[Rob the rake]

I'm sowing a few new-to-me varieties this year, which always elicits a mixture of excitement and trepidation, in equal measure. What new stuff have you been tempted to try?

Mine include:

Cabbage F1 Advantage, sown in small batches for all year round spring greens, allegedly. should please the missus, who's an addict.

Cauliflower Cheesy F1, which caught my eye in the allotment shop.

Courgette Grisette de Provence, part of a multipack of squash seed in last autumn's seed sale.

Tomato Ildi. A yellow tom reputed to have decent flavour, from a packet passed over the fence.

Courgette Tromboncino - a climber with long, curly fruits, seeds generously donated by the same person.

Tomato Sungella - touted as an open-pollinated alternative to Sungold, with larger fruits and (hopefully!) less tendency to split. if they match Sungold for flavour, then maybe I'll no longer have to pay three quid a go for a miserly 10 seeds every year.

Pentland Javelin spuds- amazingly, these have never graced our table in 30 or so years of growing. Looking forward to these.

Swede Trent F1 - trialled alongside Best of All, as my Marian seeds have mysteriously gone missing...

I'm sure there are others, but they are the ones that come to mind. Does anyone have experience of growing any of these?

[mumofstig]

I grow Tromboncino (aka Tromba d'Albenga) every year - it's very good picked smaller to eat like a courgette or left to ripen, when it's a good winter squash with a long seedless 'neck'. It always stores for the longest of the varieties I grow.
Also grow PJs most years, they do well here. Good for eating while smallish, but if left to grow on make lovely baking potatoes.
New to me, this year, are Brussels sprouts Crispus. A plot neighbour gave me some of his crop to try and they were the sweetest sprouts I've ever eaten. So had to grow them myself this year

[Subversive_plot]

Tomato Garden Leader 'Monster'

Malabar spinach (Vine with leaves that can be eaten raw or cooked; not a true spinach, but a hot weather substitute)

Red Tatsoi

Carrot Yaya

3 lettuce varieties: Flashy Troutback Romaine; Merlot Batavian; Really Red Deer tongue

Onion Yellow Granex

Beet Touchstone Gold

[Hampshire Hog]

My only real experiment is to see if crimson crush are really safe from attack by blight.
Last year I had a terrible attack just as the toms were getting into full production.
Pleased I could just get 10 seeds from premier for a couple of pounds and successfully germinate them in my propagator. Still bringing inside on cold nights fingers crossed it won’t be too long before they can go outside.

[Rob the rake]

I grow Tromboncino (aka Tromba d'Albenga) every year - it's very good picked smaller to eat like a courgette or left to ripen, when it's a good winter squash with a long seedless 'neck'. It always stores for the longest of the varieties I grow.
Also grow PJs most years, they do well here. Good for eating while smallish, but if left to grow on make lovely baking potatoes.
New to me, this year, are Brussels sprouts Crispus. A plot neighbour gave me some of his crop to try and they were the sweetest sprouts I've ever eaten. So had to grow them myself this year

I've yet to find a sprout to rival the much missed Peer Gynt, but Crispus sound like they may just fit the bill, thanks. In fact, they may be the variety I've sown this season, although the name has escaped me, somehow. I've also sown Green Marble, from yet another pack of donated seeds. I love free stuff, me!

[Rob the rake]

My only real experiment is to see if crimson crush are really safe from attack by blight.
Last year I had a terrible attack just as the toms were getting into full production.
Pleased I could just get 10 seeds from premier for a couple of pounds and successfully germinate them in my propagator. Still bringing inside on cold nights fingers crossed it won’t be too long before they can go outside.

About a decade ago, all the toms in my greenhouse succumbed to blight - it was like someone had been in there with a flamethrower. Since then I've always sprayed them with Bordeaux mixture once they've made plenty of growth and (fingers crossed) there hasn't been a problem. The advice says to avoid spraying the flowers, but I've never worried about that and it doesn't seem to affect pollination and fruiting one whit. Worth a try?

[Rob the rake]

Tomato Garden Leader 'Monster'

Malabar spinach (Vine with leaves that can be eaten raw or cooked; not a true spinach, but a hot weather substitute)

Red Tatsoi

Carrot Yaya

3 lettuce varieties: Flashy Troutback Romaine; Merlot Batavian; Really Red Deer tongue

Onion Yellow Granex

Beet Touchstone Gold

Some of those names are just amazing, aren't they? The Malabar spinach sounds very interesting indeed, not least since any true spinaches I've grown seem to bolt faster than a rumbled shoplifter. Spinach beet has had to suffice over the years. I like yellow beets, so i'll keep an eye out for the Touchstone Gold, too.

[Ivor Backache]

Pea bean: A pea that grows up a stick like a bean. Managed to get some seed from Kings. Sown my first batch, and I will see what develops.
Onion 'Hi keeper F1' " Best bulb variety to sow outdoors in Autumn for overwintering" Quote from packet. Currently in a raised bed alongside my main crop onions.

