The Pick of the Crop
(Page 4 of 6)
March/April 1984
By Brent Elswick
I discovered two new midseason white types that did especially well: Chalice from Rogers and Ferry-Morse's Sterling Silver. What's more, I think that Gurney Seed's Snow Queen EH may soon rival Silver Queen as the very best white ever developed, since its tasty ears stay tender much longer . . . both on and off the stalk.
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One of the few good results of last year's drought was that my tomatoes had few of the destructive diseases that are usually rampant in the Southeast. And rarely have I grown as impressive a variety as Burpee's Supersteak Hybrid VFN, which should take its place right beside Big Boy and Big Girl as a Burpee favorite. The big, productive plants yielded huge, solid, meaty fruits weighing up to two pounds. Mountain Pride (a Petoseed hybrid offered by Wyatt-Quarles) and Corda (from Sluis & Groot) also produced dandy midseason, medium-sized tomatoes that proved to be especially good for canning. My final main-season variety recommendation is Petoseed's Celebrity, a recent AAS winner. It's also great for canning.
Winning the prize as the most unusual tomato was Angora from Gleckler's. Both its plants, which are covered with an angoralike "fur", and its small, vivid red fruits are quite lovely. Gleckler's also offers two fine pear types for canning: Egg Tomato and Laketa. The only other pear-shaped tomato to shine in my trials was Ferry-Morse's Parmech, which produces huge fruits.
Unfortunately, my peppers were almost a total failure last year. In fact, Park's Sweet Banana Whopper—which grows faster, produces more, and bears over a longer period than do most banana varieties—was one of the few to do well. Of the green bell peppers I planted, Burpee's Crispy Hybrid and Petoseed's Early Banquet were far and away the best of the lot.
BEANS AND MELONS
In spite of the weather, beans did perform well in my '83 trials. The best of the lot was Frenchy from Liberty, which has beans that stay small and tender for a long period and are good fresh, frozen, or canned. (A similar variety is Thompson & Morgan's Rudolpho.) Cool-climate growers, however, may find Thompson & Morgan's Lavra a better producer. Even when overly mature, its pods are still quite tender. And if you like Blue Lake types, Ferry-Morse's Blue Dawn just can't get any better.
While none of the really new pole beans in my trials truly deserves mention, I'd like to recommend Agway's Bush Kentucky #125 . . . which is a dwarf version of the old Kentucky Wonder Pole. Its pods, if picked at their peak, are tender and tasty. Furthermore, they're ready to harvest in 58 days, a week sooner than most pole types.
Though the lack of rain affected the size of my melons, those garden treats still did quite well. One of the cultivars to shine was Johnny's Flyer Hybrid, a Chaca type. Not only are its two- to three-pound fruits delicious, but the plants are strong and disease resistant.
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