Are you growing a new vegetable this year?

Skandi Rogers wrote:The new annuals for this year will be chinese cabbage and celtuce, Of last years three trials only watermelon will make it into this years and only if I have enough spare greenhouse space.

I am moving! (signed yesterday) so I'm sure there will be some new perennials. I've seen a hazelnut so far but it's winter there may be other things lurking.

Well the Celtuce never got planted, I'll try that again this year, the Chinese cabbage did, and it did really well. But I don't like it and it didn't sell so it won't be planted this year. The Watermelon didn't make the cut but I did plant two other melons in some spare space and they did well.  I planted a walnut several cerries a plum and three apple trees, the house already has 2 pears an apple, 3 plums and a cherry. so hopefully fruit will do well!


This year I am going to try asparagus from seed and also marsh samphire.

Do mushrooms count as vegetables?

If so then yes, I am planning on growing Oyster mushrooms.  They will be either blue oysters or a related variety I just heard of called Pohu oysters.

Eric

This year I'm hoping to have some success with okra.  I've never planted it before and am a bit concerned about my Maine summer and if it will do ok up here.  Can anyone recommend good varieties for the north?

So far, nope. I have several trays of seeds started under growlights but there just run of the mill what were used to eating veggies! I do have some unique seeds from Baker Creek but I don't want to start them until I've moved or come to terms with possibly not moving, lol. I would also like to grow more mushrooms this year. I have a couple of shitake logs that have not fruited from about a year ago and I have grown small bags of oysters before. I seem to have bad luck growing mushrooms and need to learn more about what I am doing wrong!

Eric Hanson wrote:Do mushrooms count as vegetables?

Totally different kingdom of life. Like including goats in the lettuces (bad idea, now I think it through)
On the other hand, oyster mushrooms don't travel fast, and that makes them almost as sessile as the shellfish ;)

I have my eye on red chinese cabbage (UK seed source, might be the last year I can import into the EU as Brexit will require phytosanitary permits after close of 2020).
Considering perennial kale.
Experimenting with Blewits (Lepista nuda) but those are actually fungi so not even plants, much less vegetables.

Moved from the Mediterranean to Central Europe last autumn, so technically anything I try will be "new" as all the conditions are on my learning curve.

Erik,

Yeah, I know fungi are not plants.  I am not planting any new plants in a strict sense, but in my slightly expanded definition I guess I am trying a new crop this year.

Eric

Picked up a few packs of seeds at the MEN Fair yesterday to try. Some red orach, borage, sweet sorghum, and mini cucumbers. We'll see how they do.

My 'de colgar' tomatoes were actually very good, they kept for weeks longer than other varieties.

This years new seeds are walking stick kale, for giant kale plants. I'n also going to try luffa- hopefully for growing my own sponges!

And I always like to try a few tropical things, its very rare I get fruit but growing such things does entertain me. So papaya and granadilla are this years efforts.

This year I will plant my first vegetable garden at my new home, so I will try with sth easy to grow like beans, carrots, cucumbers, lettuce... I can't wait for it to grow up! Very exciting.

Charli Wilson wrote:
This years new seeds are walking stick kale, for giant kale plants. I'n also going to try luffa- hopefully for growing my own sponges.

I'm excited about trying the walking stick kale. I need to get some started. The thousand-head kale has started sprouting, and it's also supposed to be quite large.

Last year was the first time I tried luffa. I started them in a seed tray, then was late to get them transplanted, so only one of the plants took off & produced; but the one plant made 7-8 fruit before the first frost (they took a long time to mature). I was surprised at how big the vines got. Since I wasn't sure if it would live, I just stuck a 7 ft tall shepherds hook (like for hanging plants) at the base, and it quickly covered the whole thing and tried to spread to some neighboring tomato plants & an apple tree. I had to go out every few days and wrap the new growth back around the shepherds hook. Definitely going to be trying more luffas this year

I will try artichokes this year, if they germinate.
A neighbour across the street has a plant in his raised bed which overwintered (second winter now!).

And I ordered a Nashi pear tree and a hardy kiwi, also both new to me.
Oh yes, and a black raspberry (black cap). The plants are very pricey here but I was just so curious. And I love to have red and yellow raspberries already, so another colour will be wonderful!