[Learnerlady]

I'm trying a Watermelon - Mini Love from T&M, was worried as I don't have heated greenhouse but 2/4 have popped through, have more space this year after getting a plastic greenhouse for the plot.
Also got some ground nut from think T&M but not hopeful, followed instructions and all that has happened so far is a white area on the compost, possibly fungus?
Fingers crossed....

[mumofstig]

Pea bean: A pea that grows up a stick like a bean. Managed to get some seed from Kings. Sown my first batch, and I will see what develops.

Sadly, It is not a pea really, it is just another bean, although it is a rare old variety.  https://www.seedparade.co.uk/pea-seeds/285-pea-bean-30-seeds.html

If you really want a climbing pea then try Champion of England or Telephone
https://www.realseeds.co.uk/peas.html

[jaydig]

I grow Tromboncino (aka Tromba d'Albenga) every year - it's very good picked smaller to eat like a courgette or left to ripen, when it's a good winter squash with a long seedless 'neck'. It always stores for the longest of the varieties I grow.
Also grow PJs most years, they do well here. Good for eating while smallish, but if left to grow on make lovely baking potatoes.
New to me, this year, are Brussels sprouts Crispus. A plot neighbour gave me some of his crop to try and they were the sweetest sprouts I've ever eaten. So had to grow them myself this year

I've grown Crispus sprouts a time or two now and they always crop well and taste great.  I'm sure you'll do well with them.



edit to clarify quote

[Growster...]

My only real experiment is to see if crimson crush are really safe from attack by blight.
Last year I had a terrible attack just as the toms were getting into full production.
Pleased I could just get 10 seeds from premier for a couple of pounds and successfully germinate them in my propagator. Still bringing inside on cold nights fingers crossed it won’t be too long before they can go outside.

While Bordeaux isn't commercially available these days, owing to those old EU 'rules' or similar, it does still work, and anyway, is always available online, or the 'ingredients' are! I've never bothered about spraying the flowers either!

As you're keen on organic methods, Rob, you could try soluble aspirin around the roots, as the willow extract helps keep blight at bay - we use it every year and fingers crossed for this year...

As for blight-free toms, we're trying 'Cocktail Crush' toms this year.  A couple will go in the GH, and some on both alternative potted areas around the garden, so we'll see what happens!

We're also trialling 'The Alderman' peas, as we've never grown a climbing variety before, and they have a fabulous new bed especially for them!

And...we're growing 'Pentland Javelin' spuds for the first time in years, at home, and they really will make a difference to what we do nowadays, without 'The Patch'!

About a decade ago, all the toms in my greenhouse succumbed to blight - it was like someone had been in there with a flamethrower. Since then I've always sprayed them with Bordeaux mixture once they've made plenty of growth and (fingers crossed) there hasn't been a problem. The advice says to avoid spraying the flowers, but I've never worried about that and it doesn't seem to affect pollination and fruiting one whit. Worth a try?

[Yorkie]

Since then I've always sprayed them with Bordeaux mixture ...

Just to flag up that the use of Bordeaux mixture has been banned in the UK for several years now

[rowlandwells]

I have to say we are trialling quite a lot of varieties that are new to us onions Paris  silver skin  santero zebrune exhibition show bench sweet Spanish hytech [organic] and kosma and globo and Robinsons mammoth for the shallot seed trial matador

for the spring onion trial Reddy Guardsman and north Holland blood red brassicas sprouts Maximus and Brigitte
cabbage Caraflex Stonehead Red Drumhead Best of all

Cauliflower Atalaya Snow Prince and Aviron and AAlsmeer

celery Greensleeves

courgette Sunstripe 

Lettuce Maureen

Tomato Crimson crush

Potatoes Gypsy pink 

Runner bean Armstrong

the above are this seasons trials to see what we get the best results from we also have our regular varieties that we grow year on year I think I mite have over done it with my onion seed trials because we still grow are usual onion and shallot sets 

[Rob the rake]

Pea bean: A pea that grows up a stick like a bean. Managed to get some seed from Kings. Sown my first batch, and I will see what develops.
Onion 'Hi keeper F1' " Best bulb variety to sow outdoors in Autumn for overwintering" Quote from packet. Currently in a raised bed alongside my main crop onions.

My good mate Denis, just over the path from my plot, was associated with a trial initiated by an Irish grower, with our site being chosen for this trial. Den is 86 and from what he said this happened many decades ago. I think the height of them was unexpected, making them a commercial failure, but the upshot is that many people are still growing them here today. They were called Preans, and have the foliage, flowers and pods of a climbing pea, but the seeds are four times the usual size of a pea and are slightly flattened. There's some info about them here: https://www.angelfire.com/az/garethknight/dots/irishpreans.html

They are seriously tall - reaching 8 feet or more - and much loved by pigeons, so need serious protection. But they're truly delicious, so well worth the effort. They're best sown early in the season if they're to reach their full potential. Your pea beans sound suspiciously similar, do the seeds look like this?  https://www.wilddreamsfarm.org/product-page/irish-preans

I haven't grown them for a couple of years, but still have a big bag of saved seed if you or anyone else would like to give them a go.