Thunderbird Hybrid Determinant Tomato Seeds

OUR 2022 SEED CHOICES

Browsing through websites and seed catalogs to pick which varieties we'll be growing is always fun. It gets us excited for the upcoming warm growing season and excited to see how new varieties will perform compared to some of our old favorites.

We use a combination of factors to choose new varieties. Some varieties are chosen due to their disease-resistance, which is extremely important for us here in south Georgia. Other varieties are chosen because they've been recommended by many of our great viewers and subscribers.

Below we've listed all the varieties that we intend to grow in 2022. If you click on the variety name, you'll be taken to the vendor website where we purchased each variety. We hope you enjoy browsing the list and hope you decide to try a few of these varieties as well.

Corn

Solstice - This is an augmented supersweet variety bred by Crookham Seed. We've never grown a Crookham variety we didn't like. We grew an augmented supersweet called Yellowstone last year and really liked it. So this year we're trying a bicolor one that's also supposed to be super-early.

Glass Gem - We grew a few rows of this in fall 2021 and really enjoyed seeing all the colorful kernels on the ears. The kids had a blast harvesting it and it was neat how no two ears were the same. We collected a gallon ziploc bag of seed from that fall harvest, and we'll be using that to grow a big plot in spring 2022.

Potato

We grew a few rows of fall potatoes in 2021 with the intention of using the harvest for seed potatoes in spring 2022. Although it wasn't a remarkable harvest, we did harvest enough for our own seed potato stock. The varieties we'll be planting from our own seed potato stock include Red Viking, Yukon Gold, German Butterball, and Kennebec.

We also ordered some other varieties from Wood Prairie Farm to try. These are varieties we've never grown, so we're excited to compare them to some of our favorites. The "new-to-us" varieties are listed below:

Huckleberry Gold - This is a purple potato with a golden flesh.

Baltic Rose - This is a German potato with red exterior and golden flesh.

Keuka Gold - This variety was developed by Cornell University and has a golden skin and flesh.

Caribe - This is a purple skinned, white flesh variety that's extremely early to produce. This variety is said to be very forgiving if you're late getting potatoes planted.

Summer Squash

Enterprise - This is a straightneck, yellow squash variety bred by Syngenta. We'll be planting this one as a part of our first squash planting in early spring.

Grandprize - This is another straightneck, yellow squash variety bred by Syngenta. It has an excellent disease-resistance package, so we'll likely plant this one with our second squash planting in late spring.

Pantheon - This is a hybrid "costata romanesco" zucchini variety that we grew in  2021. The texture and flavor on these is phenomenal, and they significantly outperformed the open-pollinated, costata romanesco variety that we grew alongside it.

Tempest - This is a yellow squash variety bred by Johnny's. We were given a taste test of this variety shortly after it was developed and were very impressed with the flavor. 

Cucumber

Supremo - This is an excellent pickling variety that we grew in 2021. It is a heavy producer with perfectly-shaped pickling cucumbers.

Corinto - This is a "new-to-us" slicing variety that comes highly recommended. It is gynoecious, which means it produces all female flowers. It is also parthenocarpic, which means it doesn't require pollination.

Tomato

Red Snapper - This will be our third year growing this hybrid, determinate tomato variety. The plants are vigorous and the fruits are big, round, and tasty.

Roadster - We grew this for the first time in 2021 and was impressed with the fruit size and early production. This is an excellent canning tomato.

Grand Marshall - This is a hybrid, determinate variety that we're excited to try for the first time. It's bred by Sakata and supposedly sets fruit well in the heat.

Thunderbird - This is a brand new tomato variety developed by Sakata. It has an excellent disease-resistance package and we can't wait to try it!

Rambler - This is another determinate hybrid from Sakata with good disease-resistance and jumbo-sized tomatoes.

Toronjina - This is a cherry tomato variety that is very similar to Sun Gold. It has a more compact plant and better disease-resistance than Sun Gold, but with the same irresistible taste.

Big Zac - We're growing this one as a part of a giant tomato competition with our friend Eddie at Poorboys Little Homestead. This variety can supposedly produce tomatoes that are 4-5 lbs each, so that should be fun!

Georgia Streak - This is an heirloom, indeterminate variety that caught our eye as we were browsing online for tomato varieties. It has beautiful coloration and looks like it would make an amazing tomato sandwich.

Kellogg's Breakfast - This was one of our favorite indeterminate varieties in 2021 and so we're definitely growing it again in 2022.

German Johnson - This was another heirloom, indeterminate favorite from 2021 that made some of the best tomato sandwiches we've ever had.

Paul Robeson - This is an heirloom variety that has been highly recommended by many of our viewers. It has a beautiful, dark exterior and a somewhat smokey flavor.