Oscar Brown wrote:This year I will plant my first vegetable garden at my new home, so I will try with sth easy to grow like beans, carrots, cucumbers, lettuce... I can't wait for it to grow up! Very exciting.

I've had difficulty with some of those, depending on species, and what year it is, so don't get discouraged if you have some failures the first year. Some years, cucumbers do insanely good for me, other years (like last year), the exact same species are big failure, but then the zucchini does insane.
Sometimes it's me making mistakes, sometimes it's the seeds, sometimes it's the environment, sometimes it's the weather. Several years back, *nobody* in this *farming community* got good tomatoes. Makes me feel better at mine failing. One year, the seed company mailed a letter unsolicited with a refund and apologized because the carrot seeds they sent out to everybody around the nation failed. Last year, *zero* of my corn came up (my pumpkins out-grew and overshadowed them). Insane harvest of garlic and onions though!

I usually plant three or four variety of tomatoes, and some species do really well, others kinda barely survive.

One vegetable I've always had success with (in my area, in my soil, with my weather) is butternut squash. This - or related species - is what most store-bought "Canned pumpkin" for pumpkin pie is, despite not looking like a pumpkin. Squash bugs usually attack them, but despite that, I usually get a great crop.

Maybe gardening is about stubbornness: not letting failures discourage me from trying the same plant again the next year, and year by year, I gain a little more knowledge on how to help a specific vegetable thrive despite the conditions.

I hope everything in your garden goes well!

Hi! I can't wait to see if the stachys affinis I planted last automn will show this spring and install themselves! I was curious about those for decades but could not get my hands on some!
:D
edit = I was so excited about this vegetable , I forgot to write the other newbie I planted in my backyard = walking onions! :)

Anita Martini wrote:I will try artichokes this year, if they germinate.

Try soaking the seeds overnight before planting. That seemed to really help my germination rate.

I haven't finalized my garden plan yet, but I am specifically going to try Sub Arctic tomato variety to see if I can get an earlier tomato.

This year I'd like to focus on where to source perennials, particularly for free or inexpensive because I'd like about a million plants ;P    

Nicky McGrath wrote:I haven't finalized my garden plan yet, but I am specifically going to try Sub Arctic tomato variety to see if I can get an earlier tomato.

This year I'd like to focus on where to source perennials, particularly for free or inexpensive because I'd like about a million plants ;P    

The earliest tomato I've found is Sweet Cherriette from Adaptive Seeds. It's my standard against which I judge others for earliness. Problem with most early reds is they don't taste good. However, at least once ordinary old dehybridizing sungold matched Sweet Cherriette, and its ridiculously easy to get ahold of Sungold F1. I saw a packet on a rack at a store today. Sungold and its descendants tend to taste better than most ultra early reds. Just a thought.

Nicky McGrath wrote:This year I'd like to focus on where to source perennials, particularly for free or inexpensive because I'd like about a million plants ;P

I buy most of my trees and bushes from StarkBros - pretty expensive, but they replace for free or fully refund within the first year if the tree doesn't survive. I like their customer support.

For actually cheap stuff, if you're in the USA, you might try your State-ran foresty service. They focus on encouraging landowners to plant native trees and bushes, or non-native trees and bushes that have adapted to the area and that they consider beneficial for the state. Most aren't edible - e.g. native trees and such - but a few are, and they'll gladly ship you a thirty or so saplings of some native berry bushes or nut trees. Their selections aren't great (based off of three states' forestry services I looked at) - maybe thirty or forty plants, with like four of them edible. But hey, if they happen to have something that sounds nice to you, sweet.

Otherwise, cheapest option would probably be trying to root scions (takes practice - first few attempts of mine were failures so far) or sprout seeds collected from neighbors or mailed from other gardeners.

Once you have a few things going, you can clone what you have - though, again, takes practice.

I'm trying chinese noodle beans for the first time this year.     I discovered basil tea last year so I'm growing more flavoried varieties this year;  lemon,  cinnamon, and blue spice.    I'm also trying chervil for the first time.    Have seeds for both perennial kale and sea kale, hoping I get some results from those,  and I'm starting a boatload of asparagus from seed.    So perennial additions to the yard.   German chamomile as well,  which should easily self seed and become a staple.   Oh, and miners lettuce.   I'm hoping I have an area of the yard suitable for naturalizing that,  I'll try a few different spots with the seed I have.

