Any "Exciting" New Varieties for 2017?

[BigVanVader]

Fred Hemple's new varieties are the ones I am most excited for. I will be growing 2 of the mini-beefsteak varieties and cant wait to see what they look/taste like.

[Greatgardens]

Originally Posted by BigVanVader

Fred Hemple's new varieties are the ones I am most excited for. I will be growing 2 of the mini-beefsteak varieties and cant wait to see what they look/taste like.

Which ones are you planning on?

I have tried a couple of Fred's products, and Blush looks interesting for this year.

If anyone is interested, please see the "Wanted" section for a possible trade for Brad's Atomic...

-GG

[Fred Hempel]

The Mini-Beefsteaks mentioned above are not generally available, but a few ones that are finished and in the "trial" stage are available to collaborating members, along with other un-released varieties.

[oakley]

Just finished looking through the new BakersCreek catalog. Ordered. No problem finding many new
Toms and veggies.
I also ordered from Artisan to be delivered soon...

That makes probably 3 dozen new varieties. About half my tomato growing area. Leaves plenty of room for multiples of my dozen 'every year favorites'.

[Barb_FL]

Fred - They look really nice. Are they about 3 oz?

I'm growing Brad Gates Small Mix and one plant is a mini-PBTD (Mini-Beefstake is a good term) the other more productive one looks to be a GWR so maybe a mini-BTD.

-----
I'm looking forward to Mat-su Express, Esterina, Fred's upcoming new cherry with the long shelf life (to have tomatoes further into the summer).

[Fred Hempel]

Hi Barb,

I would say they are mostly between 3-5 oz.

Most lines in final trials this summer have vigor/disease resistance and increased shelf-life coming mostly from one parent (with taste from both parents).

We are working on mini-beefsteaks with commercial traits coming from both parents, but they are still a couple of years off. That said, some of this years finalists have been performing very well and now they have major tests in the midwest/east and Mexico this year.

Originally Posted by greenthumbomaha

Your melon project interests me, shule1. My growing partner swears that he/we can't grow full size watermelons in our season but the farmers markets are brimming with monster melons. He grows Sugar Baby and they grow about the size of a basketball , max. Some years they are just a tad under ripe. Wither they fall off the vine, or they just don't ripen at all before cooler weather sets in.

I wonder if it is a result of uneven watering techniques in the hottest part of late summer. The tomatoes pull through but perhaps melon sugars shut or slow down a bit unbeknownst to us. I will have to suggest that we try a winter melon for next season.

- Lisa

Cool. Basketball-sized is actually pretty big for Sugar Baby (but it does happen). We’ve never gotten Sugar Baby that big here (maybe two-thirds that size at the largest). I imagine if Sugar Baby gets that big for him, growing a bigger watermelon wouldn’t be a huge stretch. Bigger fruits do tend to take longer to ripen, though. Sugar Baby is supposed to be one of the earliest watermelons.

Winter melons probably aren’t any more adapted to northwestern climates than most small melons. However, they’re called winter melons because you can store the fruits in your house for up to four months or so (kind of like how winter squash can often store for up to a year). I’ve got a couple Valencia Winter melons and a Navajo Winter watermelon in storage, still (I should probably eat that one soon). If I were to recommend a winter watermelon, it would probably be Navajo Winter, so far, although King Winter is the largest one I know about, but it's not what you would call large (it is supposed to keep for up to three months). Red-seeded Citron probably keeps the longest (but I’m the only one who calls it a winter watermelon that I know about); it’s not a lot like other watermelons, though (it’s not sweet, and the flesh is extra firm: it’s a great replacement for water chestnuts in stir fry, in my opinion).

Some people call any shipping melon a winter melon. I’m not sure how long any particular shipping melon usually keeps, but I think some of them are more designed for durability than shelf life (although I’m sure they’ll usually keep for at least a few weeks). There are lots of large shipping watermelons.

I would recommend early watermelon varieties for you (but I wouldn't avoid 85-day ones, personally, if you find some you like). Some early ones that seem pretty good include these:

• Bozeman
• Verona
• Katanya
• Blacktail Mountain
• Yellow Doll F1 (small, but supposed to be very good and suited to many climates)

Of those earlier ones, I’ve grown Verona and Blacktail Mountain. I have seeds for the other two OP varieties for next year. Verona is a good one, with great taste. Blacktail Mountain just produced very small watermelons for me in 2015 (but most varieties are small the first year here), but they were the earliest by far.

I don't recommend giving up on Sugar Baby, though. It is a good variety. You might try crossing it with something big (like Carolina Cross, Weeks NC Giant, Kolb’s Gem, Blue Rind, Cobb Gem, or Black Diamond), and then seeing how it does the next year (since hopefully the next generation would retain some of Sugar Baby’s adaptation to most climates, and some of the big variety’s size). You might try that with Sugar Baby Bush instead, though (we need more bush varieties). I only know of about two (Sugar Baby Bush and Jubilee Bush), and the latter isn’t quite a bush, from what I hear.

If you want big watermelons you might try Black Diamond. That’s one large variety that a friend of mine in my area says he can grow to size just fine (it’s round, like Sugar Baby, but it gets bigger; I haven’t tried it, but it’s on my to-grow list for next year). One small variety that does well for him is Cream of Saskatchewan (it is very small, though, but exotic, and on my to-grow list, too).

