iGrowVeg

What To Look For in a Good Vegetable Variety

Posted on 21. Oct, 2009 by Tracey in How to Grow Veg

How are new seed varieties chosen to become the next big thing for 2010?

Answer: Seed or Plant Trials.
Most of the major and some of the independent seed companies conduct seed trials every year to find the vegetable varieties which are performing the best.

What are the trials looking for in a good variety?
What are we all looking for: great taste, flavour and high yielding. Also some seed trials are based on best pest and disease resistance which is also important for high yielding varieties.

The RHS Plant Trials
The RHS have been undergoing plant trials for many years and are particularly interested in cultivars that grow exceptionally well in domestic gardens. After the trials and assessments, if successful the variety will obtain the coveted Award of Garden Merit (AGM).

This year 200 online visitors have been asked to take part in their Mange Tout and Sugar Snap Peas Trials 2009 in association with T&M to trial ‘Oregon Sugar Pod’ Mange Tout and ‘Sugar Ann’ Sugar Snap Pea. Visitors have been asked to trial the seeds in their own gardens and report their findings back to the RHS.

Learn More about the RHS Plant Trials

• Find out which Vegetables received the AGM Awards in 2008-May 2009
• Plant Bulletins – Results of the Trials (recent ones include Chilli Peppers & Runner Beans)
• Award of Garden Merit Criteria
• New Plants Blog by Graham Rice.

Highlights of New Varieties for 2010

Here are a list of new varieties that I thought were quite appealing for 2010:-

• Sweetcorn – Mr Bojangles F1.
  Anyone who watches Mock of The Week will be familiar with Frankie Boyle using this name in his comical comments. Back to the sweetcorn, it is a bi-colour variety, sweet and sugary flavour with early vigor. 35 Seeds £1.35 from Mr Fothergills.
• Cauliflower – Trevi F1.
  Unusal light green heads, good flavour and small plants. 35 Seeds £1.95 from Dobies.
• Tomato – Koralik (organic).
  A bush variety which is high yielding with bright red and sweet fruit. Good tolerance to blight in trials. 20 Seeds £2.35 from The Organic Gardening Catalogue.
• Snap Pod Peas – Sugar Ann (organic).
  Tall early and good flavoured variety. 150 seeds £1.43 from The Organic Gardening Catalogue.
• Potato – Mayan Twilight.
  A healthy quick cook early maincrop variety. 3kg £6.95 Order by end of Feb from Dobies.
• Broad Bean – Crimson Flowered.
  A good compact variety which can be grown in pots with stunning flowers and short pods. 40 Beans £1.99 from Thompson and Morgan.
• Sprouting Broccoli – Santee F1 (organic)
  Purple spear heads produced in summer, similar to Bordeaux. Sow Feb to May. 50 Seeds £3.07 from The Organic Gardening Catalogue.
• Brassica – Pretty Posy Mixed (TM).
  A unique cross between kale and Brussels sprouts producing little rosettes on a stalk. Tastes like spring greens. Sow April. 30 Seeds £2.99 from Thompson and Morgan.
• Kale – Fizz.
  A mixture of fast growing kale salad leaves grown upright. The plant can be left to mature to larger and thicker leaves. 500 seeds £1.99 from Thompson and Morgan.