Heritage Seeds - End of Season Update

Although I am still getting broccoli and okra from the plants in my garden, my other plants have stopped producing. When I wrote about planting heritage seeds for the first time in the spring, I had many reader requests for updates at the end of the season. They wanted to know if the seeds did well. Some did and some did not.

Tomato

The tomatoes were my biggest disappointment. Although the plants did well, some reaching five feet tall and producing many blooms, the fruit was less than adequate. Most of the tomatoes were small and had blemishes. They had good color and tasted good, but I only got about two dozen tomatoes from six plants. I will not plant this variety next year.

Peppers

The Hungarian purple peppers did great. This is a fantastic tasting pepper with delicate purple blossoms. They produced fruit all summer long, providing me with a weekly supply of peppers for my daily salads.

The green bell peppers were also a disappointment. Like the tomato plant's they grew well and had many blossoms, but there were few peppers and what peppers did grow were very small. However, by mid August these plants started blooming and producing again. Although the peppers are still small, there is more of a yield now than in the spring.

Queensland Pumpkin

This squash started out great with lovely blossoms, but ended up a disaster. I planted three hills, but the plant could not stand the hot summer months and died.

Brussels Sprouts

The Brussels sprout plants grew strong and tall. The sprouts developed on the long trunk of the plant with several outer leaves, but the insides were hollow. The same thing happened last year with hybrid seeds, so I will need to do some soil testing to determine what the problem may be.

Cucumber

The cucumbers did very well. I was able to get enough crisp cucumbers for my salads all summer long. I would have liked more, but I only planted two hills. Next year I will plant more.

Lettuce

The lettuce was the best I had every planted. It grew well, kept coming back from the first and second cuttings, and tasted great.

Peas

The peas did well, but again, I did not plant enough of them. Next year I plan to triple my rows on this sweet tasting beauty.

Pole Beans

I got a bumper crop of pole beans from the three short rows I planted. These were still blooming into September, but very few beans were growing at that late time of the growing season.

Okra and Broccoli

These were still growing strong. I planted only one row of okra, but it has produced a cornucopia of fruit. There was so much broccoli, I finally got tired of picking them and just pulled up the plants.

Corn

The sweet corn did not do well. We had a severe storm with high winds that knocked most of the stocks down. What remained never grew very tall, so I ended up pulling up all the plants.

Zucchini

The zucchini did fair. Usually I have so much zucchini I do not know what to do with them, but not this year. I planted two hills and wished I had planted more. The fruit tasted good, but was small and if I did not pick it young, it would rot on the vine.

Disease and Pests

Overall, my garden did well against pests and diseases, considering these were heritage seeds and not altered to withstand certain diseases. The green bean blossoms were attacked by the Japanese beetles, but not severely. My tomatoes were struck by blight and this contributed to a poor yield.

Sources: Personal Experience