2021 Trial Field Update

This year at our trial field, located in Mount Vernon, Washington at the Washington State University Research Station, we have a wide range of crops and new varieties we are looking at. Our early season radicchio, lettuce, and spinach trials have come and gone with looks at some great new varieties. One of our new favorites is Bauer lettuce, a mini oak leaf lettuce that is available on our website now. The spinach trial we watched through the bolting phase to see how the varieties held up in our early summer heat this year. Lizard did great and is still our go-to summer, bolt-resistant spinach.

Up next, we have our eggplant, beans, peppers, and tomato trials coming on strong. In the eggplant trial, we have a variety of types, including Japanese, Italian, and globe eggplant to look at. For the peppers, we are focusing on hot peppers with lots of hot banana peppers and jalapeno types to evaluate soon. Tomatoes are a mix of heirloom hybrids, slicers, and grape tomatoes. Our bean trial is full of green bush beans.

For fall, we just transplanted our radicchio trial, which we will be evaluating throughout the early fall through winter. We also have gourds and melons to look at in a few weeks. And we have our second round of babyleaf to evaluate soon.

Our favorite trial varieties will be included in our new 2022 catalog if the seed is available this year. If the seed is still not commercially available, we will continue evaluating it in trials at our home site, as well as with trial partners across the country. This helps us know the variety in depth for when it is commercially available to best recommend new varieties to our customers.