How bountiful will your garden harvest be this spring?

You can’t be certain since you can’t predict the kind of
growing season we’ll have. But
you can be certain that the better-adapted the varieties you
plant, the better your
chances of reaping a bountiful harvest.

Identifying the best varieties for your garden is one of the
most crucial gardening
tasks you face. How do you go about selecting the best
varieties?

First, let’s clarify the terms. Both “variety” and
“cultivar” are
commonly seen in print. Although in the strictest botanical
sense, cultivar and variety
have slightly different meanings, they are often used
synonymously in the popular press.

Because most seed catalogs and gardeners prefer to use
“variety,” we will
too. As used here, variety means a group of plants that are so
alike they can be easily
distinguished from other groups of plants within the same
species.

Varieties may have different maturity dates; fruit sizes,
shapes and colors; adapt to
specific environments or other fruit or plant characteristics.

Your goal when selecting varieties is to find those that will
perform best in your
garden. By using some of these proven techniques, you can make
variety selection easy and
fun.

Begin early.

The best time to start selecting varieties for the next
gardening season is the
previous gardening season. Pay close attention to the
varieties you plant, and make notes
on their performance.

Outstanding varieties this year may well be the best
varieties for next year. But you
will need records, particularly variety name and the seed
source. It’s amazing the number
of calls county extension agents get from gardeners saying:
“Those beans I planted
last year were the best ever, but I don’t remember the name of
that variety. Help!”

Check out seed catalogs.

Seed catalogs have pictures of some of the most beautiful
vegetables you will ever see.
In addition, they offer volumns of variety information. Just
remember, some seed companies
may be biased toward their own varieties.

Discuss varieties with gardening friends and
neighbors.

Gardeners enjoy talking about their gardens, especially
bragging on the high-yielding,
high- quality varieties they’ve discovered. A visit with them
in their garden during the
garden season can prove especially helpful. See for yourself
what looks the best to you.

Conduct your own scaled-down variety
evaluation.

One of the best “hands-on” ways to learn about
vegetable varieties is to try
a few appealing varieties in your garden. If your garden is
small, you can dedicate a few
feet of row to new, interesting varieties. If you have a large
garden, one or more rows
can be used for trying out new varieties. Don’t forget, for
variety evaluations to be very
helpful, you must keep good records.

Call your local county
extension office.

A nearby, unbiased source of information is your county
extension office. County agents
can provide published information on vegetable varieties. In
many cases, they may know
from experience some of the best varieties for your area.

In searching for the best varieties for your garden, find
those varieties that have
good disease resistance, yield well and produce high quality
vegetables. With a little
effort, keen eyes, open ears and an open mind, you can select
the very best varieties for
your garden.

Make your next garden the best garden ever. Get a head start
with the best varieties.