Vegetable Report Card – 2023
This is a work in progress: as we harvest, process or store, and evaluate, I will continue filling in our opinions of how each crop performed. Keep checking back!
| Vegetable Crop | Variety | Grade | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arugula | Rustic | A | very prolific |
| Basil | Genovese | A | great flavor & growth |
| Beans, pole | Fortex | A | so prolific, tender and flavorful! |
| Beet | Cylindra | C | ordinarily a great producer, didn't do well this year, might be due to location |
| Beet | Golden | C | ordinarily a good producer, didn't do well this year, might be due to location |
| Broccoli | Belstar | A | very prolific, large heads (both primary & secondary) |
| Cabbage | Copenhagen Market | A | developed really nice heads |
| Carrot | Danvers 126 | A | Even though several bolted to seed for some reason, the plants produced excellent roots! |
| Carrot | Scarlet Nantes | A | absolutely fantastic harvest, nice consistent roots |
| Carrot | Short Stuff Chantenay | A | stockier roots but extremely productive |
| Celery | Utah Improved | A | much happier with this new-to-me variety, lots of tender stalks |
| Chard | Garden Rainbow | B | didn't produce as well as it normally does, might be due to location, will definitely grow again in 2024 |
| Corn | Sweetness Bicolor | A | another great harvest from first and second plantings |
| Cucumber | Mini-Me | A | this one was an over-achiever! Great flavor, nice small size |
| Eggplant | Epic hybrid | A | grew in GreenStalk planter, impressed with nice size and productivity, plus worked well in a container |
| Lettuce | Bauer | A | Fantastic, huge heads |
| Lettuce | Buttercrunch | A | Always reliable, nice crunchy leaves |
| Lettuce | Truchas | A | Excellent new variety |
| Onion, bunching/scallion | Italian Red of Florence | A | Medium-sized onion, pleasant flavor, great in salads |
| Onion | Patterson | B | Grew these from plant starts, medium-sized, looks like they'll store well |
| Onion | Walla Walla Sweet | B | from purchased plant starts, mixed results, some big onions, though |
| Pak Choi | Bopak | A | these are so reliable and prolific, great cooked and fresh in salads |
| Parsnip | Harris Model | A | beautiful, large roots of really good quality |
| Pea | Green Arrow | A | very nice harvest |
| Pepper | Big Jim | B | medium-hot pepper |
| Pepper | Biquinho ("Little Beak") | C | grew outside (not in hoop house), plants were small, not a lot of fruit for the amount of space |
| Pepper | Chili Pie | A | mini bell pepper, each plant very productive per |
| Pepper | Lemon Spice Jalapeno | A | heavy fruit-set, VERY hot! Ripe fruit has a nice sweetness to it |
| Pepper | Marconi Rosso (sweet) | A | as always, a great producer, heavy fruit-set |
| Pepper | Nadapeno | A | a lot of good-sized peppers per plant, not much heat |
| Pepper | Pot-a-peno | A | excellent choice for growing in GreenStalk vertical planter or other containers |
| Pepper | Pumpkin Spice | A | heavy fruit-set, very hot, ripe fruit has a nice sweetness to it |
| Radish | French Breakfast | C | didn't grow well, possibly due to location or less sunlight |
| Radish | Purple Plum | C | didn't grow well, possibly due to location or less sunlight |
| Potato | Elba | ||
| Potato | Yukon Gem | ||
| Potato, sweet | (from grocery store) | C | a lot of work for medium amount of tubers, not a zone 5 favorite! |
| Pumpkin | New England Pie | A | very productive, nice size for making a pie! |
| Shallot | Zebrune | A | good germination (started indoors in Feb.), large-sized shallot with mild flavor |
| Squash, summer | Cocozelle | A | only planted 2 this year but what a harvest! |
| Squash, winter | Autumn Frost | A | very productive, most squash ripened in time, well before frost, good-sized fruits |
| Squash, winter | Burpee's Butterbush butternut squash | A- | Grew really well on small plants, reasonably good harvest |
| Squash, winter | Potimarron | B | Not as productive this year but wonderful roasted |
| Tomato, grape | Celano | B | Small to medium grape tomato, not as productive as 'Pandorino' |
| Tomato, pear | Chocolate Pear | C | Late to ripen, not very flavorful |
| Tomato, paste | Federle | A | Reliable, large paste variety |
| Tomato, paste | Gilbertie | A | Reliable, large paste tomato |
| Tomato, plum | Sunset Torch | B | Lots of small meaty tomatoes with good flavor, ripened late in zone 5 |
| Tomato, cherry | Orange Hat | A | These little plants are amazing! Great size for my GreenStalk planter. |
| Tomato, cherry | Patio Choice Yellow Bush | A | Very productive, grew in my GreenStalk planter, not too large for it |
| Tomato, paste | Supremo | A+ | My new favorite paste tomato! I harvested about 55 lbs. from 5 plants, very nice quality & size |
| Tomato, slicing | Chef's Choice Orange | A | this variety continues to be my favorite beefsteak variety. Excellent productivity and taste. |
| Turnip | Silky Sweet | A | very easy to grow, nice crunchy flavor |
| Watermelon | Ali Baba | A- | grew in hoop house, perhaps too warm for it; ended up with 7 melons, some developed blossom-end rot due to not getting enough water. Will grow in main part of garden next year. Good flavor. |