Varieties hard to find, but DREAM of getting

[897tgigvib]

:tools

Come on, everyone dreams about getting certain varieties but can never find them.

There are two basic kinds that would go on this list:
Those that really exist somewhere
Those that might really exist

1) Red seeded edible Peas
2) Irish Preans Peas
3) Crimson Flowered, Purple Seeded Fava Beans
4) Black Seeded Greasy Cutshort Beans
5) Any Greasy Cutshort Bush Bean
6) Giant Lutz Beets in several colors

:watering

 

[momofdrew]

You might try the Seed saver sites like Baker Creek, Comstock, etc they may have what you are looking for...

 

[sparkles2307]

http://store.irishseedsavers.ie/Irish_Preans_p/1238.htm

 

[digitS']

Oh, I see where you are coming from, Marshall'!

Well, how about something that we once grew and can no longer find - or no longer find easily. Like, I might be able to find Green Comet broccoli if it turned out that the name was actually changed to "Southern Comet" but the variety stayed the same, about 10 years ago. Or, there may still be someone selling the variety but it is absolutely absent from the 10 catalogs that I might order from (& pay shipping charges to :/).

Why are Amandine fingerling potatoes only sold in France now?? What happened that this variety was available . . . and then it wasn't!? It was a dandy fingerling - the best one I've grown. I've read that it is very popular in France. Cripes! There are even online recipes calling for Amandine fingerlings! Mean of them . . .

A real source of frustration was when Burpee HID their Honey Girl Charentais melon seed, online but didn't include it in their catalog. A month or so after I found out it was online - it suddenly sprouted a "discontinued" notice, by seed-ordering time!

Now, I'm casting about like some kind of animal, trying to find a very short-season Charentais variety! The 2 I've trialed haven't really come thru, altho' I'll give 1 a 2nd try this year. Honey Girl matured and ripened in something like 4 years out of 5 . . . then, it was gone!!

Johnny's discontinued Passport melon a couple of years ago. Passport has always come thru for me. I nearly panicked when Johnny's did that! Fortunately, I still find the variety from a number of other sources.

I'm a little anxious about NOT growing Tokyo White bunching onions this year. That is another tried-and-true for me. However, I know there are better quality bunching onions, it is just that seed germination seems to be poor with them! There is also that tendency to flop over late in the season. I mean, they aren't bulb onions - I want them nice, straight and healthy from start to finish! Like my Tokyo Whites!! And, what if I like a new one and the seed company discontinues that!

Steve
seriously insecure

 

[897tgigvib]

Yea. What's really needed is a seed company that has, like, every variety there is, even if in very small quantities of each. That would include all the varieties that NORDGEN has, all the old Burpee, Landreth, Livingston, you name it varieties, all the Tomatoes of Rhinehard Kraft, Amishland, Double Helix, and any others. Even if this fictional seed company only grew 2 plants of each variety, it'd still take acres and a lot of work. But it'd really fill a niche. This fictional seed company would have to spend a ton of time finding and obtaining them! But it'd be so cool. Never mind advertising 1,400 varieties! It'd have that many kinds of Beans alone! There'd be 6,000 or so Tomato varieties, Hundreds of Melons, hundreds of Watermelons, probably a thousand Pepo Squash...

On a little coffee break from putting netting up
Got the most difficult and highest one up, a 23 foot by 7 foot fun, 10 feet high. Next one attaches to that one, but will be lower, and will have to figure some tightening for it, and I'm no seamstress, lol! Gotta keep the Towhees and Juncos out though. They eat seedlings if I don't keep the netting up.

 

[ducks4you]

I like this thread, but all of YOU are so far beyond me--I'm still learning how to grow basic vegetables and flowers!!!
I stand in awe of the experts.

 

[momofdrew]

Ferry-Morse used to sell a Cherry tomatoe 20 odd years ago...I loved it it was prolific...and just the right flavor...almost golf ball size I think the stopped producing it I miss that tomatoe

 

[897tgigvib]

@ ducks 4 you, I'm not a big expert. heck, i'm just an ole neanderthal. the basic varieties are mostly not any or much easier than some of the really rare varieties. There's just some differences sometimes. Growing a rare Pea that grows 11 feet tall just takes longer stakes to stick in the ground, and takes longer to finish growing all its peas, so in some areas might need to be kind of covered when planting it a couple weeks earlier. Really rare Tomatoes are usually no different to grow than common ones.

Alls a person does is try something new each year. Read up about it, ask around about it. That's what I'm doing this year with Quinoa. Got the seed for it, and now I've been asking advice about growing and using it on other thread posts here. Maybe i'll fail at it the first time...who knows?

The ones in here who I am in awe of are the seed swappers on one thread they call the seed train. Wow! They move fast trading seeds! I have a little seed swap going with an individual from this site who was nice enough to share a variety of corn seed with me that i could not get elsewhere. Folks who do that sort of thing, They are the ones I am in Awe of!

 

[NwMtGardener]

Ahh...quinoa...i'vebeen pondering that, but dont have time to mess with it (or space) right now. Let me know how you do! Do i remember right, that it has a posionous substance on the outside when you first harvest, and you have to wash it really well?

 

[897tgigvib]

I understand the stuff is not poiusonous, just soapy and tastes awful. Has to be rinsed off.