Any "Exciting" New Varieties for 2017?

[Greatgardens]

I think the only thing of note that I've seen thus far is "Chef's Choice Green." But since I'm not a fan of green tomatoes, I don't get very excited about this. I'd consider new disease resistant varieties interesting.

Maybe someone will breed a really useful "square" tomato or maybe a bi-color with stripes running horizontally.
OK, Im a little cynical about some of the "new varieties"...

-GG

[KarenO]

You are referring to hybrid commercial seed?
KarenO

[Cole_Robbie]

I think Damsel from Johnny's looks intriguing:
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/new-for-2...tables#start=1

[Greatgardens]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

I think Damsel from Johnny's looks intriguing:
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/new-for-2...tables#start=1

Yes, that is interesting. It's the first LB resistant variety that is not determinate that I can recall.

-GG

[Greatgardens]

Originally Posted by KarenO

You are referring to hybrid commercial seed?
KarenO

Any.

[Rena]

I am excited about EVERYTHING this year I have been out of the loop so to speak for a few years.. I am enjoying all the new stuff

[Darren Abbey]

I'm excited about the next generation of my tomato and pepper breeding projects. ;-) ...but, I suspect that isn't what you're asking about.

Originally Posted by Darren Abbey

I'm excited about the next generation of my tomato and pepper breeding projects. ;-) ...but, I suspect that isn't what you're asking about.

I'm excited about that, too. Do you have a thread about them?

I'm excited to grow loads of varieties from seeds I saved (and zapped) myself next year. I saved loads of seeds. Husky Cherry Red F4 should be interesting. It has excellent hang time (the tomatoes seem to stay good on the vine longer than the plant's lifespan). No splitting. Great taste. I have another kind of F4 that is pretty different than the other one I mentioned. I'm not sure what it will be like next year, but I intend to find out.

I'm excited about next year's watermelons and cantaloupes. I'm hoping to breed large winter melons/watermelons (via natural crosses: hence the hope—not that it's assured with artificial crosses). Most winter melons I've found are quite small. I plan to grow seeds from every Valencia Winter melon fruit I got (I got four). Hopefully one of them crossed with Weeks NC Giant or (Ginger's Pride x Ha'Ogen) F1 (which was about as big as regular Ginger's Pride). I better grow seeds from both of the Weeks NC Giant melons, too. I got so many GxH F1 fruits that I hesitate to plant seeds from all of them next year, but I do plan to plant some, and more large melon varieties besides (like Canoe Creek Colossal, and seeds I saved from Healy's Pride last year).

I'm excited about acclimatizing large watermelons better to our growing conditions. It seems to be working well with Ledmon and Fairfax.

[Darren Abbey]

Originally Posted by shule1

I'm excited about that, too. Do you have a thread about them?
I'm excited to grow loads of varieties from seeds I saved (and zapped) myself next year.

I post about ongoing projects periodically at my blog. Sometimes they get mentioned here, but not consistently.

Also, "zapped"?

Originally Posted by Darren Abbey

I post about ongoing projects periodically at my blog. Sometimes they get mentioned here, but not consistently.

Also, "zapped"?

Cool. I'll have to check that out if you linked your profile to it or something. [Yep, the link is there. I'm checking it out.]

I use a Z4EX zapper and cheap copper pipes from The Home Depot to zap all my seeds in wide-mouth quart jars partialled filled with water before I dry the seeds, when saving seeds. I also zap seeds if I got them from another source when I want to help make sure they're disease-free (like when the website has a warning about possible watermelon diseases in their seeds), or if I got the seeds from a trade. I use cheap copper pipes instead of the nice ones that came with the zapper because zapping seeds in water corrodes the pipes a lot faster (and I don't want to damage those initial pipes since they work better than The Home Depot ones for other non-seed zapping purposes).

Zapping garden seeds is an experimental practice of mine. I don't know anyone else who does it. I don't make any guarantees about it, but my personal results seem to have been quite positive, so far.

This year, I've been zapping all my seeds for at least 45 minutes (at least 15 minutes per frequency). Last year, I did it for maybe about 3 minutes or less per frequency (before planting instead of before drying) and that seemed to work fine.

[Greatgardens]

Originally Posted by Darren Abbey

I'm excited about the next generation of my tomato and pepper breeding projects. ;-) ...but, I suspect that isn't what you're asking about.

Well, that is interesting -- what are you working on?

-GG

[Darren Abbey]

Originally Posted by Greatgardens

Well, that is interesting -- what are you working on?

For tomatoes...

• Stabilizing a white cherry-tomato line derived from "Italian Ice F1". One plant this year had much improved fruit over the F4s I've been growing for the last few years, so the project is moving forward.
• Stabilizing a pink and orange striped tomato that turned up as a volunteer. It appears to be a bee-cross of "Striped Roman" and "USDA 97L97", but I'll have a better idea looking at F2s.
• Growing out F2 swarms from a cross between "Tiny Tim" and a big-box-store "Roma" type. Looking for new micro-tomatoes as well as more unusual segregants with enhanced anthocyanin expression (unrelated to "Indigo Rose" or other "blue" lines).

For the non-tomatoes...

• A squat and upright pointing brown bell-pepper, nearing completion of my original concept. I'll probably cross it with the "Enjoya" bell pepper, since that has a very thick fruit trait that would be nice to have (even if its striping doesn't turn out inheritable). This would mean a delay of a few more years.
• A classical habanero-form hot pepper that ripens black, to be paired with another that ripens white. I've got all the germplasm needed for these, but there will be a few years of crosses before I have results.
• Jalapeno peppers from a line that seems to have extra anthocyanin expression on the shoulders.
• Carrots that grow well with my soil/environment/habits. The last generation of parents had what I think is a heterozygous color trait, so the next generation should be a mix of white, pink, and red roots.
• Single-serve sized (and super-sweet/aromatic) melons that grow well in my short season and soils/etc. Rabbits ate my melons last year, so I just have to try again.
• I'm hoping the chestnut and bur oak (southern form, very large acorns) treelings survive the winter.
• Frost-resistant tomatilloes that have large, ink-black fruit. I've got all the germplasm, but it will probably take several years more to get everything sorted out.

More detailed discussion of any of these ideas should probably get their own new thread.

[RJGlew]

I am excited to try Gallant F1 and Toro F1 this summer. Both are Czech hybrids which list Stupice as part of their parentage. Zone 3a requires that degree of earliness.

[sjamesNorway]

I'm especially excited about trying AK Sunrise and Mat-Su Express from AKmark.

Steve

Brad's Atomic Grape is pretty exciting. Colorful. Anthocyanin. Good hang time. Productive. Wispy.