Jamin Grey wrote:

Nicky McGrath wrote:This year I'd like to focus on where to source perennials, particularly for free or inexpensive because I'd like about a million plants ;P

I buy most of my trees and bushes from StarkBros - pretty expensive, but they replace for free or fully refund within the first year if the tree doesn't survive. I like their customer support.

I think they're running a sale on some of their berry stock through the end of February, 15% off.  I'm probably going to place an order in the next week or so.

One option is to suss out whether there are any local garden clubs in your area.  Many have spring plant sales- divisions of things from local gardens, and they're open to the public (fundraiser for the club).  I've been able to purchase thornless blackberries, herbs, annual and perennial flowers, and some wildlflowers for less than retail through local garden clubs.  You may also have success rooting plant cuttings.  I started what's become a pretty nice elderberry hedge on the property line, rooting elderberry cuttings from a local fishing spot.  It's a win-win, the other anglers appreciate not having to fight shrubs and lose hooks :).  I've had less success rooting blackberries, but still about 50%.  

Yeah!  I'm trying broad (fava) beans this year, they're growing much faster than I anticipated, 6+ inches now and at least two weeks until they can be in the ground.  We'll see how that turns out.

I've started a couple new solanums- Striped Roman and San Marzano paste tomatoes, Coyote cherry tomato, purple tomatillo and Cossack Pineapple ground cherry.  

Started Red Welsh bunching onion.  

Probably be trying out a few Blauer Speck kohlrabi in the next two weeks, although I'll plant most of them (and the new Navone Yellow rutabaga I'm trying) this fall.

Some new greens- Malabar spinach, orach, a couple new lettuce varieties (swordleaf and red sails).  

Went a little crazy on beans- Jacob's Cattle, Kebarika, Marvel of Venice, Blue Coco, and Cherokee Trail of Tears.  

It's tough for me to get as excited about grain amaranth, but I'm trying it this year, too.  There's a sunny wet spot at the base of the garden slope that I think may be ideal.  Some for me, mostly for the Speckled Sussex and Rouen ducklings I picked up last week.  

Managed to not add any new pepper varieties for the first time in two years, requiring considerable restraint on my part.  

Thanks, I had read about soaking. I have also tried to roughen the outer shell a bit with sandpaper. Let's see if it works!

Kc Simmons wrote:

Anita Martini wrote:I will try artichokes this year, if they germinate.

Try soaking the seeds overnight before planting. That seemed to really help my germination rate.

William Schlegel wrote:

The earliest tomato I've found is Sweet Cherriette from Adaptive Seeds. It's my standard against which I judge others for earliness. Problem with most early reds is they don't taste good. However, at least once ordinary old dehybridizing sungold matched Sweet Cherriette, and its ridiculously easy to get ahold of Sungold F1. I saw a packet on a rack at a store today. Sungold and its descendants tend to taste better than most ultra early reds. Just a thought.

Thanks for the suggestions William! Cherry tomatoes do tend to be earlier. I chose to try Sub Arctic this year because it's a cold hardy slicing tomato, so the idea is I'd be able to set it out a bit earlier. But we'll see!

Nicky McGrath wrote:

William Schlegel wrote:

The earliest tomato I've found is Sweet Cherriette from Adaptive Seeds. It's my standard against which I judge others for earliness. Problem with most early reds is they don't taste good. However, at least once ordinary old dehybridizing sungold matched Sweet Cherriette, and its ridiculously easy to get ahold of Sungold F1. I saw a packet on a rack at a store today. Sungold and its descendants tend to taste better than most ultra early reds. Just a thought.

Thanks for the suggestions William! Cherry tomatoes do tend to be earlier. I chose to try Sub Arctic this year because it's a cold hardy slicing tomato, so the idea is I'd be able to set it out a bit earlier. But we'll see!

That's true. In 2017 when I tried a great many kinds for earliness, cold and frost tolerance, only about ten stood out. I think I had maybe one plant of a sub arctic of which their might be three varieties in the series if I remember right. Notably some of the red ones in slightly larger than cherry sizes are a little faster. Speed does seem to have a correlation with size though. For early reds in addition to Sweet Cherriette I really liked Krainy Sever because its very upright, 42 days, Jagodka, brad (from Joseph), and Forest Fire. I think I had an pretty small seed sample of the one sub arctic I grew. It's about 50 DTM and some of the others are less than 50 so I abandoned it without further trial.

