Tomatoes – I’m using up seed I have on hand when I lived in Wisconsin particularly Martino’s Roma and Wisconsin 55 (a slicer). Martino’s Roma produced quite a bit but very late. Nearly every tomato was green when I cleaned up the plants in early October. Wisconsin 55 did poorly but then the seed is at least three years old. I grew Gold Coin Cherry last year and did so again this year. It did well but split easily if given too much water or rain. Tastes terrific and produces well so I’ll continue with that. Trialed Siletz this year and was just whelmed. It had a very poor germination rate and took forever to grow to any size, however, it produced ENORMOUS fruit if not very many. Even large mature fruits had few if any seeds so I’m not sure I’ll be able to use what seed I did collect for next year. I might try them again.

Peppers – I had tried Healthy peppers last year and they didn’t do anything but this year the two plants I started produced a fair number of fruits. The taste was similar to a sweet bell and I let them get to maturity before harvesting. This year I trialed King of the North and it just started to think about flowering in early September. It’s supposed to do well in cool weather and we didn’t have that this year. Will try again next year. I was gifted two pepper plants of unknown origin and my guess is that one was a poblano and the other either thai or tabasco. Both did very well but they were good sized plants when I got them.

Cucumbers – I got a little crazy and tried three pickling varieties – Boston Improved, Bushy and Northern. Given that only one or two of each type survived transplant, they all produced about the same, that being rather moderate. They flowered all over the place but were in a cobbled together greenhouse (of sideways storm windows and a piece of sheet plastic over top that was open on the ends) that seem to baffle the bees even though I placed two borage plants inside to attract them! I love cucumbers more than I love tomatoes and I’m going to continue to see what can be done to grow them here.

Beans – Tried several and none did very well. I bought 12 Provider starts and maybe got less than a quart of beans. I planted Ireland Creek Annie (a handful of beans) and Northeaster (nothing came up). Even in raised beds, the soil might not be getting warm enough for them.

Peas – I’ve been growing Oregon Trail shelling pea for the second year with seed from last year. It produced very well but doesn’t grow very tall – 28″ – 30″. It did, however, go into a second flowering this year that was even more profuse than the first. Unfortunately, the pods of the second flowering only got to the “snow pea” pod stage before freeze up but it was nice to have them. Last year I grew two types of fava (Broad Windsor and Negreta – Broad Windsor was a better producer) but I wasn’t that organized to plant them this year.

Squash – Tried growing Small Sugar pumpkin and Red Kuri as well as Success yellow straightneck. Got exactly one pumpkin that was only starting to think about turning orange when harvested in early October. Red Kuri produced about four fruits, the last two to be harvested actually had mature seeds in them. I had all kinds of problems with blossom end rot on the Success but still managed to harvest a few but frequently from two plants. These plants shared the greenhouse with the cucumbers so pollination will be the issue to address next year. Anyone for pumpkin sex?

Kale – Stuck with Lacinato and Red Russian again this year and both did well. I wish I could overwinter them but no such luck. If six months of cold and dry don’t do them in, the moose will.

Cabbage – Went with Early Green Primax and Red Express. Unfortunately, the Primax, while developing heads quickly, cracked badly. Every plant cracked and had to get harvested early. That didn’t happen last year so I’m wondering if they grew too quickly because of the exceptional weather. The Red Express developed nice but rather small heads that took almost all summer to develop.

Brussels sprouts – This the second year for Early Half Tall and Rubbine. Early Half Tall wasn’t at all early but it did produce a number of sprouts but most the size of a large marble. Rubbine produced about half as much on the same number of plants but the sprouts were larger. Both have good flavor and I’ll do them again next year.

Cauliflower – Second year for Self Blanching. It’s reliable and produces medium sized heads. Our problem is remembering to check them often to catch them before they start to turn green and start flowering!

Collards – Second year for Champion and they did splendidly two years in a row despite the dramatic difference in weather.

Kohlrabi – Early White Delicacy produced up to softball size and could have been harvested well before it actually was. I suspect the bottom third will be too woody to use but oh, well.

Corn – I grew Painted Mountain (14 plants) last year and got a half cup of seed. From that seed I grew 51 plants and got much better ear development. 4′ x 4′ was not quite big enough to get thorough pollenation though. What was fascinating about this year’s crop was the number of additional ear shoots that came up from the roots. Sort of like it’s reverting back to a grasslike ancestor? The ears from the root shoots were small and most didn’t develop kernels because the tassels were spent by then. I haven’t pulled all the kernels off the matured ears yet so I don’t know what the harvest for this year is yet but it’s substantially larger than last year.

