Veggies on your doorstep
Vegetables are being bred for better taste and performance and for growing on the patio, writes Alice Spenser-Higgs
THE interest in heirloom vegetables has revitalised the vegetable gardening scene. It has put the emphasis back on taste, rather than uniformity, and has resulted in many more interesting and unusual varieties becoming available. Gardeners love to try something new and that is what makes veggie gardening fun.
Even better, it has challenged the plant breeders and seed companies to develop new varieties and extend their ranges. The result is that vegetable gardeners have more varieties to choose from and with the promise of even better things to come.
Just how far the pendulum has swung toward vegetables was evident when the All America Selections (AAS) recently announced their four national award winners for 2014. Three of the four winners were vegetables, all of them garden varieties.
What is significant about the AAS is that this is the equivalent of the Oscars for the plant world and its panel of independent experts annually selects the best new flowers and tastiest, best performing vegetables grown in trial grounds throughout the US.
The winning vegetables were sweet pepper “Mama Mia Giallo”, tomato “Chef’s Choice Orange” and tomato “Fantastico”. They are currently not available in SA, but many of the AAS winners eventually arrive in our gardens.
Another area of development coming out of large horticultural companies in the US is that of compact and dwarf vegetable varieties intended to do well in pots, in response to the growing popularity of container gardening.
“The idea is to make it easy to raise moderate but satisfying amounts of many edibles, especially herbs and salad greens, in containers on a patio, deck, veranda or balcony,” says Kathy Varney of BallStraathof.
Their Patio Vegetable range developed by Ball Horticultural International and tested locally consists of three varieties of cherry tomatoes, a mini vine cucumber, baby sweet peppers, a dwarf chilli, mixed salad and herbs.
“They won’t turn the balcony into a jungle, grow through the bedroom window overnight or colonise the veranda,” she adds.
The most interesting, in my opinion, is the cucumber “Patio Snacker”. Cucumbers are generally not grown in pots, but this variety is a well branched, short, vine variety for growing in large containers with small trellises. It is a fast-growing plant that produces early, continuous high yields of 20cm-long dark green fruit with good flavour and a nice crunch.
“The challenge of growing cucumbers in containers,” says Varney, “is watering, since soil dries out faster in pots than in the ground. A larger volume of soil won’t dry out as fast, so choose the biggest pot you can. Make sure the container has holes so excess water can drain from the soil.”
Tomatoes are always popular and the three tomatoes in the patio range are determinate (bush type) tomato varieties that can be grown in large hanging baskets.
“Tumbler” has a graceful, cascading habit and is productive, producing up to 2.7kg of sweet and tasty red cherry tomatoes, 3cm in diameter. “Tumbling Tom” is a determinate variety that produces high yields of sweet yellow cherry tomatoes and takes 75 days to produce pickable fruit. “Rambling Red Stripe” has unusual striped tomatoes. It cascades up to 60cm in baskets and containers and takes 68 days to maturity.
The mini sweet pepper “Cute Stuff’ has red or gold apple-shaped fruit. Although it is a mini, it produces up to three times more than other peppers.
Those who like it hot can look out for “La Bomba”, an upright growing Jalapeno type capsicum that has large green fruit with a medium heat. It can be eaten fresh or used for “poppers”.
Capsicums/peppers are thirsty plants that need to be watered every day. The water must drain through because they don’t tolerate saturated soil that waterlogs their roots. Also, don’t overfertilise. This tends to make the plants develop lush foliage at the expense of fruit production.
A variety of “Simply Salad” leaf mixes takes all the hard work out of growing a mixed salad. There is an “Alfresco” mix of red green leaf lettuces with rocket, endive and radicchio, a “City Garden” mix consisting of red and green lettuces and “Global Gourmet Mix” that combines red and green leaf lettuces with spicy Asian greens.
Simply Herbs has been added to the range and one has the choice between basil, dill, parsley, sage or thyme.
Finally, some food for thought, also from the US. Farmhouse Fridge has teamed up with organic vegetable growers to offer a variety of fresh salads made daily and packed in recyclable jars in a vending machine. The company launched its first vending machine recently in a food court in Chicago where it sits between a McDonald’s and a Dunkin’ Donuts.
The Patio Vegetable range is available through garden centres. For details contact 0861-blossom (or 0861-256776) or e-mail info@ballstraathof.co.za.