This is part 2 of my 2021 Seed Picks. You can find part 1(Cool Season Crops) HERE. By request, I also made a big list of all the seeds I will grow this year as a printable. For simplicity’s sake and ease of reading, I just grouped them by plant type and took out all the detail of “My Favorite” or “New This Year”. You can get the printable by clicking the button below.
I think one of the most important parts about growing food is having some seed varieties that you know are successful and will produce every year. It’s the bread and butter of your garden and harvest. After that is established then you can mix in a couple new and fun varieties.
It’s this method that helps ensure a successful and bountiful crop but also allows you to test the waters to see if there is anything better out there.
Corn
My Favorites
Who Gets Kissed? Sweet Corn (78-84 days)
New this Year
One of my children loves growing different types of corn. He is so excited about it. I’m not sure if these will all cross pollinate each other and we’ll get mixes. I’m going to do my best to encourage staggered planting dates.
Popcorn Mini Blue (80 days) Kids garden
Strawberry Popcorn– Kids garden
Montana Cudu– Kids garden
Nothstine Dent (100 days)
Dried Beans and Cowpeas
My Favorites
Black Turtle (90-120 days)
Tigers Eye Bean (80-90 days)
Ozark Razorback Cowpea (90 days)
Still Testing
Light Red Kidney (85 days)
New this Year
Kabouli Black Garbanzo (100 days for dried)
Cucumbers
My Favorite
Homemade Pickles (55-60 days)
Tendergreen Burpless (55 days)
Still testing
Natsu Fushinari Really productive and disease resistant in my garden last year. If they do well again I’ll add this variety to the favorites list!
Green Beans
My Favorites
Provider Bush Bean (50 days)
Jade Bush Bean (53 days)
Goldilocks Bush Bean (52 days)
Flowers
My Favorites
New this year
Melon
Still Testing
Petit Gris de Rennes (85 days)
Pepper
My Favorites
Poblano (80 days)
Emerald Giant (72-80 days)
Banana Pepper (70 days)
Tam Jalapeno (85 days)
New this Year
Buena Mulata (80 days)
Lemon Spice Jalapeno (65 days)
Korean Pepper (75 days)
Summer Squash
My Favorite
Lemon Squash (50 days) Best and most bug resistant summer squash around.
Sweet Potatoes
Beauregard (90 days) I bought my slips from Walmart almost five years ago. I have been growing new plants from this batch since then. They are surprisingly large, vigorous and healthy plants!
Tomatoes
My Favorites
Black Cherry (64 days)
Cherokee Purple (80 days)
Roma (70-80 days)
Kelloggs Breakfast (80 days)
Still testing
Egg yolk (70 days) I originally got these from Baker Creek but they no longer sell them.
Amish Paste (85 days)
Juliet (F1) (60 days) I’m debating on whether or not to grow Juliet again. It was incredibly productive but the fruits are so small it made skinning them for canning a chore. Kind of like skinning cherry tomatoes!
Blue Beech (82 days)
San Marzano II (78 days) These got blossom end rot in my garden last year and I’ve heard they are more susceptible to it but we really liked the flavor so we are giving them another shot in 2021.
Black Krim (80 days)
Sunrise Bumblebee (70 days)
Brandywine (82 days)
Watermelon
My Favorite
Still Testing
AliBaba Watermelon (100 days)
Winter Squash/ Pumpkin
My Favorite
Butternut Squash (100 days)
Long Island Cheese Pumpkin (105 days)
Lady Godiva Pumpkin – This one is for harvesting pumpkin seeds
2 comments
I love your blog!! We live on 7 acres and we are planning on a bigger garden this year since we have more room. What brand of pressure canner do you use? It is hard to come by a pressure canner these days, but once one becomes available I plan on buying one. I have only canned tomatoes and cucumbers in the past. I made bread and butter pickles with the cucumbers so I did not need a pressure canner for any of the canning I did. I just used the water bath method. I would like to start canning green beans and carrots etc. and I know that we would need a good pressure canner for those. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much! ~Melissa
Hey Melissa! Thank you! I have an All-American Pressure canner. It was handed down to me by my Mom, mine is 30 years old now and works perfectly! The closest version to mine is the 25 quart (model 925). I have a 921 but I don’t think they make them anymore. Here is an affiliate link to it: https://amzn.to/3tPu5FL I love that it has both the dial so you can see the pressure and the weighted gauge so you can hear that it’s at pressure and the weighted gauge helps keep the pressure more consistent. I’m excited for you! As long as your following a recipe from Ball or a trusted source you will have no trouble. Good luck!