Features
Tips from top Organic Growers
The best varieties of lettuce
Availability : Compared to three years ago there is a significant increase in the range of organic varieties. Between Vitalis (Europrise) and Hild (Germany) I can obtain at least one or two varieties of any type of a wide lettuce range.
Prices: On average organic lettuce seeds are 30-40% dearer than conventional seeds. Unlike conventional seeds, you can't shop around. A specific variety is usually on offer by one supplier only. Another disadvantage for the organic grower is that if a certain seed fails one season, it's hard to find an equivalent replacement.
Quality: Germination rate, mildew resistance and appearance are, in general, just as good as conventional seed. But new organic varieties usually only become available after they become established on the conventional market.
Recommended varieties Leander : Red baby Romain. Attractive appearance. Resistant to tip burn and internal rot. Outdoor and indoor. (Vitalis) Bijon: Darkest red leaf (baby) lettuce. (Vitalis) Pasha: Compact red oakleaf. Attractive, decorative leaf. Keeps red colour in tunnels. (Vitalis) Maserati: Bigger than Pasha, but smaller than Salad Bowl. Stays firm after cutting. Only for outdoor use. (Hild) Nika: Darkest Lollo Rossa. Good bolting resistance. Also suitable for indoor production (spring and autumn). (Vitalis) Amorina: Lighter colour than Nika. More volume. Only for outdoor (Hild) Campania: Light green, fresh looking Batavia. Non-heading, enormous volume. Non-bolting, no tip burn. Attractive for direct sales. (Vitalis) Milan: Thin leaved, light to medium green, big sized, summer butterhead with good texture and taste. (Hild) Enya: Thick leaved, medium green, but very reliable butterhead for the autumn. Tolerant to high humidity. (Vitalis) Comina: Very similar to Enya (Hild) Belize: Green, compact oakleaf, well capable of putting any butterhead into 2nd place. Decorative, fresh appearance, soft leaves with a slightly nutty flavour. Fast growing, no bolting/ tip burn/ rotting problems. Huge size. (Hild)
Not recommended: Any varieties of iceberg or curled endive. Not available this season: Dark red oakleaf varieties.
Last season's performance
Beetroot, Detroit Globe: very good, no problems and a good crop.
Calabrese, Marathon F1: as good as the conventional seed.
Carrot, Autumn King: I was very pleased with this crop. Lots of leaf to keep the weeds down and great roots. Harvested until late in the season. Carrot, Topfix: sown as an early in the tunnel and was still selling them in July. I sowed a few outside alongside Autumn King and they did well too.
Tomato , Sakura: good healthy plants. Fruits were a little on the large side to pass as cherries. It might have been the good summer. Tomato, Claree: I tried these alongside Sweet100. They cropped two to three weeks earlier from the same sowing date and were still cropping when the Sweet100 had finished in early October. The only downside was that the taste is not as sweet as Sweet100, but not bad all the same. I wonder what they would be like in an average summer?
Cabbage , Volaceo: I am used to a hybrid Savoy that when ready will stand. This variety did not stand and consequently had to be sold off too quickly. It is however, a nice cabbage to eat.
Lettuces Enya and Fatima (Butterheads), Nika (Lollo Rossa), Asterix (Green Oakleaf) and Chevanne (Red Oakleaf) all performed admirably until the end of June when after three or four dry weeks they started to get downy mildew and this despite the fact that they are supposed to have some resistance. This stayed in the lettuce until the end of the season and caused some difficulties. French Bean, Markant: this climbing variety was grown in a polytunnel and cropped well except for the fact that it got grey mould on the leaves and beans. This could have been due to too close a planting or maybe it is not a suitable variety to grow indoors.
All the above were Tamar Organics seed which I used for the first time having used Kings for the last ten years. I thought Kings organic seeds were too expensive.
The seeds below were all from Europrise and I had good results with these as well. They can be bought in Euro which is a definite plus. Courgette, Dundoo: this was a good year for this vegetable and this was a good variety. I was still picking fruit at the end of October. Pepper, Bendigo: this variety worked fine for me with no problems except the price of the seed - €35 for 100 seeds takes some beating. Leek, Tadorna: I have grown this variety for a number of years and it works well for main crop but didn't do too well this year. I think that was because it was planted too close to ash trees along one edge of the field and the tree roots took all the nutrients.
Biodynamic peas
He tried organic seeds from a number of seed companies including Tuckers, Moles, Hild and Tamar Organics.
Brassica varieties, Calabrese - Marathon; Red Cabbage - Marner Lagerrot all performed well. Brussels Sprouts - Igor suffered from mildew. Leek - Oarsman, an early variety cropped well. Peas - Zucolla, a German bio-dynamic variety of sugar snap were excellent as a late crop and could be allowed to grow quite large without loss of flavour.
Carrots - Stella produced a good crop both indoors and outside and showed good resistance to splitting.
Butterhead Lettuce , Clarion was not available organically but Sylvestra and Dynamite performed well as did Oakleaf - Basic and Lollo Bionda - Bergamo.
Tomato , Tomosa F1 produced a very good crop of fruit but not as red as Diplom.
Aubergine - Long Purple cropped well but needs higher temperatures than Moneymaker.
Gillian Westbrook has been appointed to the new position of
General Manager with IOFGA. Coming from a background in the regulatory area...
