New Vegetables for 2017

'Patio Choice Yellow' tomato

Got small spaces? 'Patio Choice Yellow' F1 tomato may be right for you.

An All-America Selections winner, this tomato is a compact, determinate plant growing only 15 to 18 inches tall. It's the perfect size for container growing on a balcony or other small space.

Vines can bear 100 fruit and begin bearing in only 65 days from sowing seed.  The 1 inch bright yellow fruit are mildly sweet with a touch of acid.

'Antares' F1 bulb fennel

Why not try something new in your garden this year? 'Antares' F1 fennel not only produces an edible bulb, it's fine textured fronds are very ornamental in the garden. You can grow the plant for its culinary seed and it is also a favorite food for swallowtail butterflies and other pollinators.

The bulbs are said to have an improved, almost sweet licorice-anise flavor as compared to other market varieties. It is also a week slower to bolt.

Fennel is a warm season vegetable that will grow bulbs 4 to 5 inches in diameter and foliage 24 inches tall. Grow in rows 6 inches apart with 24 inches between rows. The plant is ready to harvest 68 days from sowing seed or 58 days from transplanting. Plants can be grown in a container if desired.

Photo credit -  All-America Selections

Varieties Adapted to Front Range Colorado

Amy's Apricot tomato

Cherry tomatoes are convenient for many people and golden cherry tomatoes have been of interest. Sun Gold is one that seems to do well in Denver and has become popular.

This year I tried another heirloom, Amy's Apricot, that did equally as well and has excellent flavor. An indeterminate type like Sun Gold, the only concern for some may be that Amy's Apricot is is 10 days later at 74 days versus Sun Gold at 55 to 65 days. Tomatofest.com carries Amy's Apricot seed.

Caroline fall bearing raspberry

Switching to small fruit, your fall bearing raspberries should be yielding well by now. If you are still growing Heritage red raspberry, consider switching to an earlier bearing variety when you pull out plants (generally necessary due to virus buildup after 10 years or so).

Newer fall raspberry varieties such as Caroline, Jaclyn and Autumn Britten bear fruit 2 weeks earlier. Late bearing Heritage has always been problematic with coming into bearing when frost danger may threaten in mid to late September.

Fall bearing raspberries are generally recommended in Colorado because they bear on first year canes; you don't need to worry about winter-kill of canes or buds as you do with summer bearing types that don't bear until their second year. Fall bearing types are easy for pruning too because canes are cut to the ground every year in December/January and regrow to produce a crop the next season.

Photo credit: Both photos credit Carl Wilson

Lettuce got variety

In the centuries since the early Egyptians and then Greeks and Romans first cultivated and selected lettuce, a wonderland of forms and colors have been developed. Now that Front Range soil temperatures have generally reached 40 degrees F consistently, it's time to seed lettuce and other hardy cool season vegetables.

The mesclun mix pictured above left shows some of the variety to be found in lettuce and many mixes are now on seed racks and in catalogs. Even so there is something to be said for growing a single variety both in the way it looks in the garden and in the salad bowl. Here are a few you may want to try. All photos are of lettuce growing successfully in Denver.

'Lollo Rossa' is an Italian heritage lettuce noted for it's frilly leaves. This looseleaf lettuce is ready in as little as 30 days. Pictured is 'Dark Lolla Rossa' which is a garden showstopper when paired with a light green oakleaf lettuce. Oakleaf is another 30 to 40 day type that has been cultivated in America since the 1800's. Both red and green oakleaf varieties can be found.

Another heirloom lettuce cultivated by Thomas Jefferson at Monticello as early as 1809 is 'Tennis Ball'. It's a butterhead type that requires 50 days to maturity.

The Mennonites brought 'Speckles' lettuce to America from Germany and Holland 200 years ago. Another butterhead type, this one matures in  50 days.

If you want to try a head lettuce, 'Pablo' is a Batavian loosehead lettuce with tender leaves that grows in 68 days. It's open pollinated and you can save seeds if so inclined.

Although lettuce is a hardy annual, seed or transplant soon so it can complete growth before hot weather. Hot temperatures cause it to flower ruining the quality of the leaves.

Photo credit: Mesclun mix, 'Dark Lollo Rossa' and oakleaf lettuce, 'Tennis Ball' lettuce, 'Speckles' lettuce, 'Pablo' lettuce, all credit Carl Wilson.

Vegetable varieties for high elevation Front Range areas

Larry Stebbins of Pikes Peak Urban Gardens recently spoke at the green industry ProGreen conference at the Colorado Convention Center. His favorite vegetable and herb varieties are listed below. If they grow at Colorado Springs elevations, they must be special. Varieties mentioned first in bold type are favorites. Other adapted varieties follow. If a variety is new to you, try it this season.

Artichoke Globe: Imperial Star (annual, 85 days from seed)
Asparagus: Jersey varieties
Basil: Genovese, Sweet Basil
Beans: Kwintus Pole, most bush varieties (Blue Lake, Tendergreen), Kentucky Wonder Pole
Beets: Detroit Dark Red, Bulls Blood, Chioggia
Broccoli: Premium Crop, Pacman, Early Dividend
Cabbage: most all, try Chinese varieties
Carrot: Mokum, Ya Ya, Kaleidoscope, Nelson, Danvers Half Long, Burpee A#1, Sugarsnax
Corriander: Santo
Corn Sweet: Bodacious, Ambrosia
Cucumber: Cool Breeze, burpless varieties
Garlic: Spanish Roja, Inchelium Red, Chesnok Red, Chet’s Italian
Kale: Red Russian, Redbor
Lettuce: Buttercrunch, romaines, leaf lettuces, mesclun mixes
Mustard: Osaka Purple, Mizuna
Onion: Candy, SuperStar White, Red Candy, Lisbon White Bunching, Copra, First Edition, Red Zeppelin
Parsnip: Hollow Crown
Peas: Sugar Ann, SugarSnap, Oregon Sugar Pod(snow pea), Garden Peas (Maestro, Wando and Marvel),
Pepper Sweet: Carmen, Green Bell (most varieties), Fooled You Jalapeño
Pepper Hot: Mexibell, Anaheim, Big Chile, Jalapeño, Mucho Nacho, Garden Salsa, New Mex Joe Parker
Potato: Russet, Yukon Gold, Red Norland
Radish: Cherry Belle, French Breakfast
Rutabaga: Laurentian
Spinach: Giant Noble, Tyee, Space, Melody, Bloomsdale
Squash Summer: Magda, zuchinni (most varieties), yellow, crookneck,
Squash Winter: Early Butternut, Table King or Table Ace Acorn, Buttercup, Spaghetti
Swiss Chard: Ruby, Rhubarb, Bright Lights, Neon, Fordhook
Tomato: Big Beef, Sweet Million or Sweet 100’s, Celebrity, Fantastic, Early Girl, Better Boy, Mortgage Lifter, Sweet Baby Girl