Bit late now cos I've bought them but would be interested if anyone has any comments on the following which are new to me this year...good, bad, indifferent? Looking forward to trying some new varieties!
RUNNER BEAN - POLESTAR
RUNNER BEAN - ENORMA
MELON - RETATO DEGLI ORTOLANI
COURGETTE YELLOW - ONE BALL F1 HYBRID
SWEET CORN - SWEETCORN - DOLCE
TOMATO - BLACK TRUFFLE
TOMATO - BEEFSTEAK - MORTGAGE LIFTER
TOMATO - HILLBILLY
CUCUMBER - CRYSTAL LEMON
CUCUMBER - WHITE WONDER - BIANCO LUNGO
SWEET PEPPER - ORANGE SUN
CARROT - TENDERSWEET
PEPPER SWEET - CORNO DI TORO ROSS
Cheers!
The corno rosso were the best undercover peppers for us last year, they didn't get a lot of water and one of the plants gave us 8 peppers, they were a bit late ripening though :)
Thanks, that sounds hopeful. I've only grown California Wonder and a couple of local varieties in the last couple of years, and they've been fine, but not outstanding.
Enorma .............a good long bean.Nice flavour.
I have grown one ball. If you have two plants you can have two at a time. ;D
Spherical yellow courgettes. Good for stuffing or frying
Crystal lemon cue - very productive, good flavour, slightly prickly, one portion size fruit. My daughter does not like the prickles.
Crystal Lemon and White Wonder are good outdoor cucumbers... certainly in Spain!
:) I grow them under glass here... small cucs... "lemon" sized and wonder slightly elongated, spines but they brush off... ;D
Forget you are in Spain, you might find that the runner beans are a bit shy of producing anything they do not do all that well here if it is hot and dry. Maybe try Moonlight since it is supposed to be self fertile. Do you spray the flowers of runners to help them set.
I've never had much luck with runner beans, like the peas they tend to dry out very early - will have to give them more tlc this year, hadn't thought of spraying. Cukes do grow well outside here but the one I had under glass was going strong til December, it's been so mild here with just one real frost so far.
Grown black truffle to, found it was better undercover here so should do well for you in spain. Full of flesh with a strongish flavour, I loved but the missus aint keen. Tendersweet has a good reputation.
I grew white wonder one year and they did badly and were extremely bitter. But that could just have been because it was a very dry year and I think they can go bitter if they suffer from drought. I was put off them after that, but I probably shouldn't have been.
We have not had much frost so far here either.
I think you will need to get the beans going early or perhaps very late. There are now three varieties of self fertile runners. Moonlight, Firestorm also Stardust. Also St George does quite well in hot dry conditions. Though I think your conditions will be much hotter and drier than me. Poleshar was bred for the further north. It was very dry for me last year and the runners were rather tough and poor flavour.
I was once told that you cannot expect to grow tomatoes and runners well in the same year.
I'll second the Corno Di Torro Rosso, they have been great for me, in sunny S Yorks...under glass of course.
TOMATO - BLACK TRUFFLE nice smoke flavor
TOMATO - BEEFSTEAK - MORTGAGE LIFTER
TOMATO - HILLBILLY long season but nice flavor
CUCUMBER - CRYSTAL LEMON ok but not great
CUCUMBER - WHITE WONDER - BIANCO LUNGO perfect for pickles and punch pickles
Quote from: RobinOfTheHood on January 08, 2012, 00:00:08
I'll second the Corno Di Torro Rosso, they have been great for me, in sunny S Yorks...under glass of course.
I'll third it - and mine were grown on the windowsill in the spare bedroom!
RUNNER BEAN - POLESTAR
My uncle recommended I try this one and it is good in that the beans never seem to turn stringy. As I always pick my beans well before they grow old that doesn't really matter to me, but its still my favourite.
CUCUMBER - CRYSTAL LEMON
I think these taste fantastic, and a long cucumber is far too much cucumber for me to use in one sitting, so again in that they are perfect, but unfortunately both my plants decided to die prematurely last year. They were in the greenhouse though, in competition with my tomatillo.
PEPPER SWEET - CORNO DI TORO ROSS
Definitely the best sweet pepper I've grown so far. Much better that CalifornianWonder for me. Picked the last ones in December, and still eating them.
Thanks so much for all your replies - really is very much appreciated and can't wait to get sowing - bring on the Spring!