HSL/Heritage varieties - How are yours?

So far,

Tomatoes
Broad Ripple Yellow Currant - nice, but rampant. Not sure if I'll do again.
Giant Belgian - my second year growing this. Lovely large toms, will do again.
Tiger Tom - pretty, but not as sweet as some. Better in a mixed salad.

Beans
None yet fully ripe, but growing Madiera Marron, Cherokee Trail of Tears and Blue and White (this one from seed collected last year). The B&W made really good drying beans for the winter. All plants growing well, not a lot of pods on MM yet.

Also, grow 'Scarlet Flowered' broad bean each year - this year they were much better than 'ordinary' bbs, collecting seed now.

Peas
Purple Podded - a good mange tout, nice colour which holds in cooking. Not good pea, too floury, but will grow on as a drying pea for use in winter.

Melon
Growing 'Green Nutmeg', again from seed collected last year. Not exactly prolific (only 1 fruit per plant so far) but wonderfully sweet, small fruit.

Lettuce
Feuille de Chene, and Bronze Arrow - both grown as 'cut and come again'. Lovely early leaves (I grew in tunnel) and will grow again - I've got some seed left.

All seed from HSL, should have some of each for the seed swap later in the year.

My Lancashire Lad peas grew well, prolific - lovely at the flat 'mangetout' stage, a bit nothing at the mature stage - I gather this is common for the purple podded peas - scope for some breeding work here with a sweeter variety maybe! I'm going to try them shortly as a dried pea.

Latvian pea - grown specifically for dried use - not tried yet as they are still drying (though not in today's downpour!) on the vine.

King Tut - gift from Seahorse. Described on American seed-merchants' sites as a 'soup pea' which I take to mean for use dried. I am saving them for dried use - and seed of course. Good looking purple podded peas.

Salmon Fowered Pea - from Seahorse. This is so gorgeous I'm minded to grow it in the flower patch next year. The following peas are small, short podded (so you don't get a huge harvest) but very sweet. I've saved most of these for seed as I shall grow it again and offer seed here.

Dwarf french bean Soldier - still drying. These have cropped heavily - I'm especially interested in one of the ten that has climbed up the pole next to it which carried the twine for supporting the broadies in the next row! I wonder, will I get a strain of climbing soldier beans from this - OR - is it not actually a Soldier bean (although it looks exactly the same). Will keep the seed separate for the climber.

Cherokee Trail of Tears - gorgeous bean - will definitely grow this again next year. Generous fruiter, lovely texture and flavour. Cream of the crop. Thin beans like the expensive (and flown in) Kenya fine beans. Saving seeds from this.

Kew Blue bean - offered on here by Bugs. This is another winner - I'll save seed and definitely make it a regular. It's a great cropper, I'm picking every other day. Purple pods, fine texture, good flavour, what more could you want? How did these beans go out of use?

Bird's Egg - mine are not stripey but maybe I'm eating them too young. Slightly paler, flatter bean than the others but well worth growing and eating.

Ruth Bible - swap with Two Sheds. This little bean is like a small bit of fudge at the seed stage - small, pale brown and shiny. Lovely little thing. It also has a flat, pale green pod but a lovely taste and texture. Would grow again - depends on how much room I have after sowing my pea breeding seed stock!

Negritos. Dwarf bean - only one of the 10 left (HSL) after the slugs sniffed them. This was the only significant slug damage I had. They were a freebie from HSL, not one of my choices, and to be honest, I want plant material I can bang in and leave, not stuff that has to be nurse-maided through the slug stage. (Everyhting was grown in root-trainers and transferred - they had the same treatement as all the others)

True Red Cranberry pole bean - Seahorse again! This is still a mystery. I had just 5 seeds shared from a small stash by Seahorse. They are growing really well and have beans set. I'm obviously going to save the lot for next year's seed.

Crimson Flowered Broad Bean - from Muckdiva. These flowered beautifully in my from garden flower bed - to prevent them crossing with the ordinary stuff in the back. The small pods yielded bright green beans of a gorgeous flavour. I am definitely saving seeds of these for future growing. They only have 3 or 4 beans per pod but set absolutely loads of pods. As they are short, they didn't need support. Very attractive and well-behaved bean altogether.

Sub-arctic Plenty tomato - the fact that no-one on here has a good word for them speaks volumes!

Tiger Tom (HSL) - werer supposed to crop better outdoors than in so I didn't put any in the greenhouse. I still haven't had one to taste. They are small, obviously going to be striped but haven't really set masses. I don't think I'll grow this again. I'll stick to Tigerella. However, I used the pollen in a tomato crossing project.

