Cold air and gusty winds have been keeping us curled up inside lately, but while you hide from winter weather, you can still make plans for your garden to thrive after it thaws.
Iowa State University Extension Horticulture Specialist Dan Fillius shared the bookmarked pages of his seed catalogues on a recent episode of Garden Variety.
Tomatoes
Fillius says tomatoes are one of the top vegetables people grow in their gardens. He recommends planting a yellow cherry variety called 'Esterina.' This variety is resistant to verticillium wilt and has huge yields.
“Normally, a cherry tomato will have a bract of fruit, you know, one single central like stem to that bract with little fruit off each side, but this one has bracts growing off of bracts,” he said.
Many commercial growers sell mixed pints of cherry tomatoes with all sorts of colors. To make your tomato harvest more varied, he also recommends adding the 'Sun Gold' tomato, an orange variety.
Cucumbers
Fillius noted two early cucumber varieties, 'Quick Snack' and 'Green Light.'
'Quick Snack' is a compact variety that can be successful in container gardens. It takes 20 days to mature.
'Green Light' is a 2020 All-American Selections (AAS) winner. AAS conducts trials and selects winners of new varieties for home gardeners.
“These are ones that are high quality at a small size, these little cocktail or snacking cucumbers, both of them are great for that.”
Basil
In the last 10 years, downy mildew has been a big setback for basil production, said Fillius.
“You get your beautiful plant to size, you want to nurture it through the summer by pinching off little bits here and there, but then it gets downy mildew and it's suddenly gone.”
Luckily, a series has emerged that is notably downy mildew resistant (DMR). It’s called the 'Prosperous' series. You can find this series in your catalogue by looking at basil varieties with DMR in the name.
Melons
Last year, Philius tried out a melon variety called 'Goddess.'
“It was fabulously productive, but I think I had 14 melons at one time, and that was just too much for me.”
They were also prone to cracking and rotting in the field. This year, Fillius is recommending ‘Avatar,’ a more crack resistant variety that still produces large melons.
Squash
If you’ve found cooking with butternut squash challenging, Fillius invites you to try the variety 'Block Party.'
“And that name ‘Block Party’ is really a call out to the blocky nature of this. The neck of the butternut is really wide, so that's why there's no seeds. When you are cutting this butternut up in the kitchen, you're going to have a lot of payoff for less work when you're peeling or chopping , you don't have to scoop out as many seeds.”
The variety also produces large yields and has a good storage life.
Fillius’ recommended pumpkin this year is 'Prince Charming,' a variety that promises higher and more consistent yields.
Old reliable
If you’re more inclined to stick with tried and true seeds, Fillius also shared the seeds he’s seen perform well year in and out.
- ‘Sugar Ann’ snap peas grow short vines that you can avoid trellising.
- 'Bright Lights’ is the standard for rainbow chard and is a AAS winner.
- ‘Space’ spinach is a longtime workhorse, and a good spinach variety to start with if you’ve delt with downy mildew in your space.
- ‘Purple Viking’ potatoes are reliably productive and have beautiful purple and pink skin.
- ‘Sierra Blanca’ onion is another productive variety and AAS winner.
