Looking for a few seeds

I need self-pollinating varieties of common garden fruits like tomato, zucchini, cucumber, and others.  We're also interested in sunchokes, early corns, and other grain crops.

What we're interested in specifically are some of these unique cultivars folks are breeding for enduring climates like our NW Montana area.  Yes, I could go to a seed catalogue, but I thought I'd ask here first.  I'd rather support someone directly.

We grow mostly in green houses but would like to try some chokes and early sweet corn for outdoor growing.  Our warm season is mid June through early September, so probably 100-120 days.  Although our warm crops survived in the greenhouse almost through November this year, woohoo!

We're open to any and all suggestions for good growers, heavy producers, and hardy varieties.

In the past I've seen threads here of some of the cool breeding projects folks have got going on.  Feel free to link relevant threads or help me get in touch with peeps!  

Thanks!

One option would be our very own Joseph Lofthouse.  He breeds plants in northern Utah so they could be applicable to you.  Here's a thread:Landrace Seeds

I am in Ronan MT where in MT are you located? I am an amateur plant breeder and seed saver. Happy to share if you are nearby. My early sweet corn is a breeders grex of several early and ultra early sweet corns. I have some sunroots from Oikos if you want a start. If you want a really early small squash I have some Cucurbita pepo Mandan squash. If you read the tomato threads you might learn I am a little excited about ultra early tomatoes. Shoot me a purple moosage. Nearby is relative here.

I can definitely second Joseph's stuff.  His stuff is a treasure trove, it grows decently here. I am trying to cross his stuff with the stuff I've been seed saving for years and new stuff I get to try to make it even better adapted here. Using both his genetics and his methodology.

Otherwise I really like Triple Divide Seed Coop our local Montana grown seed co-op. If I needed something even more local and adapted to cross with Joseph's stuff Trple Divide seed co-op is my go to source for things I haven't been growing myself for years. Triple divide is like having a small army of professional gardeners selecting varieties that really work here in MT and growing the seed here.

Intrigued by Snake River Seed Coop, Prairie Road Organic Seed in ND, Resilient Seed in Washington. Oikos tree crops. Sandhill Preservation Center and The Museum of the Fir Trade preserve a lot of varieties from the three tribes of the upper Missouri and the old Oscar H. Will seed company (which is where my grandparents bought their seed). Seed Savers exchange also sometimes for those old seeds.

Baker Creek has some intriguing flour corns from a breeder in Bozeman. Carol Deppe in Corvallis OR does to. The standard flour corn in Montana has long been Painted Mountain. Carol and the guy in Bozeman created pure color strains of Painted Mountain. Carol explains why in her books it's a flavor thing.

Oh and there are annual seed swaps in Kalispell and Missoula and seed libraries.

Thanks for the replies!  

This last year we did around 18 tomatoes, 12 pepper plants, a zucchini, two cucumbers, a couple tomatillos, a variety of herbs and a hearty crop of leafy greens, as far as "annuals" go.   Our Zucchs and Cukes were a flop because they didn't self pollinate :(  They were very happy and tried hard though!  Neglected to consider that when selecting seeds.
We do have tomatoes self seeding but they get too late of a start to produce.  Hence one of my interests in early varieties.
We'll probably do a similar amount this year.  Can't go bigger until we expand our greenhouse setups.  We also have shrubs and fruiting trees in the greenhouses, so space is limited.  

We're going to deer-proof (hotwire) an area to grow outdoors this season.  I'm interested in root crops, both common and uncommon.  

So far the shortest season tomatoes I have tried include:

Sweet Cherriette
Jagodka
Brad
42 Days
Forest Fire
Coyote
Ditmarsher
Anmore Dewdrop
Tumbler hybrid
Krainy Sever
Sungold hybrid and segregating saved seed.

I find I can direct seed these at my place, but I am usually frost free by May 15th. I can seed at least ten days before my expected last frost. However one of the reasons this works out is I have space for a really big garden. The individual plants end up being pretty small. Direct seeding means I can plant hundreds of them. Some of my neighbors just plant a couple big ones and take really good care of them.

