Are you growing this much variety for your personal use or for sale at farmers markets?

I know 5 years ago I was planting as many varieties as you are mentioning. However, now I am whittling it down to just a few of each. I am selling much of my produce at Farmers Markets. So, I have learned what sells the best, what doesn't sell and what will make people stop. I always try to grow as few of the make people stop and look and have got rid of the stuff that doesn't sell.

Jay

I have found that just because it is heirloom, I do not have to grow it. Many of the old varieties are good [or at least fair], but hey, simplify to what you need and to what is your favorites.

Jrslick -- Sure, I'm a market grower (not really). Its just that my customers are strictly non-paying family members and friends who get the largess of my bounty, but hey, some of them are in not the best financial shape, so I don't mind.

Nope, it's only for me, and it's totally a sign of my plant and garden OCD. If I see it in a catalog and it intrigues me, I pretty much end up trying it sooner or later.

It's not ALL bad, I've found some awesome new things this way in the past few years -- yacons, Couve tronchuda cabbage, litchi tomatoes, wax melons, Japanese sword beans, golden snow peas, daikon.

denninmi,

I tried your technique for a couple of years but with the reality that I have only 900 sf in my backyard, it seemed idiotic to grow stuff that didn't produce/taste good. What I do now is pick the best 3-4 varieties and grow those, along with a couple 2-3 new ones.

Mike

Yes grow the best, buy the rest. I now grow what does the best in my garden. That means only varieties that are known producers. Case 1 I love Acorn squash but the SVB's will take it out if U do not spray or operate on the main stem. Solution Butternuts, the SVB's ignore them No spray no surgical intervention. and now after a few years I can grow zucchini with out problems as the SVB's have not bred. I had to learn how to cook them the way I like (Butternut's) , buy hey, no problems. The other thing I like to do now is take one species and experiment with that by the year. Last year was the year of the Allium. Next year I plan on the year of the pepper. Makes it fun ;) Oh I forgot corn for corn meal this year also.

Curt

Dennis, don't you save most of your seed? How would you keep different radishes, for instance, from crossing? Unless they can be hundreds of yards apart.

I am beginning to enjoy Dennis so much on this web. I think he is just like me. I identify so much with his threads.

I will grow 90 varieties of tomatoes but I get sick of it and the next year it is 90 varieties of peppers. I always have a new project each year.

2011 will be the year of the hot peppers and melons. Well that is the plan.

I did 44 lettuce but now only want to grow one or two next year. I am now starting to do more tomatoes once again.

I love gardening as I know Dennis does.

Dennis my advice is to keep listening to your inner self and have the freedom to be yourself and do what you want. Just have fun. and forget the rest. if fun is 200 daikons then so be it.

Why not try giant pumpkins or giant tomatoes for contests. etc.

I thought I was bad like Dennis then I watched this program on TV about people growing giant pumpkins. It made me feel sane. those people are really nuts.

join the hot pepper nuts and grow the hottes pepper in the world. the Bhut Jolokia is over a million scovilles or more than 200 jalapeno have all that heat compressed into 1 pepper of Bhut. And then you eat one raw full up. Some people can not hold it down in the stomach. But they keep trying. haha.

Dennis are you having fun?

I sure am having fun!

I have some Bhut seeds on the way! Would you like to try some?

"Sure, I'm a market grower (not really). Its just that my customers are strictly non-paying family members and friends who get the largess of my bounty..."

Man, can I relate to that one! :-) I'm still trying to talk my adult children into buying chest freezers, so they can take more off my hands.

I don't conduct trials on anywhere near your scale, Denninmi... it would take me 5 years to equal what you grow in one. My seed production, though, has grown to the point where I find myself thinking along similar lines.

My situation is a little different. While I conduct quite a few trials, the primary purpose of my garden has become preservation & seed saving. The cool thing is, when you grow a lot of heirlooms for seed, you get plenty of great food as an incidental byproduct.

But I too am beginning to ask the same question: at what point do I just keep the best varieties in my collection, and stop collecting more? To maintain the 250+ varieties I already have requires growing them on a 4-5 year rotation; so I might wait quite awhile to return to one I enjoyed. I've found enough good varieties that this isn't much of a hardship... but if it were not for my belief in preservation, I'd be growing far fewer.

The thing is, I love finding new varieties, and trading seed with other gardeners. Not a year goes by that I don't find another "keeper". Eventually I'll probably reduce the size of my garden, especially as I get older. But preservation will always be part of the reason I garden, so I'll probably cut back to several favorites of each type (best snap beans, best shellies, best paste tomatoes, etc.) rather than one or two.

And there will always be room to squeeze in one more. Can't imagine a garden without something new. :-)

pnbrown -- I am only a "casual" seed saver - those things that are incredibly easy, or something that is really unique and hard to come by. I think seed saving would become mind-boggling too if I tried to do a lot of it. And, my results are generally NOT guaranteed, as I don't take any special precautions for the most part. Once in a while, I will -- for example, someone (from right here on GW) sent me some rare "waxy" corn seeds from China via North Carolina. I grew those out in as much isolation as I could provide.