Potatoes – I have no idea what I grew this year because I used very small potatoes purchased at the first of the farmer’s markets in mid May. Might have been Yukon Gold, some sort of long, thin yellowish white and a long, thin red with some interior red striping. The plants grew enormously and flowered all to heck. Harvest was surprising little but I noticed that an early mulch of chopped leaves created a waterproof barrier at the soil surface (later we had deeply mulched with straw) and all the tubers formed in and right above the leaves. No leaves next year!

I might add that all but the peas were planted in 18″ raised beds. The backyard has the best light but it’s also one big gravel pad. I haven’t yet figured out how deep the gravel goes but it was way easier to construct beds on top of it than dig it out and backfill with topsoil. At least I’ve got excellent drainage!

Kerri in AK

Tomatoes were a blighted disaster, but the Amish Paste looked best of them all, and I was able to salvage a few Brandywine fruits to eat.

Got blight on the potatoes, too, but the Carolas seemed to do the best, and they made amazing roasted baby potatoes. The Green Mountains and Irish Cobblers suffered a bit more.

I’ve always had great harvests from Johnny’s Spicy Mesclun mix.

Tomatoes: Arkansas Traveler is my mainstay slicer, Rose the other slicer I grew this year. Hungarian Italian Paste is my paste tomato. All three did OK though I planted them very late for this area (early June). I grow a yellow cherry whose seeds got mixed into one of my standards one year so I don’t know its name, but it tastes good. It did well this year too.

Sweet peppers: the most productive one for me again this year is a thin-walled Italian frying style whose name I don’t know. I also grow a bell (World Beater) which did OK this year. I am still looking for a productive pimiento and will trial some next year.

Hot peppers: my Ancho peppers weren’t planted till early June and waited till late in the season to set peppers, but they sure set them once they got around to it. In the end, the Anchos beat out all the sweet peppers in terms of number and weight set per plant, but very few ripened to red before I had to harvest them.

Eggplants: total failure this year. I cannot seem to grow eggplants for some reason.

Sweet potatoes: all rotted due to the excessive October rainfall and cold weather. Or maybe they were eaten by voles – lots of vole evidence in the patch.

Potatoes: a good year for the French Fingerlings I grew for the first time. I still have 16 pounds left to plant for next year, if they make it through winter.

Popcorn: excellent year because I managed to get the crop harvested during the few sunny days we got in October. I don’t know the variety name, but it’s supposed to be an heirloom Midwestern variety. I got it from a local farmer.

Dry beans: Midnight Black Turtle, seeds from the same farmer that gave me the popcorn seeds, very good crop this year although I grew only a small area. Must grow much more next year!

Pole Bean: Northeaster (a Romano type), excellent yield this year, beans even in November!

Asparagus bean: Red-Seeded, not quite as productive this year due to cool, wet October but still good.

Collards: best year ever from spring planting because the harlequin bugs didn’t kill them in July. Cascade Glaze plants are still full of leaves for December harvests! We couldn’t keep up with these plants! I’m leaving the plants to see if any survive the winter.

Kale: best year ever from spring planting, same reason as collards. We grew Beedy’s Camden from Fedco Seeds, and it is outstanding! In fact, the plants are still alive and I got a harvest off them last week! I’m leaving the plants to see if any survive the winter.

Storage radishes (planted in midsummer for fall): Round Black Spanish and Red Meat, both very productive in a really difficult fall when the other seeded-in fall greens did very poorly. I just harvested the remaining radishes of each to store in the root cellar.

Leeks: Blue Solaize, did very well this year. I finished harvesting them today, just before our first killing freeze that is coming in the next couple days.

Lettuce: Bronze Arrowhead (looseleaf) is my mainstay, last to bolt of those I’ve tried so far. Did as well as usual in spring, fall crop was a bust. Tried Pablo (Batavian type) this year, we liked it, did fine in spring, a bust in fall. Grew Jericho (romaine) in the spring, did well as usual.

Bok choy: I grow Prize Choy. Spring crop OK (bok choy bolts early here), fall crop just sat there in October, finally put on a little size in November but much less productive than usual, cool wet fall weather the probable cause.

Garlic: some of the crop rotted over the winter but that was my fault because I neglected mulching. I grow and like Inchelium Red (softneck) and Kaskaskia Red (rocambole).

Potato onions: much of the crop rotted over the winter due to neglect of mulching. Fortunately I had enough to replant for next year, but we ate very little this year.

Carrots: bad year for carrots (planted the wrong time and most got eaten by voles). I grow Danvers 126 as main crop, Jaune Du Doubs for its yellow color and different taste.

Squash: good year for both Waltham Butternut and Lady Godiva.