William Schlegel wrote:So far the shortest season tomatoes I have tried include:

Sweet Cherriette
Jagodka
Brad
42 Days
Forest Fire
Coyote
Ditmarsher
Anmore Dewdrop
Tumbler hybrid
Krainy Sever
Sungold hybrid and segregating saved seed.

I find I can direct seed these at my place, but I am usually frost free by May 15th. I can seed at least ten days before my expected last frost. However one of the reasons this works out is I have space for a really big garden. The individual plants end up being pretty small. Direct seeding means I can plant hundreds of them. Some of my neighbors just plant a couple big ones and take really good care of them.

Do you seed in open ground then?  The only parts of Ronan I've seen are down in the valley.  Are you higher up?

We're over 5,000 elevation, snow lingers through mid May though it's usually done freezing hard.  We transplanted our Tomatoes into the greenhouse in mid May last year and they did just fine.  They resisted the onset of winter until it hit below 20º.  And our purple bells didn't die off until it hit 0º!  So they got a good long time to produce, considering.  I would love to have a short season tomato that I could try growing outdoors, probably in a compost heap.  Also for the sake of not having to fill the house with starts!

What were your favorites, or pros/cons of the short season varieties?  I'm pretty sure I messaged you though, so we can take that convo to a message if you like :)

Jen Fan wrote:

William Schlegel wrote:So far the shortest season tomatoes I have tried include:

Sweet Cherriette
Jagodka
Brad
42 Days
Forest Fire
Coyote
Ditmarsher
Anmore Dewdrop
Tumbler hybrid
Krainy Sever
Sungold hybrid and segregating saved seed.

I find I can direct seed these at my place, but I am usually frost free by May 15th. I can seed at least ten days before my expected last frost. However one of the reasons this works out is I have space for a really big garden. The individual plants end up being pretty small. Direct seeding means I can plant hundreds of them. Some of my neighbors just plant a couple big ones and take really good care of them.

Do you seed in open ground then?  The only parts of Ronan I've seen are down in the valley.  Are you higher up?

We're over 5,000 elevation, snow lingers through mid May though it's usually done freezing hard.  We transplanted our Tomatoes into the greenhouse in mid May last year and they did just fine.  They resisted the onset of winter until it hit below 20º.  And our purple bells didn't die off until it hit 0º!  So they got a good long time to produce, considering.  I would love to have a short season tomato that I could try growing outdoors, probably in a compost heap.  Also for the sake of not having to fill the house with starts!

What were your favorites, or pros/cons of the short season varieties?  I'm pretty sure I messaged you though, so we can take that convo to a message if you like :)

Open ground, down in the valley- about 3000 feet in elevation though my garden is out at a little butte.

I like the flavor of Coyote and Sungold best. For indeterminates its down to Sweet Cherriette, Coyote, Brad, and Sungold. The rest are determinates sometimes determinate dwarfs. Jagodka, Brad, Krainey Sever, and Forest Fire produce the largest and most productive tomatoes probably what Joseph calls saladette size. Sweet Cherriette, Jagodka, 42 Days, and sometimes Sungold have proved earliest. Sweet Cherriette is earliest on paper at 35 DTM from transplant its an indeterminate dwarf. Coyote and Sweet Cherriette both have very small tomatoes and probably a lot of currant tomato genetics. I like how Krainey Sever stands up and holds its branches off the ground but its just a little longer season than most of these. Joseph Lofthouse has written a lot about Jagodka and Brad both of which he sells. I have two strains of Jagodka one from a tomato guy named Earl and the other from Joseph. They seem a little different both in pictures and in person. On paper they range from 35 DTM to 55 DTM but sometimes the 35 DTM and 55 DTM varieties end up tying under field conditions especially when direct seeding.

For my breeding projects I add in a couple more domestic tomatoes for flavor and other characteristics and then wild and half wild tomatoes from Joseph.


I sent you a purple moosage reply.