Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: little sweetpeas on March 08, 2009, 10:57
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I really want to try to only grow open-pollinated vegetables so I can save the seed.
I’ve already ordered a few vegetables from realseeds, but with such a large choice it’s difficult to decided on which varieties.
So do any of you have vegetable recommendations based on experience from previous years
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French beans! Open pollinated types are true (they don't cross pollinate easily), the beans are yummy, and you can have bonus haricot if they crop too heavily. I have a soft spot for the 'Brittle Wax' Lidl sells - dwarf yellow, very tasty, and less than 50p a packet to get you started. Tall types are heavier-cropping - I like 'Cobra', although I'm also trying 'Cherokee Trail of Tears'; both are black seeded, so if you want white haricot go for 'Blue Lake' or something.
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French beans! Open pollinated types are true (they don't cross pollinate easily), the beans are yummy, and you can have bonus haricot if they crop too heavily. I have a soft spot for the 'Brittle Wax' Lidl sells - dwarf yellow, very tasty, and less than 50p a packet to get you started. Tall types are heavier-cropping - I like 'Cobra', although I'm also trying 'Cherokee Trail of Tears'; both are black seeded, so if you want white haricot go for 'Blue Lake' or something.
Its something ive never grown is French Beans, they're not a big thing over here. How do most folks eat them? what kind of dish is best? how to deal with the chemicals in them that cause tummy upsets? so much to learn.
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Tomato Stupice (Czech; pronounce it Stew-pizza (?) Google says).
This bears a large number of 'saladette' tomatoes, bigger than a cherry tomato, smaller than a slicing tomato. Good flavor IMO. I had no disease problems with it, it is somewhat cold-tolerant (my mature plants did not "give up" in the autumn when temperatures dropped below 10oC).
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French beans! Open pollinated types are true (they don't cross pollinate easily), the beans are yummy, and you can have bonus haricot if they crop too heavily. I have a soft spot for the 'Brittle Wax' Lidl sells - dwarf yellow, very tasty, and less than 50p a packet to get you started. Tall types are heavier-cropping - I like 'Cobra', although I'm also trying 'Cherokee Trail of Tears'; both are black seeded, so if you want white haricot go for 'Blue Lake' or something.
Its something ive never grown is French Beans, they're not a big thing over here. How do most folks eat them? what kind of dish is best? how to deal with the chemicals in them that cause tummy upsets? so much to learn.
French beans are essentially like runner beans but not as flat or stringy. I much prefer them to runners.
Most varieties are eaten like runners, simply cooked and eaten quite young inside the pod. No issues around tummy upsets with this method.
Some varieties can also be left to form dried beans for later rehydrating and cooking (that's not something I've done - I believe that boiling them for long enough will remove the risk of tummy upsets).
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Aiderman peas are heavy cropping and the seeds store well for reuse although they are cheap 350 for about just over a pound from premier seeds but i suppose if you save seeds you know they are fresh. we have saved Black Opal seeds [tomato] and these have worked well.