Gardendawgie -- was that the documentary on PBS? I loved the guy who had the computer controlled system to water, fertilize, etc. But, I don't think I'm that dedicated.

I will pass on the bhut peppers, though -- anything much beyond an ancho is getting too hot for me. I think this bhut is said to be among the very hottest out there. Thanks anyway for the thought.

Zeedman -- well, if I can have 7 freezers, it seems like your children could manage to stock one. :-)

I guess I am easily contented.

Once I find a variety that I like to eat, and is well-adapted to its task, I don't look much further. This is a weakness on my part, I think, in many cases. For example, radishes, no doubt there is an equally well-adapted and more interesting one for my climate than french breakfast. Romano Pole bean tastes great and is wildly productive, stays snap a long time, so I look no more. Red russian is tender eating and doesn't cross with brassica weeds, sows itself, so I look no more.

I tend to be more interested in entire crop families that I may be failing to take advantage of.

I like to try a couple new things like yearly, but my main thing is to have an abundance of the best tasting and nutritious veggies and fruits. I get this from a limited number of varieties.
I am not trying to save the world's heirlooms particularly as I realize I will not be here forever in this present body and..........

I have found from gardening for almost four decades that it is best to grow what works best in your location. There is no need to grow everything if you have other things to do. We are still working out what grows best in this location, and have discarded quite a few unsatisfactory varieties. Heirloom tomatoes and peppers do not do well in this place so I have largely stopped growing them except for the few that don't mind. But then again I am not on acreage so do not have the luxury of space.

Dan

I have my tried and true but I like trying a few different varieties each year, some I only grow once or twice but every once in awhile I come across a real winner. I prefer open pollinated veggies so I can save my own seed.

Annette

I grow somewhere between 1-4 varieties of tried and true and do a trial on 1-2 new varieties. That way I am certain to get something I know my family likes to eat, and I might find a good new one.

I've got some "rules".

Only grow what we will eat. That means varieties as well as volume. 4 zucchini plants is it. I am not going to chase down the neighbors and beg them to take squash. My family doesn't eat green beans, so I don't grow green beans.

Whatever is on the seed rack works for zucchini. Tomatoes, on the other hand, I've got only one that does well, one that is edible but not great, but at least gives me tomatoes. So I'll grow those two and give a trial to 4 new varieties in the spring. But only 1 plant each. 6 tomato plants produce more than my family can eat.

Only grow what is costly to purchase or tastes noticeably better home grown. I grow berries (costly) and tomatoes (better tasting). I don't grow potatoes because they are perfectly good from the store and quite cheap.

I planted 6 varieties of strawberries this year. I'll keep the successful ones and rip out any that don't perform and replace them with another new variety to test. One variety out, one variety to replace it. No more.

I grow a few items that are out of their comfort zone and must be babied. But for the most part, it is sink or swim. Stuff has to be able to handle the conditions here, or it doesn't get replanted.

I'd say indulge your addiction. As long as you can afford it, who cares. Serendipity is awesome, and others can benefit from your shared experiences.

Brook

I should have added to my above post, although I don't have a big garden I seek out and try to save enough seed of hard to find heirlooms to grow myself and/or pass them along to at least one or two others, my small part to help keep them going. The bonus is since I've been doing this I've found the flavor of some of these old heirlooms far surpasses anything I can buy at the supermarket. It really is sad to see so many great varieties have gone the way of the dodo bird.
Annette

i have the same problem.
i have my must grows every year. its hard to find the right balance of old favorites vs new ones to grow if you choose not to live in reality.
you have just so much space, so much time, so much energy.
the last few years i try to talk myself into growing fewer varieties, so i can have more of each variety that i decide to grow. then the catalogs start coming, and people make seed offers, and, and.....sigh.
i haven't found that happy balance yet.

keith

I like to split the difference, every year I plant my 'tried and true' veggies that I know and love as well as some new experimental crops. Doing this I've both added to my list of favorites, and I have grown things that I'll never plant again :oP

I can totally relate to ordering everything that intrigue. After many $1000s and many pulled up rare fruit trees and plants and vegetables which never produced or meeting my taste expectation now my new years resolution in gardening is only grow what you'll eat and eat what you grow. I still managed to spend about $100 on seeds for 2011 but I will collect most of my seeds and have more prudent and frugal aproach from now on. I guess I've grown up little LOL.

I think that it really does help to be able to come here and ask what experience others have had. That's saved me from wasting money on more than one experimental purchase.

Some of it, though, just has to be tried because each plant reacts differently to different growing conditions.

When it comes to trying varieties, I usually try to narrow it down to 2-3 max. However, with rare edible plants I will continue to acquire. Reasons to stop growing a edible plant; it does not perform in my climate, the taste is not appealing, sustenance is not worth it, disease and pest susceptible, and yields not worth time and effort.