Red tomatoes tend to taste fairly similar to me. Early tomatoes of any other color are rarer. My favorites so far amongst other colors are Big Hill (from Joseph Lofthouse) which is a bicolor, Coyote a tiny yellow, Sungold F1 and its segregating descendants, and a tomato marketed as from the Galapagos islands that may probably be a hybrid with the wild species found there rather than the real deal.

This year I'm adding a few more types of beans & corn & squash & melons. Some was purchased from seed companies & some is from other permie's landrace mixes. Adding some additional variety & genetic diversity to our staple crops with that. Also have a few new tomato varieties to add to our mix.

Last fall I planted some sunroots & walking onions & Sepp Holzer perennial grain. The onions sprouted almost immediately. Looking forward to those for a long time to come. It remains to be seen how the grain & sunroots do. Expecting the sunroots to be abundant because sunflowers grow well here. No sign of the grain yet so that might not work. Hoping to produce seeds to share with permies.

Have been building a small pond for wild rice. I don't have a lot of confidence in getting a harvest but we're near the edge of where it grows wild so it might work if I can keep it wet enough. Maybe.

Have been experimenting with peanuts since moving to TN a few years ago. They do very well with zero care so this year I'm aiming for 100 pounds of peanut butter. During the sweet potato harvest many small ones were left in the ground to overwinter. Hoping all those varieties survive & start growing again. Have a few in containers indoors to make slips from. Also ordered a couple more varieties for this year. Going to ramp up regular potatoes this year too. Would like to add some true yams to that somewhat new project.

One of my bee yards is an old pasture with no foods grown nearby. It's all about rescue horses & wildflowers there. Going to try some ornamental gourds & luffas near the hives. The chicken garden will have some millet & ancient grains planted as a trial to see what wants to grow.

Chili petins. Not exactly new. Successfully grew them in TX (they grew wild in the yard) but had only one half way respectable crop of them here. Have some fresh seeds for this year. Hoping to acclimate those to this soil & climate. They will get special attention along with the wild rice. Everything else is basically on it's own after planting.

I've pretty much given up on eggplants here. A tiny insect seems to like them a lot but I do have a new type to try. This year is more about increasing quantity & quality of known good producers & establishing more perennials & fruits. I'm also helping someone else get their homestead gardens up to par. Might try a little sorghum there. It's going to be a very busy spring.

Mike Barkley wrote:

I've pretty much given up on eggplants here. A tiny insect seems to like them a lot but I do have a new type to try.

Same here at the edge of the Ozarks- I always say this is the last year I'll start 'em, then wind up trying one new variety.  This year it's Malaysian Purple.  Some little black bug, flea beetle I guess- just looks like soot covering the plants.  I just don't eat enough of them to justify the amount of babying they'd need to stay healthy.  

William Schlegel wrote:

That's true. In 2017 when I tried a great many kinds for earliness, cold and frost tolerance, only about ten stood out. I think I had maybe one plant of a sub arctic of which their might be three varieties in the series if I remember right. Notably some of the red ones in slightly larger than cherry sizes are a little faster. Speed does seem to have a correlation with size though. For early reds in addition to Sweet Cherriette I really liked Krainy Sever because its very upright, 42 days, Jagodka, brad (from Joseph), and Forest Fire. I think I had an pretty small seed sample of the one sub arctic I grew. It's about 50 DTM and some of the others are less than 50 so I abandoned it without further trial.

Red tomatoes tend to taste fairly similar to me. Early tomatoes of any other color are rarer. My favorites so far amongst other colors are Big Hill (from Joseph Lofthouse) which is a bicolor, Coyote a tiny yellow, Sungold F1 and its segregating descendants, and a tomato marketed as from the Galapagos islands that may probably be a hybrid with the wild species found there rather than the real deal.

Awesome, I'm making note of this info!

So I have a vegetable that is not new to me planting but hopefully will be new to actually harvesting.  It’s sweet potatoes.  I absolutely love sweet potatoes!  They grow so easily and would be wonderful to have for fall, but my problem is that I have LOTS of deer that visit my yard.  In the past the deer and perhaps rabbits to devour the greens before the tubers can grow.

