When all 30 tomato varieties in a catalog are described in over-the-top superlatives, I find that careful reading helps me cut through the thicket of hype and get to what I want: delicious, disease-resistant, early-maturing, productive and compact vegetables. In that order. Depending on your available space and time, your criteria may differ a bit.

Tip: if the description doesn’t mention flavor, then it’s probably not in the top ten. Ditto for disease-resistance.

Catalogs should mention the number of days to harvest (and that is based on when you put the plant into the ground, not when you start the seeds). In Northeast Ohio, soils tend to stay cool until mid-May. Heat-loving tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and direct-sown beans and squash must wait to be planted until then, so I favor quicker-maturing varieties of these vegetables. 95 days or less is kind of my benchmark.

This year, I’m trying the tomato variety ‘Stupice’ (early with good flavor), ‘Brandy Boy’ (a flavor pick with many gardeners), and crack-resistant cherry tomato ‘Sweet Baby Girl.’ I also look for slow-bolting spinach and lettuce varieties, because our summers can heat up quickly and shorten the life of these cool-weather greens. I love mini-eggplant, and the 2008 All-America Selection F1 hybrid ‘Hansel’ is supposed to stay tender and not bitter even if it not harvested at its earliest date. This kind of flexibility is great for busy gardeners who take an occasional vacation!

The proverbial “grain of salt” (i.e. careful reading and some healthy skepticism) may actually lower your blood pressure when it comes to selecting the optimal seeds to plant in your garden.

Posted by Ann McCulloh 

Tags: seeds, tomatoes, vegetable gardens

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 12th, 2008 at 9:25 am and is filed under Ann McCulloh. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.