Hey Dennis, have you had any luck with cowpeas?

pnbrown -- you asked about cowpeas -- yes, they're easy to grow. I've grown both the conventional dry use types, and many yard long beans. I've also many times picked the first pods of the dry types for green beans, since they have the same delicate, sort of mushroom flavor of a yard long bean.

However, I didn't plant any dry beans of any kind at all last year. I still have some from 2008, and I admit to being lazy -- the dry ones are out in a freezer (to stay bug free), and I usually just reach for a can from the store! I hope to do better in 2011.

I guess the real problem with things like dry beans is that, while fun, interesting, and educational to do your own, it's kind of discouraging to do all of the hours of work, and then end up with a pile of beans that would cost you maybe $10 from the grocery store. They're cheap to buy relative to the cost of growing them.

It's true, dry beans are a lot of work. Still, I find that fresh dry beans are noticably better than bought dry. Of course, shelly beans are not easy to find most places.

I have grown cowpeas a couple times, but only the typical black-eyed pea. I ate them all at shell stage. I'm going to try several different types of traditional southern peas next season, and also some asian long-pod types.

I like to grow everything that I can possible can in my small garden, sometimes the new seeds are winners and sometimes not. Every season I like to add new things so I don't get tired of the same. Some old varieties that do well for me return but the new ones I do more.

Pat, last season I grew for the first time the black jungle butterbeans and they were so prolific! that I still have some in the freezer, I like them at the shell stage.

I try to grow the crops that are more expensive or have more flavor than the supermarket ones, and like Dennis I can get some good quality dry beans for a good price, fresh snap beans and shell I always grow a good variety in my garden.

And after getting those new catalogs, it is hard to make decisions because there are so many things that I want but realistically only few get planted.:)

Silvia

"Everything" and "the best" are both phantoms. Plant some things that you know you like, and plant some new stuff that you think you might like. Have fun with it -- it's not a contest (unless you want it to be). :)

I'm not a fanatic seed saver, but when I find a variety that a) I like, b) I eat and c) does well for me, I mostly stick with it. Occasionally I'll try a new variety if I have a good stash of seed set aside from the previous 2 years. And when you are talking about things like squash, it isn't hard to save a LOT of seed. Plus, there are some things I just don't grow because high quality veggies are either too cheap to buy (soup beans), take more room than I can justify (like corn or asparagus) or are just too hard to do (like sweet potatoes when you have more rocks than dirt.)

But there are many veggies that I haven't tried yet or for which I just haven't found that perfect variety. So each year it seems I spend $50 or so on premium heirloom seed from catalogs. Sometimes I get a real winner.

When a variety doesn't really work for my climate -- which is most of the time -- I gift the seed to a gardener in another climate. Or if I just don't like it, it can go to almost anyone. I think of it as recycling the addiction.

Silvia, funny coincidence, I just ordered the black jungle butterbeans to plant in fla in march. Good to know that they did well for you. I won't be there long enough to eat them but somebody will eat em.

I'm excited about growing the asian noodle beans. Never had them before.

Pat, I got the beans last year from a generous gw member flintknapper, if that is the source then they are the same that I have. I found out that they were resistant to nematodes in the soil, that is the reason they were so productive, they also have a long season, I am sure somebody can save some for you whether they are dry or frozen.
About the yardlong beans, some people love them and few hate them! In my house we all like them, my neighbors like them too and it was the first time that they were trying. The important thing is when you plant them it has to be amended soil, otherwise the nematodes are going to be a problem.

Yard long beans

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Black Jungle butterbeans

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Silvia

This is an interesting discussion.

I think it depends on what you feel is the primary purpose of your garden. I can think of three reasons a person may have to grow vegetables:

1. Superior quality of homegrown produce.
If this is your primary goal, then you would want to stick with stuff that tastes much better than what you get at the store, like tomatoes. If it doesn't taste a lot better than storebought, then maybe it isn't worth growing, and you should just buy it at the store.

2. Self-sufficiency
If this is your primary goal, then even if you can get it at the store, you might still want to grow it yourself, just for the independence of growing your own food. If it doesn't yield well or takes a lot of labor to grow, then maybe it's not worth growing just because it's taking away time or space from other crops that you can rely upon better for a good food supply.

3. Seed saving/plant breeding and variety preservation
If this is your primary goal, then production of food is a side effect of preserving genetic material. In this case, a variety might not be worth growing if it's very common, and you want to concentrate on rare varieties or your own family heirlooms or breeding projects.

And then, of course, you could be like me, trying to do ALL THREE THINGS AT ONCE, and making things really hard on yourself. ;-) Of course they're not mutually exclusive, but concentrating on one can take your focus away from another.

After 30 years of gardening, and trying almost everything, I finally decided that my time and money was best spent focusing on nutrition. Here is my blog with the varieties I have found most nutritious. Delicious is a totally different matter.

Here is a link that might be useful: Self Sufficiency Crops