I am attempting to build a series of gates around one bed to deter my friendly fury pests.

Eric

For 2020 I plan to grow two new tomato varieties Wild Child and Weight in Gold both from J and L gardens. I may only grow one of each though and only devote about a square foot to each of those. Which is perhaps stingy of space in a 1/4 acre garden. They intrigue me because they are amongst very few tomatoes with more than just a little passing introgression from the wild tomato species Solanum habrochaites.

However I plan to grow a huge F2 generation grow out of an interesting population of probably mostly unpalatable wild hybrid tomatoes I got from Joseph Lofthouse. I grew the F1 last year but all took after the hard green small fruited wild parent. The F2 is likely to be much more interesting and each plant may be like growing a new variety and some may turn out to be quite wonderful, though I expect a lot of them to be mostly like their wild parent. Hopefully some plants will segregate to be worthwhile and produce seed worthy of returning to Joseph for inclusion in his tomato project. I also plan to grow a new accession known for its arthropod resistance of the unpalatable wild tomato species Solanum habrochaites.

I also plan to grow three new fava beans from Siskiyou Seeds to add to my fava grex.

This year I will be growing celeriac for the first time.  I cook with it all winter and it is impossible to find it locally grown.  I know celery can be fussy to grow and I am going to have to baby these plants but it will be worth it.

The only other new thing I am going to try is growing parsnips from my own saved seeds.   It will be interesting to see if I get better or worse germination rates from my own seeds.

Jamin Grey wrote:

Oscar Brown wrote:This year I will plant my first vegetable garden at my new home, so I will try with sth easy to grow like beans, carrots, cucumbers, lettuce... I can't wait for it to grow up! Very exciting.

I've had difficulty with some of those, depending on species, and what year it is, so don't get discouraged if you have some failures the first year. Some years, cucumbers do insanely good for me, other years (like last year), the exact same species are big failure, but then the zucchini does insane.
Sometimes it's me making mistakes, sometimes it's the seeds, sometimes it's the environment, sometimes it's the weather. Several years back, *nobody* in this *farming community* got good tomatoes. Makes me feel better at mine failing. One year, the seed company mailed a letter unsolicited with a refund and apologized because the carrot seeds they sent out to everybody around the nation failed. Last year, *zero* of my corn came up (my pumpkins out-grew and overshadowed them). Insane harvest of garlic and onions though!

I usually plant three or four variety of tomatoes, and some species do really well, others kinda barely survive.

One vegetable I've always had success with (in my area, in my soil, with my weather) is butternut squash. This - or related species - is what most store-bought "Canned pumpkin" for pumpkin pie is, despite not looking like a pumpkin. Squash bugs usually attack them, but despite that, I usually get a great crop.

Maybe gardening is about stubbornness: not letting failures discourage me from trying the same plant again the next year, and year by year, I gain a little more knowledge on how to help a specific vegetable thrive despite the conditions.

I hope everything in your garden goes well!

Thank you for the suggestions Jasmin! A lot of valuable informations. I will try the butternut squash too, like it very much. Thanks!

I got 2 sticks of tree collards that overwintered well in my livingroom under lights.  The cats nibbled away all the chives to nubs but avoided the mint, oregano, wheatgrass (which was planted for them!) and collards.  I'll try one planted directly in the brassica bed and one in a 5 gallon pot on my porch with the herbs.  I have voracious squirrels and rabbits plus 2 legged varmints aka nosy neighbors that will pick recognizable vegetables so everything is camouflaged as alien plants.  That means no red beefsteak tomatoes that are visible from the sidewalk, etc.

My other new plants this year will be:
Richmond Green Apple cucumber
Purple pole beans or yard long beans
Green Doctor cherry tomatoes
Komatsuna-Asian Mustard spinach that's heat tolerant
Sprouted fingerling potatoes
and possible a Baby Shipova/Mt. Ash tree sapling for the food forest.

I want to lengthen the asparagus bed but when it's in full swing, every other day I'm harvesting 4-6 purple stems that are 1" thick and tender up to 22" long. I seem to be the only person in my circle that really loves it despite the asparagus pee!