Dr. Wyche's Yellow - This is another heirloom variety that has been highly recommended to us. It makes massive yellow tomatoes with low acidity and signature, heirloom flavor.

Giant Crimson - This is a rare, heirloom variety that is being reintroduced by MIGardener who was able to germinate a few seeds that were 85 years old.

Pepper

Santa Fe Grande - This was our favorite variety for making hot sauce in 2021. These peppers are similar in size and heat to a jalapeno, but with a delicious burst of citrusy flavor.

Buena Mulata - This is a hot pepper variety that has a shape similar to a cayenne pepper. It starts purple and then turns to a deep red color. This one caught our eye while browsing the Baker Creek seed catalog and we had to try it!

X3R Red Knight - This variety is very similar to King Arthur, which we grew last year and really liked. It has better disease-resistance than King Arthur and turns red if left on the vine.

Chiltepin - These tiny peppers pack a bunch of heat, but are supposedly great for making hot sauce. This variety has been recommended by many of our subscribers on YouTube, so we had to try it.

Big Jim - This is a large, frying/roasting pepper that we grew last year. It has some heat, but the flavor is excellent. These are great for stuffing as well.

Tabasco - We always try to grow a few tabasco plants to make our own fermented pepper sauce and vinegar pepper sauce for greens.

Cornito Giallo - This is a yellow, "corno di toro" type of sweet pepper that looks absolutely delicious and we can't wait to try it!

Datil - We grew some of these many years ago. Made popular as the main ingredient in the Captain Sorenson's sauce at Firehouse Subs, this hot pepper makes excellent hot sauce with tons of flavor.

Eggplant

Aswad - This is a round eggplant variety that has rave reviews from one of our viewers. It originated in Iraq and is supposed to be extremely heat-tolerant, which we always need down here.

Field Pea

Zipper Cream - This has always been our favorite field pea variety, although it seems to be the one of the pests favorite variety as well. We've struggled growing it in the past due to the high pest pressure it attracts, but we're excited to give it another shot.

Bean

King of Garden Lima - This is a climbing, green lima bean that we wanted to try last year. We couldn't find seeds, but we found some this year and hopefully we'll grow enough to freeze.

English Pea

PLS 595 - We grew this English Pea variety in fall 2021 and it was one of the most impressive English Pea varieties we had ever grown. We're going to see how it does in the spring season and hopefully we'll get more to stock our freezer.

Peanut

Virginia Jumbo - We've never successfully grown peanuts in our vegetable garden, but have always wanted to try it. Hopefully we can get these to germinate so we can have our own peanuts to boil in the fall.

Watermelon

Orange Crisp - This is an orange, seedless variety with 17-19 lb fruits. We grew seedless watermelons last year and the kids loved them, so we're trying an orange one this time.

Tendersweet Orange - We'll be using this variety as the "pollenizer" for our seedless watermelon variety, but they should also be a tasty treat to enjoy in the summer months.

Ali Baba - This is an heirloom variety from Iraq with a light green rind and bright red flesh. This variety comes highly recommended by a viewer, so hopefully it's as good as he says it is!

Pumpkin

Musquee de Provence - Also known as "fairytale" pumpkin, this is a C. moschata pumpkin species with great flavor and excellent storage potential.

Jade Knight - This is a hybrid, C. maxima pumpkin variety that produces ribbed, blue pumpkins. It is resistant to powdery mildew and zucchini yellow mosaic virus, which is always a plus.

Flowers

Giant Orange Marigold - We grew this marigold variety in fall 2021 and were impressed with the number and size of the blooms. The long stems make it a great cut-flower variety in addition to the natural pest deterrence it provides.

Giant Yellow Marigold - This is the yellow version of the Giant Orange Marigold, which should be a nice addition to our spring 2022 flower plot.

Benary Giant Zinnia Mix - This flower is a staple in our garden every single year. It makes big, beautiful blooms and great cut flowers.

Cosmos Double Click - We grow cosmos every year, but have never tried this one. As the name suggests, it produces double blooms and is also noted for its ability to be used as cut flowers.

Ageratum High Tide - Ageratum is one of our favorite warm-season flowers because it is so heat tolerant and the native bees love it. This particular variant gets taller than the Blue Horizon variant we've grown in the past.

Celosia Century Mix - This is a colorful mix of plume-like celosia flowers that we grew last year and really liked. So we're growing it again!

Herbs

Last year we grew an entire row of basil and trimmed it like a hedge row. It worked wonderfully and the plants performed well throughout the entire summer. We're adding lemon basil to the mix this year along with some of our other favorite herbs to complement the vegetable garden.

Thai Basil

Lemon Basil

Genovese Basil

Italian Oregano

Russian Tarragon

Broadleaf Sage

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