The practical library
Find crop guides, planting calendars, seed-starting help, soil guidance, pest diagnosis, harvesting information, and practical seed-saving instructions.
The complete article library
Search The Yaupon Tea without mixing the results with seed products.
59 articles in this topic
Small spring radishes mature quickly in cool weather. Daikon and other long radishes need deeper loose soil. Watermelon radishes require more time and space. Winter storage radishes are grown for larger roots, strong flavor, and longer keeping quality.
Bush beans are compact and produce in a concentrated window. Pole beans climb and often yield longer. Runner beans are a distinct species with showy flowers and cool-weather preference. Lima beans, cowpeas, soybeans, snap beans, shelling beans, and dry beans are defined as much by harvest stage and kitchen use as by plant shape.
Sweet corn is harvested immature for eating fresh. Flour corn has soft starch suited to grinding. Flint corn has a hard outer layer. Dent corn combines hard and soft starch and develops a dent as it dries. Popcorn is a specialized flint type whose moisture and hull allow kernels to pop.
Open-pollinated varieties can reproduce with relative consistency when properly isolated and selected. Heirloom usually adds a history of continued use, while F1 hybrid seed comes from a deliberate cross and does not reproduce uniformly in the next generation.
Kale and collards are forms of Brassica oleracea and share many pests, crop-rotation needs, and cool-season traits. Swiss chard is Beta vulgaris, the same species group as beets, with different pests and family relationships. All provide leafy harvests, but they are not interchangeable in crop planning.
Start Brussels sprouts early enough for fall sizing, maintain steady moisture, and harvest from the bottom of the stalk upward.
Heading cabbage is dense and versatile. Savoy has crinkled leaves and a tender texture. Conehead forms pointed heads that often mature efficiently. Napa cabbage and bok choy are Asian brassicas with different growth and harvest habits, so they should not be treated as identical to European heading cabbage.
Cowpeas, black-eyed peas, pinkeyes, purple hulls, and many Southern peas are warm-season forms of Vigna unguiculata grown for fresh shell or dry peas.
Looseleaf lettuce is harvested leaf by leaf or as a cut-and-come-again crop. Butterhead forms soft heads. Romaine forms upright hearts. Crisphead needs a longer cool season and careful timing. Summer-crisp types bridge some of the gap between leaf and head lettuce.
Shelling peas are grown for the peas inside. Snow peas are harvested as flat edible pods. Sugar snap peas combine edible pods with plump peas. Pea shoots are harvested very young. Southern peas are cowpeas, a heat-loving bean relative, not cool-season garden peas.
A reliable herb seed source gives the correct species and variety, honest germination expectations, usable packet information, clear growing guidance, and provenance language that distinguishes documentation from story.
Lima beans need warmer soil and a longer settled season than common beans; choose bush types for earlier harvest and pole types for extended production on a trellis.
Bush beans produce on compact plants with a concentrated harvest; pole beans require a trellis and usually provide a longer picking season from vertical growth.
Cherokee Trail of Tears is a dual-purpose pole common bean included in Cherokee Nation’s contemporary Heirloom Garden and seed-bank work. Its deeper connection to forced removal is reported history rather than a fully documented chain of custody.
Jimmy Nardello is a sweet Italian frying pepper carried by the Nardello family from Ruoti, Basilicata, to Connecticut in 1887 and later brought into wider public circulation; Slow Food’s Ark of Taste documents its family and culinary history.
Sweet and Genovese basil suit pesto and broad culinary use. Thai basil brings anise-like flavor and firmer leaves. Lemon basil is citrus-forward. Purple basil adds color. Greek basil stays compact. Tulsi is a different basil group grown for aromatic and cultural uses rather than as a direct pesto substitute.
Mustard greens range from broad smooth leaves to deeply cut frills, from mild young salad leaves to strong mature cooking greens. Variety, weather, leaf age, and soil moisture all change flavor. Choose the growth habit and harvest stage that match how you plan to eat them.
Onion seed offers broad variety choice and clean starts but needs time. Sets are small dormant bulbs that establish quickly but can bolt or offer limited variety choice. Transplants balance speed and selection. Day length class must match latitude or bulbs may never size correctly.
Glass Gem is a multicolored open-pollinated flint and popcorn-type corn grown to full dry maturity. Plant it in a compact block, isolate it from other flowering corn, protect water during tasseling and silking, dry the ears thoroughly, test the grain for popping or meal, and save balanced seed from many healthy plants rather than one spectacular ear.
Scoville ranges estimate capsaicinoid heat, but variety, environment, maturity, sampling, and laboratory method all affect the number. Flavor and use should be considered alongside heat.
Cherokee Purple is a large, indeterminate, open-pollinated slicing tomato prized for dusky rose-purple fruit and rich smoky-sweet flavor. Start seed indoors 6 to 8 weeks before frost, transplant into warm soil, install heavy support, keep moisture even, and judge ripeness by overall color, aroma, and slight softness rather than waiting for the green shoulders to disappear.
Hardneck garlic generally performs best where winters are cold enough to support its growth cycle and produces edible scapes. Softneck garlic commonly stores longer and adapts well to milder regions. Elephant garlic is a leek relative, not true garlic, and has a different flavor and growth pattern.
Scoville Heat Units estimate capsaicinoid concentration, but heat varies among fruits and conditions. Use ranges to compare peppers, not as an exact promise for every pod.
Sweet peppers are selected for little or no pungency. Hot peppers vary from mild to superhot and should be compared by flavor as well as heat. Seasoning and drying peppers may have thin walls and concentrated aroma. Ornamental peppers are selected for display, but edible use still depends on correct identification and handling.
Page 2 of 3
