Allotments 4 All

As fairly new to allotments, am pleased if anything grows and we can eat it.  Thought that they may be other newcomers on here and reading through all the lists of seeds/plants find it confusing to me.
I would like one good/easy/pest proof variety of say:
Cabbage
Sprouts
Spinach
Beans (actually I have had good success with beans, runner and french)
Peas
Cauliflower (that the slugs don't eat)
Toms (might give up on those)
PSB (love it)
Carrots
beetroot
etc.etc.
Like many beginners just buy cheap seeds, like Pound Shop, Morrisons, Lidyl etc.  Is it worth buying from Fothergills or whatever.
I suppose it is just trial and error, but would like to have better crops next year.

Tricky one Barlotti...
Cabbage Minicole (Round/Summer)
Spinach Leaf Beet
Peas magnum Bonum
Carrots Autumn King
The whole point of different varieties is they prefer different conditions/ have different uses...  :-\

Surely you haven't missed all the recent "What variety...?" threads , Borlotti? ;)

Dont take caroline's advice Borlotti. Get out now while you still can. Save yourself!

Borlotti the trouble is everyone is likely to name a different variety as being good, easy and pest-proof!
I'd say grow again what you've already grown and been pleased with, ask your plot neighbours what they recommend and have a browse through the seed catalogues and try a couple of new things.
If you can buy the seed you want at Poundshop, etc. then do so as it's probably just as good as getting it anywhere else.  A friend, on a really tight budget, used to buy nearly all her gardening stuff at Woolies and always did brilliantly with both flowers and vegetables.

we buy lots from netto/lidl/aldi, pretty basic, some from kings seed , swaps on here for something exotic and go buy some special plants from saddad's plant sale  ;D

Borlotti - I see you are in Norf London!  I used to have a plot in Tottenham so probably similar conditions??

I like greyhound cabbage - quick and neat.
Cylindra for beetroot
Toms ...Sungold or Cherolla - they are very open plants and seem to do well in the face of blight - trying the alleged blight resistant Ferline next year
Maybe trafalgar for sprouts
Spinach grows wild on my plot so no idea!!!

our fillbasket sprouts are doing really well, very tall though

Thanks, I have written down a few suggestions.  Will try Autumn King carrots as my carrots were rubbish, no carrots.

Borlotti lots of folks find carrots very hit or miss to grow. This year my early ones were okay but the later ones were fairly rubbishy as well!

Cabbage[b]Duchy F1 spring cabbage can be sown from Jan-Jun for harvest May-Aug.
Greyhound is very reliable spring cabbage and a fast grower too.
Stonehead is a summer/autumn cabbage for harvest Sep-Nov.  Stands well, up to 10 weeks without splitting.
Celtic is a large savoy winter cabbage ready to harvest Jan-April though I have some about ready now!!

Cauliflowers
Snow March - Harvest Feb-Apr
AAlsmeer - Harvest Apr-May
Candid Charm F1- Sow late Feb-Jun, Harvest Jun-November.  Huge white heads, good for successional sowing.  Very quick from seed to harvest at around 19wks.
Belot F1 - Harvest Nov-Dec.  A new one from Kings.

Sprouts
Maximus F1 - Harvest sprouts from late Aug-Dec
Trafalgar F1 - Harvest sprouts from Jan-Apr

Carrots
Nigel F1 - Sow Feb-Jun for harvest Jun-Nov.  Not too long and not too short.  A [good all round carrot.  I am only able to grow carrots in containers though.  Never had success with direct sowing in the ground.
Nantes Frubund from T&M can be sown from Oct for a spring harvest.  Mine are growing well but this is my first year with them so am yet to see the harvest.

All my seed varieties for everything I grow have been chosen as the shortest time from seed to harvest,  maximum yields and disease resistance.  Candid Charm for example only take 4-5 months yet some caulis take ground space for up to 10 months.  This denies you sowing additional crops due to hogging ground space.

When it comes to buying ones seeds i don,t think it matters where you buy them or who seeds they are unless you want a particular variety. I do think that every one should consider the point that Saddad made

QUOTE { The whole point of different varieties is they prefer different conditions/ have different uses...  Undecided}

I tend to stick with what i know will give me decent results,
Sprouts,  Wellington, Braveheart and Citadel.
Cabage,   Winnstat, Hispi, Spring Hero, Tundra and Ormskirk. This year i am trying a new one for me called Tarvoy.
Cauliflower,  Cornell and Candid Charm
Swede  Marian or Ruby.
French Beans,  Cobra
Peas, Hurst greenshaft
Beet, Cylindra

If it works don,t fix it.

Thanks for that, two votes for Cylindra beetroot, we love beetroot.

Borlotti make that three as I grew it this year! 

Quote from: Flighty on November 02, 2009, 21:25:48
Borlotti make that three as I grew it this year! 

If they couuld come up with a monogerm beetroot that was as bulletproof as Boltardy and as productive  as Cylindra then we'd probably all agree (for once)...

I'd second Hispi for a pointy cabbage and cobra for a climbing french

chrisc

I tend to find that when things fail it's usually down to me rather than the variety. Either I haven't read up about it enough and it's not actually suited for what I want or I haven't prepared /protected properly. First year for example my carrots were full of carrot fly grubs, PSB ended up flowering, some potatoes got blight without my realising what it was..... Spinach bolted.

So now I read all the seed catalogues and my Joy Larkcom bible, make my lists and then buy wherever I can get the varieties I've selected.

Quote from: grawrc on November 03, 2009, 07:01:23

So now I read all the seed catalogues and my Joy Larkcom bible, make my lists and then buy wherever I can get the varieties I've selected.

great advice Grawrc! Especially the bit about Joy Larkcom

I'd also second Hispi, and Cobra. And I'm going to try some autumn King this year as well (as per all the recommendations on this site )

1066

We grow for flavour rather than maximum yield.  So we try several different varieties of each veg till we find one we're happy with.  So yes, we do get loads of seed packets (what seedaholic doesn't ??? ) but at least we can put them into seed swaps.