Halifax County Center: News

RT @NCAgriculture: NC's fire ant quarantine now affects 70 counties. News release: [more]
• • •
How do consumers react to product recalls? #NCSU economist Mike Walden explains: [more]
• • •
Mulch is the first line of defense against annual weeds in landscape beds, and now's a good time to add it. [more]

News

Gardening Tips: Heirloom Vegetable Varieties
Posted February 10th, 2009 in Lawn & Garden

Last week I shared some of the interesting new varieties of vegetables and flowers that I have found while doing my annual winter browsing of seed catalogs. This week I’d like to share some interesting heirloom varieties.
Heirloom varieties are older varieties that are generally propagated by open-air pollination rather than modern breeding methods. Many heirlooms are no longer grown to the extent that they once were but there is a renewed interest in heirloom plants among many gardeners. Although there is a great amount of diversity among heirlooms, many gardeners feel that certain heirlooms have better taste or quality than modern varieties. Unlike last week, when I was writing about new varieties, most of which I hadn’t yet grown, the majority of the heirlooms I’ll discuss this week have been in my garden at one point or another through the years.
Tomatoes are perhaps the first vegetable many gardeners think of when they hear the term heirloom. Some of my favorites over the years are ‘Brandywine’, ‘Cherokee Purple’, and ‘Yellow Pear’. ‘Brandywine’ is a large pink variety with fantastic taste that is over 100 years old. Brandywine is interesting in that its leave closely resemble those of potato plants rather than “normal” tomatoes. ‘Cherokee Purple’ is darker, more of a purple-bronze color, with a smoky, sweet flavor, typically used for slicing. ‘Yellow Pear’ is a small pear shaped, golden yellow tomato. The fruit hang in clusters and can be eaten individually like grape or cherry tomatoes, or the larger ones can be chopped and used in salsas.
Other popular heirloom tomatoes include ‘German Johnson’ and ‘Black Krim’. ‘German Johnson’ is a very large pink-red tomato that is one of the parent varieties of the popular new ‘Mortgage Lifter’ variety. ‘Black Krim’ is a beefsteak variety with dark maroon skin. It is very juicy and has a tangy flavor.
Other heirloom vegetables worth a try include ‘Mary Washington’ asparagus, “Italian Rose’ bush bean, ‘Straight Eight’ and ‘Lemon’ cucumber, ‘Black Beauty’ eggplant, and ‘Moon and Stars’ watermelon.
Heirloom varieties of any vegetable are popular for their flavor, but often times they have little disease resistance when compared to newer varieties, which is why they’ve declined in use over time. Some, such as ‘Brandywine’ tomato are better than others in this regard, but be aware that growing heirlooms is not always easy. In the case of tomatoes, heirlooms also often need more pruning and staking then modern tomato varieties and may not bear as much fruit. Heirloom tomatoes are also often thin-skinned and thus subject to cracking. Heirlooms generally are better for fresh use as they don’t keep as long as modern varieties.
I’d just like to again remind everyone that the sign up period for the 2009 Master Gardener Training program is underway. The class will be held Wednesdays from 12-5 starting February 25th, and the cost is $75. If you are interested in the Master Gardener program, please call 583-5161 for more information or an application.
Matthew Stevens is the horticulture extension agent for Halifax County Cooperative Extension. If you have any questions about this article or other aspects of your home gardening, please contact Matthew at 583-5161 or matt_stevens@ncsu.edu.

ADMIN CALS NC STATE NC A&T STATE RSS COMMENTS JOBS