I tried to grow heirloom San Marzanos and a small type called Piennolo but they didn't thrive in my garden unlike the Cherokee Purple, Early Girl, and Sungold.  So I'm looking for a 2nd sweet cherry tomato like Sungold and a paste that likes Zone 6a 'cause from July-September, I MUST have a weekly Rainbow Caprese salad with at least 5 different size and coloered tomatoes.

Trying a bunch of new stuff this year.

Some crucifers: Thousandhead Kale and Walking Stick Kale -going to need some serious cabbage-worm control here- planting some herbs around that allegedly help deter them.

Some greens we hadn't tried in this zone before: Malabar and New Zealand spinach

Tahitian Mellon Squash -a long-necked butternut type -saw a guy not far from here have a ridiculous yield with those last year.  

While not a vegetable in the traditional sense, a source of perennial greens Red Toon, Toona, or Chinese Mahogany trees -we've had great luck germinating a packet of seeds and now have around 60 tiny trees.  Will be fun to see how they fare.  

I like to try a lot of different things each year and love different colors...three things specifically this year is yod faH (Chinese broccoli), a Japanese winged bean, and a radish that is supposed to taste like wasabi. There are some things I already had that I am actually getting in the ground.  Some pak Choy and some bok choy are already in along with tasoi which is supposed to be like spinach.

Usually my new things are directly linked to baker creek’s posts on twitter.  

I also went to Italy last year, so I have several packs of seeds from Italy I am planting including three types of zucchini and some specific Italian tomatoes that I Hope are what we had in Positano

Rebecca Norman wrote:I've been eating a lot of greens all winter from the attached solar greenhouse that heats my house, but didn't have many greens in summer (except garden weeds, and I've just moved to a new place and starting a new garden in bare desert so there won't be so many of those). So this year I've got seeds of and going to try out orach, Malabar spinach, and New Zealand spinach.

I already started a couple of good king henry plants last year and they are currently reseeding in the greenhouse. I haven't tasted it yet.  

That was me before the summer.

It turned out I disliked New Zealand spinach the first time I cooked it. Maybe I am starting to like it, I don't know. I didn't try it raw, because I saw online that quite a few people hate it raw. It survived in my greenhouse and is healthy now after winter (my greenhouse goes below freezing on nights all winter, and is great for spinach, arugula, lettuce, kale). It's fairly productive for a small space, except that it took a very long time to germinate. If it stays perennial in my greenhouse, then it'll be a very productive thing for a small space.

I didn't like Good King Henry. It was bitter though I did follow some instructions to blanch it and discard the water before cooking. More importantly, it is not very productive for the space: small leaves, fiddly to collect. Also a very very vigorous self seeder, so if I keep growing it, I would be introducing a new weed to my region. So I eliminated it.

Orach was okay -- pretty in salad, and very nicely stiff crispy leaves for volume in salad. Salty taste, but fine in a mix.

I did like Malabar spinach, but last summer was chilly and it didn't grow much, only a foot. But, hoping that this year will be warmer, I'll grow it again, because I did like it as a salad.

This year, new things I'm planning to try:
Bunching onions (Allium fistulosum, perennial scallions).
Chervil, angelica, caraway.
A lot of common vegetables that I've been involved with growing before but never grew for myself before.

Anita Martin wrote:I will try artichokes this year, if they germinate.
A neighbour across the street has a plant in his raised bed which overwintered (second winter now!).

After around three weeks one of the artichokes finally germinated! That took a lot of time...

My new crop this year will be Lima beans.  I have never tried to grow them before.

Anita Martin wrote:

Anita Martin wrote:I will try artichokes this year, if they germinate.
A neighbour across the street has a plant in his raised bed which overwintered (second winter now!).

After around three weeks one of the artichokes finally germinated! That took a lot of time...

I had the opposite happen. I soaked for about 24 hours, then planted in the tray with some other crops. The chokes were the first to start coming up a couple of days after planting. But glad you got them sprouted!

I planted multiplier onions last year, hoping they will become a perennial crop.

A friend gave me leek seeds so I am trying these the first time also.  I plan to try them in a bucket, since my soil does not "hill" well.

Also hope to get the first plums from some trees I planted a few years back. Curculio has been a real problem in our yard, though.

More new stuff!

I received some seeds I had ordered and my husband brought some things from Argentina, so I will have as well:
Cime di rapa (there must be an English name for this, but it is usually found here under the Italian name)
Tomatillo
Leeks from seed
and small white turnips