead of just one type of each plant I'm familiar with, there are evidently hundreds, and they all do different (awesome!) things. What is your favorite variety of each vegetable (name as many different vegetables as you like!) and why?

 

[seedcorn]

Tomato-Better Boys. Great flavor, consistent performance.
Pepper-any jalapeño gotta have my salsa.
Sweet corn-Illini super sweet

 

[curly_kate]

We like Peaches & Cream for our sweet corn out here on the Funny Farm. Hands down, my fave tomato is the Kellogg's Breakfast. For bush beans, I've found Jade to be very reliable and prolific. Also like the red Marconi sweet peppers and Minnesota midget cantaloupes.

 

[digitS']

This looks fun, AMKuska!

Hmmm. Well, I can't grow just everything, not every variety either! What if my favorite, is one I haven't tried? Maybe they just live in my memory, in a time before DW showed up and "forced"me to grow what she likes?! Okay! These are just some that I sneak in most every year, just because I like 'em!

Perpetual Spinach. I must be a "greens" person but I don't really like chard. Perpetual Spinach is a lot like chard except that it doesn't have the heavy stem. Both are in the same family, along with beets. PS is not a spinach . . . not that I dislike that veggie one bit.

Spinach is an example of a veggie that I am kinda "crowded down" to 1 variety just because it usually does well for me - Unipack. Holds up to our sudden change to hot dry weather, hopefully, without bolting.

Yes, I really like beets, too. Baby beets may be my favorite veggie. I don't really care too much about the mature roots. I have been growing Red Ace for quite awhile because they do well.

Rattlesnake pole beans. Here is one where I am not 100% sure that I've got what I say I have. . . Cascade Giant has a "subtitle" saying it is a Rattlesnake Bean. Very tasty! For about 5 years, I grew one called King's Banquet. I'm fairly sure that it is another Rattlesnake Bean. I may grow both this year!

Steve

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

Wow Kuska, this is a really tough question! Sometimes I have quite a few favorites for particular vegetables, but I'll try to narrow it down to some of the really good ones (in my opinion at least). But first let me enlighten you that they're are not hundreds of varieties, but thousands - maybe even millions! It's just that the majority of them aren't found offered by seed companies. Here is a nice place were you can find the more unusual and rare varieties sold cheaply in conventionally-sized seed packets; It's called the Sample Seed Shop and they have a great selection of vegetables, especially tomatoes. Seriously check them out! (I've found a few must haves in the tomato section...

http://www.sampleseeds.com/?page_id=75

(I posted a short list of seed sources in another thread, forgot to add this one. It is privately owned.)

OK, so where were we? Oh yeah, favorite vegetable varieties! I will do my best to mention my favorites and why they're my favorites. (Do however consider that results my vary depending on climate and what comes along with your climate. I do not know your climate so am just listing some of my favorites, some!) Now for the list!

Tomatoes

• Kellogg's Breakfast - A large, yellow, beefsteak-type tomatoes. The plants get to be very tall. (In my experience most tomato varieties that I've grown get to be very tall, except for the determinant or semi-determinant types.) Plants produce a good-sized harvest of tomatoes even when being beaten by wilt and fungus. (I get a lot of that were I'm at.) The tomatoes themselves turn out mostly blemish-free except for a few small cracks, but a few blemishes are normal when it comes to heirloom tomatoes. The tomatoes taste great and are absolutely wonderful on a burger or just fresh off of the vine. This is one of the first heirloom tomatoes that I've ever tried. I could not stand tomatoes before I've tried the heirloom varieties out. If you were to try one variety of heirloom tomato out in your new garden then I would recommend Kellogg's Breakfast.

• Cherry/Currant Tomatoes - Any ind of cherry or currant tomatoes. In my experience these can still produce an abundant crop in the worst wilt. The fruits are crack resistant. Cherry and Currant tomatoes are about the same thing except for the fact that currant tomatoes are quite smaller. They come in all of the colors that the other tomatoes come in; black, white, yellow, pink to name a few. Most kids love these things.

Peppers

• Fish Pepper (Hot) - The plants are darn pretty with their variegated (white & green) foliage and peppers. I use them just like Jalapenos. Peppers should probably be used while red but I guess that you can try them green if you want, I've never done so. Ripe peppers will still have some variegation on them.