My first year growing Brandywine. Nice for a big beefsteak. It grows fairly tidily and the toms aren't so pleated that it's a pain to skin them if you want to use in cooking.

Black Krim - was disappointed with the flavour but it's good if grilled or in sauces.

Black Cherry - Generous, small-fruited brown tomato - one of Himself's favourites. I only grew one this year - will increase that next year.

Green Zebra - still not ripe but they are always late. I grow them every year for the superb flavour ( in my opinion!)

Black Sea Man - I have one plant of this which grows in a VERY untidy bush form but has set loads of fruits. Again, like GZ they are a late ripener I gather. Time will tell if the wait is worth it!

I think that's all - I will probably remember something else when my brain's idling in neutral! I'm saving seeds from most things so will have swapsies available when all is safely gathered in.

Just a very few this year simply because its our first.

Martock Beans - millions of pods, just ripening now because they went in so late. We will save and probably swap some of these.

White Beetroot - a few have come up, very tasty, will find out how to save the seed of these to try again next year.

Have also grown some bicoloured sweetcorn which is ripening up lovely but we didn't polinate by hand so can't be sure they didn't get pollinated with other corn growing on the allotment.

None of the tomatoes I grew (Zebra, Galena) have produced any fruit or flowers - i think its my fault, i put them in far too late. Still, live and learn!

I'm definately going to have to work on the support problem before I grow the 6ft peas next year. I really didn't anticipate how massive the plants get, not only tall but bushy too. They really could have done with the whole bed to themselves!
I've seen a stunning bean frame on Harrod Horticultural, but it's £55 I'm wondering whether I could make something similar with an old ridge tent..

Hmm -I must be later than you lot as none of my tommies are ripe yet!

However the PILOT (HSL) peas have been gorgeous - long fat pots on 6' tall plants, cropping over a decent period

the ROBINSON (HSL) peas have curved pods nearly 6" long on 6' tall plants - only 3 survived their early days, so I've resisted scoffing too many so that I have seed for next year.

CRIMSON FLOWERED (brown paper envelope seeds) broadies have been a huge success for me too - it's a pain to have to keep a few plants separate, but definitely worth saving seed from! Bright green jewels which keep their colour after cooking.

EARLY WARWICK (HSL) dwarf french beans have done what they say on the tin - 11 wks sow to crop - flat green pods which I've eaten fresh, but have left loads on the plant to dry the seeds for winter use.

PURPLE GIANT (HSL) climbing french beans are beautiful purple stemmed 8' odd tall plants with purple flowers (as you'd expect!) - still waiting for beans for tasting yet.

BIRDS EGG (HSL) climbing french beans are still doing just that - patience!

Good thread, Sarsh - I'll update my input when I've further results, and like Flum, I should have plenty of seed to offer out later on.

OK Sarah, I'll post my results ........

LANCASHIRE LAD pea, saved from last year, superb, divided between eating and saving.

NEGRITO bean, not too good as were none of the others I received in my main mailing - weather here was pants and they succumbed to various pests, including being washed away when I was working with somebody else, tho managed to retain some dried seeds for next year but very few indeed.

The Seed Guardian seeds were much better:

Captain Carter's Beans are romping away, as are the Irish Prean peas - so are the other bean but can't remember the name off hand !! Should have a good crop of all three to return and keep.

Interestingly, despite the best efforts of the guy I was working with earlier in the year, I managed to save some bean seeds from a couple of years ago which he got into a complete mix. I stuck a couple of rows in a few weeks ago and they're absolutely brilliant, plus a few rows of the scrappy seeds in another chums garden which are doing equally well, just on the offchance - all I need to do now is to go through my old papers and try to work out what they are!

Paul Robeson Tomatoes - Will definately grow these again next year, as they are the best tasting tomatoes I've ever eaten.

My Crimson Flowered Broad Beans are about 1.5m tall and need support, but do well for me each year.

Yellow mangetout (Real Seeds) set loads of pods that stay flat for longer than normal peas, lovely tender and crunchy - will definitely grow these again.

Purple podded (Tamar Organics) - Tried as mangetout and fine when young but get stringy quite early. Strong decorative plants, especially when grown with the yellow mangetout. Will leave the rest for drying.

