Our previous blog provided our tentative schedule for our fall garden planting. Once we set that schedule to follow, we started going through all our seeds that we had from last year. We took inventory of those seeds to see what we needed to purchase so that we'd have enough.
This year we'll be growing some of the varieties from leftover seeds of last year and some new varieties that we want to try. Some of the varieties are tried and true favorites in our fall/winter gardens and some are "new-to-us" varieties that we're hoping perform well for us.
If you click on the variety name, you'll be taken to the source where we purchased our seeds. We hope you enjoy the list and try some of these varieties with us!
Cabbage
• Capture: We grew this green cabbage variety in 2021 and were very pleased with the size and holding ability.
• Bravo: This is a new one for us this year. It supposedly is a "rugged hybrid" and does very well in the southern states.
• Megaton: We're growing this one just for fun because it supposedly can make cabbage heads up to 20 lbs each!
• Buscaro: This is another new one for us this year. We chose this one because it's supposed to produce larger heads than most red cabbage varieties.
Collard
• Flash: We trialed this variety against Champion collards last year and the Flash variety significantly outperformed it.
Kale
• Darkibor: This was another impressive variety that we grew last year. This curly kale variety excelled for us all throughout the winter and even into the summer months.
• Black Magic: This is a lacinato kale type with darker leaves and very vigorous growth.
Broccoli
• Green Magic: This is a proven favorite of ours that seems to perform well in fall and spring.
• Imperial: This is a variety with good heat-tolerance and it seems to handle the wacky warm spells we can sometimes have in December.
Cauliflower
• Toledo: We grew this one last year and it does very in the fall as temperatures are cooling.
Brussels Sprouts
• Gladius: This is a variety we grew last year and it did very well. The stalks weren't the tallest, but the production was great along the stalk.
• Dagan: A new one we're trying for the first time. It's supposedly widely-adapted with sprouts that hold well on the stalk.
Rutabaga
• Helenor: We trialed this hybrid last year and it did well compared to the open-pollinated, American Purple Top variety.
• Laurentian: This is probably our favorite rutabaga variety as it makes lots of tasty greens and huge rutabaga roots.
Pak Choi
• Joi Choi: We love the versatility of this pak choi variety and the variety of ways that it can be cooked!
Mustard
• Savanna: This is a tried and true favorite for our fall garden. It grows really fast and has an upright growth habit which keeps the leaves nice and clean during heavy downpours.
Spinach
• Sun Angel: This is our go-to spinach variety as it withstands hot and cold temperature swings very well and allows for many harvests throughout the growing season.
Lettuce
• Adriana: This is a green butterhead variety that's absolutely delicious!
• Tropicana: This is a leaf lettuce variety we grew last year. It's relatively heat tolerant and makes very large heads.
• Sparx: This is a great Romaine variety we're growing for the second year in a row.
Carrot
• Miami: This is our favorite orange carrot variety currently. It produces consistently-sized carrots with a wonderful smell and taste.
• Napoli: This is another orange carrot variety that is a close second to Miami.
• Dragon: This a purple carrot that performed very well for last year. It's the earliest variety we've grown.
• Yellowstone: This has been our go-to yellow carrot variety for many years. It always performs well.
Parnsip
• Javelin: We grew parsnips for the first time in 2021 and had great success with this variety, so we're growing it again!
Beet
• Merlin: This is probably our favorite red beet variety because of the high sugar content.
• Boldor: This variety produces beautiful golden beets and delicious leaves too!
• Avalanche: This is a white variety with a milder, less earthy flavor than traditional red beets.
Leek
• Rally: This is a new variety we're trying this year. It's supposedly the closest thing to Megaton, which is known to be a great leek variety.
Onion
• Parade: This is a solid bunching onion variety we grew last year and it held well going into spring.
• DP Sweet: This is a short-day onion variety with flattened, sweet, yellow bulbs. It produced some of the biggest onions we've ever grown last year.
• Timon: This is a short-day, round, sweet onion variety that is very consistent with large bulbs that store well.
• Chianti: This red onion variety was extremely impressive last year with its bolt-resistance and size.