Beans

• Ask Marshall Smyth! He's one of the TEG bean experts and is pretty close to your area so would be a better reference.

Runner Beans

• Also known as Scarlet Runner Beans, the most common variety has red flowers. Most varieties work great, plant them around the time you'd plant peas. The plants will grow great until the hostile heat comes, then they'll just sit they're until fall. They start growing again in fall so don't yank them. The fines grow very tall, most places say to 6-8ft. The flowers are really pretty and attract bees, butterflies, and hummers. The beans themselves are huge!

(This post is taking me a wee bit too long! I'll come back after I check up on the ducks and get something to eat.)

 

[baymule]

@baymule has opened my eyes to the world of vegetable "Varieties". Instead of just one type of each plant I'm familiar with, there are evidently hundreds, and they all do different (awesome!) things. What is your favorite variety of each vegetable (name as many different vegetables as you like!) and why?

@AMKuska what a lovely compliment! Welcome to the WIDE WIDE world of real food, real vegetables and say goodbye to one-variety-industrial-food forever. I'll post favorites later, Mom's waiting for me to take her to WalMart. She has her purse in the basket on her walker, her coat draped over the crash bar and her gloves. She just told the dog goodbye, so that is my call to get moving.

 

[HEChicken]

What a great question. I cannot answer it yet as in the past my gardening has been a bit hit and miss. I've planted multiple varieties but didn't do a good job of labeling so by harvest time I did not even know exactly what I was eating. This year I have multiple varieties of many different things in the plan and I also have a plan for labeling and planting so I will know by the end of the season which varieties either did the best or we liked the best.

 

[Carol Dee]

Spinach, New Zealand
Tomato, Mortgage Lifter
Green Beans, Blue Lake pole

 

[Lavender2]

Tomato - Better Boy - never fails to fill the salsa kettles for me.
Early Girl is my honorable mention for early eating.
My warm season can be rather short so it's hard for me to rely on later maturing varieties.

Pepper - any Jalapeno, and California Wonder - this may not be the best variety for my area, but if I get them out late enough so they don't shiver too much, I can count on them.

Green Bean - Blue Lake - Pole for extended season, Bush for freezing - while they are more of a pain in the back to harvest, Bush yields more all at once.

Beet - Detroit Dark - I admit I have not tried many others, but this one is exceptional even when I harvest them late.

Carrot - Nantes Champion - favorite ? , maybe, it has earned another year..
Has done well in my 'not so great for carrots' soil!

 

[journey11]

Tough question, really! There's so much more out there than what I've gotten around to trying. And it's so hard to narrow it down on some things, but here's a few of my favorites:

Tomatoes -- Delicious and Black Krim (both OP)
Peppers -- Giant Red Marconi (sweet), Hungarian Hot Wax Banana, and Mucho Nacho hybrid jalapeno
Summer Squash -- Pic N' Pic hybrid, very prolific and more resistant to powdery mildew
Winter Squash -- Waltham Butternut (prolific, good keeper), Jumbo Pink Banana (super sweet for pies)
Cukes -- Muncher hybrid (slicer), County Fair hybrid (pickler)
Corn -- Delectable (se) hybrid
Eggplant -- Fairy Tale hybrid
Etc. -- Russian Kale, Bright Lights Swiss Chard, Sugar Snap peas, Purple Plum radish
Cantaloupe -- Athena hybrid
Watermelon -- Crimson Sweet, large, tasty and very dependable for me
Beans -- Nickel (OP/heirloom pole bean), haven't really decided my favorite bush variety yet
Onions and Potatoes...I just get what is common to my area at the feed store
Lettuce -- I usually grow Black Seeded Simpson or a loose leaf mix, but there's a whole world of lettuce out there to explore!
Things like spinach and carrots, I've tried a couple, but have never been particularly successful with any of those anyway...
I agree on the Detroit Dark Red beets, Lavender...they are just so good, I've not been tempted to try anything else.

As much as I like certain things and as fun as it is to try new ones, something that performs well for me in my area might not work out as well for you.

So many varieties, so little garden space!