New Varieties

Winters on its way and this is the perfect time to think and plan next years crop and any changes in layout to your allotment. Its important to consider what you want to grow and expand on from last years harvest, what went well and what didn’t. Order yourself new catalogues now and find out what new varieties excite you and you would like to grow.

Here are some vegetable varieties that might tickle your taste buds:

Aubergine ‘Ivory’ was new to 2012 catalogues with its ivory skin appearing as if an ostrich egg. Although there was only one exhibit of aubergine at this years St.Ives Flower and Produce Show hopefully a few more of us will be growing this shiny, ornamental vegetable.

Beetroot ‘Chioggia’- This coloured beetroot, striped when cut into, will brighten up any salad dish.

Brussel sprout ‘Flower’- This variety has been cross bred with kale and brussel sprout. Each sprout is green and purple with a unique ruffled appearance.

Carrot ‘Purple Haze’ -This is an f1 hybrid and , as the name suggests, these are beautifully purple, dainty and have a short growing season.

Chilli ‘Vampire’- Seeing as its Halloween I’d thought this rather gothic appearing vegetable was appropriate to mention. This chilli turns from red to black and has a dark black leaf. Its easy to grow and the chillies reaching up to 10cm long. These are supplied by Suttons.

Cauliflower ‘Cheddar’- I’m rather excited about growing this one next year. Recent news reports are now saying that Cauliflowers are in danger of becoming extinct from our supermarket shelves and I was shocked to hear that many of us ditch the Cauliflower for other vegetables when it comes to a roast dinner. But, if you’re still having cauliflower cheese , as the name suggests this could brighten up your plate, and hopefully encourage more of us to eat cauliflower with its yellow centre. Another interesting variety is Marshall’s Cauliflower ‘Graffiti’ with its purple centre.

Gherkin ‘Partner’ -Although we all tend to grow the beloved cucumber because they are easy to grow, crop well, and taste splendid the gherkin, if you’re a fan, is another one to try. ‘Partner’ produces an abundance of early crop great for pickling, relishes and in salads.

French Beans: ‘Amethyst/Purple cascade’- A purple stringless variety and high yielding.‘Supremo’- The red and pink flecks of the pod enclose creamier coloured borlotti beans. As well as appearance they have a good disease resistance and high yield.‘Yin Yang’- Again as the name suggests these have a black and white bean perfect for drying and adding to casseroles or eating whole when young.‘Soleon’ - Sweet long and yellow tender beans introduced in 2012 by Marshalls are another interesting and eye catching crop.

Mushroom ‘Lions Mane’ -Now this certainly isn’t what I would call a pretty mushroom, but it supposedly tastes like lobster, thus a lot cheaper than buying one. It originated from China and Japan but mushrooms are actually rather simple to grow, as long as they have a good supply of organic matter, a little heat, shade or darkness and a moist site to grow on.

Micro veg:The basic concept of micro vegetables is pretty simple, rather than waiting for your crop to grow full size, plant in a container or old drainpipe and small flavoursome salads and lettuce sprouts can be cut after a few weeks. The food industry seems to love them for garnish and the ‘Red stemmed radish sangria’ has a highly attractive pick stems with a spicy and peppery flavour.

Potatoes‘Lady Christl’-These waxy first earlies have a pale bright skin and produce bumper crop. I’m sure a lot of you found, like I did, that this year you were hit by problems with potatoes because of the wet weather, causing a high level of water within our well loved spud. Hopefully next year out Potatoes will do a little better! Other varieties that are resistant to disease include ‘Hunter’, a second early which is tolerant to tube blight and doesn’t need a great deal of fertiliser for a bumper crop.‘Blue Danube’/ ‘Adam Blue’- This variety is of course the blue potato. When cut in the flesh is also a dark blue/purple. These could be quite an interesting accompaniment to next years BBQ’s or your sausage and mash!

Radish ‘Pink Dragon’- These radish can grow up to 50cm in size, which seems a little extreme! But the bright pink vegetable has excellent weather resistance so could be worth a try if you desire to extend your radish growing season.

Shallot ‘Zebrune’- This elongated pink bulb has a mild sweet flavour and has excellent resistance to bolting.

SquashThe varieties of Squash seem to be extending each year, and at this years Flower and Produce show I was in awe of everyone’s unusual Squash and gourd entrances. Star choice for Marshalls seeds in 2012 was the rather unusual ‘Squashkin’ which has the shape and size of a pumpkin but has been bred with the butternut squash to give a soft ivory outer colour. Another unusual variety is ‘Honey Bear’ which has a dark black outer skin and bright mango coloured centre. Its perfect for growing if you have little room such as in containers or smaller gardens.

Sweet corn ‘Mirai Early’-This variety has white cobs, with thin skins and bursting with flavour.

TomatoesLike the potatoes the tomatoes have not done very well this year. Struck by dreaded blight all remnants needs to be burnt or destroyed, but not added to the compost heap. Remember, if removing or pruning out any parts of the tomato in order to stop blight from spreading, wash your equipment to stop spread of disease. In fact now is the perfect time to get washing and scrubbing any used trays, trowels and sheers so your all ready for next years planting. Two varieties of tomato now out are ‘Chocolate Cherry’ which has a darker, deep red colour when cut in two. This cordon variety produces about 6-8 fruits per truss. If you would rather grow a bush variety ‘Tropical Ruby’ offers keen exhibitionists the uniformity and abundance they may need when displaying this shiny plum tomato.

For more information on new varieties and catalogue requests here are some websites to visit :Marshalls seedsThompson and MorganSuttons

Photos supplied from google images