One of the most important things I think a person can do with watermelon is to save their seeds every year, and grow their saved seeds the next instead of buying new ones all the time, and instead of using those from the same packet they used the year before—even if the saved seeds came from severely undersized watermelons. This is especially important, I believe, if you’re getting undersized watermelons. My Ledmon watermelons sure got a whole lot bigger the second year (and one of them had extremely excellent taste—the best-tasting watermelon I’ve ever had, and among the sweetest). Fairfax was also bigger. The interesting thing, though is that they were bigger even though I was growing three plants per hole this year (last year, I did one plant per hole). I vastly prefer three plants per hole in my environment (for muskmelons/cantaloupes, too). It allows for higher success rates and more genetic diversity.

Anyway, next year I plan to grow a lot of second-year watermelons (and three third-years), as well as new varieties (there’s room for a good amount of watermelons next year). I’m letting them hybridize freely. I figure it’s best (and easiest) to let them get the strongest pollen (or pollen from whatever flowers that the bees like the best).

I recommend starting your watermelons early and transplanting them not too long after they germinate (a couple leaves besides the cotyledon is probably ideal; the less leaves they have, the less problems they’ll likely have with the sunlight outdoors after you transplant them). Most varieties germinate very fast, in my experience (some don’t). Make sure they have enough light to grow fast in the environment you’re starting them in. It’s important that they can grow fast and healthy while seedlings.

You might get a soil test to see if anything is lacking or if your pH is off, since the Sugar Baby fruit is taking so long to ripen.

[Ricky Shaw]

Watermelons and Cantaloupes will be new to the garden this year, and plan to have a 3x8 bed for each. We don't have a super-long season and thought I'd stick with stuff in the 80 day range. For a watermelon I'm thinking the 2017AAS winner Mini Love F1, and for a cantaloupe the popular F1, Ambrosia.

Are melons like tomatoes, in that saved seeds from hybrids are unreliable?

https://www.vermontbean.com/P/04069/...rid+Watermelon

https://www.vermontbean.com/P/02618/...brid+Muskmelon

[Marcus1]

Ricky, I've had good success with Jade Star F1 watermelon and for cantaloupe Halona, Hannahs Choice, and Crescent Moon.

Marcus

[PaulF]

The last few years I have been revisiting old friends rather than look for new varieties. Still, a couple of new and interesting tomatoes make it into the garden every year. Most of the new guys have been coming from Tatiana's Russian collections and the work done by the Dwarf Project.

This year along with my own inventory reduction by growing out old seeds of already grown varieties I will be able to add a couple of tomatoes I have not yet grown. Due to the generosity of Miss S I will be trying out Daniel Burson and another I have wanted to grow for several years but not gotten around to, Big Cheef. Not new by any means, just new to me.

My foray into melons didn't go very well last year. Too busy to do proper weeding in the acre plot and then not able to harvest in a timely manner. I may have to cut back on the size and scope. Last year there were thirty different melon varieties under that four foot tall weed bed.

[BigVanVader]

I will be focusing more on melons myself. I never got around to planting any last year but have several ordered for this year, plus the ones I got from Imp. I plan to try trellis growing with cattle panels.

[Ricky Shaw]

Thank you, I will take that advice Marcus. Going to use the Halona for an early cantaloupe, and Hannahs Choice for my late. Fedco has both of these, but the Jade Star looks to be discontinued. The replacement is Dark Star and I'll probably go with that since Fedco has it also.

http://www.fedcoseeds.com/seeds/search?cat=Melons

[BigVanVader]

Originally Posted by Ricky Shaw

Thank you, I will take that advice Marcus. Going to use the Halona for an early cantaloupe, and Hannahs Choice for my late. Fedco has both of these, but the Jade Star looks to be discontinued. The replacement is Dark Star and I'll probably go with that since Fedco has it also.

http://www.fedcoseeds.com/seeds/search?cat=Melons

I am using Halona as well! lol

[Barb_FL]

Ricky - The Ambrosia F1 melon that Cole_Robbie mentioned is dynamite. I never had a better tasting cantaloupe.

I have since given up on growing melons b/c I couldn't up with the caterpillars but this past summer I perfected using tulle and grew massive amounts of cucumbers without spraying once.

[NarnianGarden]

I haven't had a chance / time to focus on next year's list yet, but there will be several 'new to me' varieties, as well as 'oldies goldies' aka 'true and tested'. Both are exciting, as taste is what matters the most, not an exciting shape or color - although I like beautiful tomatoes

Given the fact my space is limited (and I tend to plant too many anyway and then end up with a jungle), I am going to give up on any blue varieties.. sorry, but no matter how pretty, the taste just is not that special (my mom on the other hand loved Amethyst Cream)
I know I will have a couple of greens on my list - Siberian Malachite and perhaps the more famous Malakhitovkaya Shtatulka -, and some treasures from the swap, including a few dwarfs.

I haven't had Tarasenko Pink since 2014 and really miss the flavor.another must have is Noire de Crimee.
All else is negotiable..