Sutherland Kale (Real Seeds) - Strong vigourous plants, leaves a little spiny. Can hardly keep up with production! Taste isn't as good as I expected but if it's hardy enough through the winter I'll grow it again. Leaves a bit watery and shrink right down on cooking a bit like perpetual spinach. Shoud be a good 'hungry gap' crop though.

Red cabbage 'Kalibos' (seeed swap) - doing really well, very decorative (I'm growing them in betwenn Black tuscan kale and Sutherland Kale). not hearted yet but looking forward to trying them..

Tomato 'Aurora' (Real Seeds) - supposed to be an early bush tomato and the plants have grown well even in my cool exposed plot, lots of flowers but fruit has set but not very well, and it's not swelling much. I'm not giving up on it though, it's the one tomato that I've tried here that actually looks healthy outside!!

Aurora toms, been giving me red toms since 8th June; seems to have slowed down so I trimmed it [and all the others] this week and a couple of the little ones are now turning. Lovely taste, not too sweet.

Black Krim, only a few actual toms, one has turned so far [and been eaten].

Grushovka, supposed to be early [and thus quick growing] but are growing at the same rate as all the others. none turned yet.

Amish Paste - looking huge but none turned yet

Old Ivory Egg, looking big as well, but none turned.

ditto Cream Sorbet, Purple Ukraine and De Colgar [although this is a storage last variety anyway].

I've never had toms this actual size before - they are really chunky so I'm quite excited about them turning and getting my hands on them.

All from real seeds.

Burgess Vine buttercup, seed sent from a friend. Two plants have done very well, however I believe them to be "Anna swartz" Hubbard squash by the looks of the photo and description. Around 8 squashes so far, can't comment on the taste obviously, but the two plants adequately covered the space under 30 sweetcorn plants. Depends on taste if I will grow again, but I like the ground covering ability.

Petit gris de Rennes Melon. two plants, neither has done well in the greenhouse, only this morning had my first female flower and both plants stunted and small. Not a hope of growing again.

Trail of tears beans. A huge crop which continues as I write. Some of the beans have gone stringy and a wide variation of shapes and sizes. Nice taste, everyone likes them. Definitely will grow again.

D'Eysines carrots. Well growing carrots, really wide necks, nice but nothing special. Will try the yellow ones as well this year.

Although I don't think its a heritage variety the white beetroot from real seeds have done amazingly well. Huge roots, very quickly, lovely sweet taste, no staining. Definitely next year.

Got given some "panda beans" from a friend of the OH, (not from Realseeds), they all failed last year, but I have a couple of plants this year and some large beans forming. They look a bit like the yin yan bean, but rounder. Any ideas what to do with this at all would be gratefully received.

Only a few here:

Garlic "Purple Heritage Moldovan" and "Chesnok Wight" (The Garlic Farm) - did OK in my raised bed and produced a decent proportion of "shop-sized" bulbs. Just starting to try them out in the kitchen!

Squash "Burgess Buttercup" (Real Seeds) - lots of male flowers and only one fruit so far, but it looks nice and healthy (photo taken about 4 weeks ago)

Tomato "Sub Arctic Plenty" (GYO freebie) - bland. Won't be bothering next year!

Cabbage "Red Drumhead" (Chiltern Seeds) - looks healthy now, but I didn't protect them well enough and I fear their growing points have been too badly damaged to heart up

Great thread, BTW - I'm keeping a close eye on recommendations!

Just bumping this thread to update on a few which I forgot, or hadn't ripened in time.

Chilli - Alberto's Locoto (Real Seed Co.) Brilliant chilli, hot, hardy (quite happy below 5°!) Definately growing more next year
Tomato - Eva Purple Ball (Seed swap, thanks Manda ) Sown late, but still managed a heavy crop of small, very tasty, plum tomatoes. Saved a few seeds so they're on the list for next year.
Tomatoes - Golden Plum, Belarus Orange (Amishland Seeds) Didn't have a long enough growing season but the few which did ripen were lovely, so I'll try them both again next year (if I can find room )
Leek - Early Market (HSL) We've been harvesting these for about a month and they're fantastic, great flavour, strong enough to make my eyes water when chopping! They've done loads better than the Musselburgh sown at the same time. I hope they're on the HSL list again this year!
Bean - True Cranberry Pole (Amishland Seeds) Managed to get enough ripe ones to save for next year, so they'll be going in a bit earlier this time, in place of Borlotti which were pants!

Got any pictures? I wangled a couple of seeds off zazen and wondered what they were like?



Our borlotti were pants this year too, made loads of 'plant' but no beans...