Ithaca, New York
April 5, 2006
Julie McQuain is passionate about
vegetables. Each season she grows nearly 100 varieties in her
garden in upstate New York's Catskill Mountains. In the dozen
years she has gardened there, she has discovered which
vegetables perform best with her shallow soils and short
summers.
"It's a double challenge to find varieties that taste great and
will grow under our less-than-perfect conditions," she says.
Now,
thanks to a program in the Department of Horticulture at Cornell
University, McQuain has a new tool to help her find varieties
that will both please the palate and fill the pantry. McQuain is
one of more than 800 gardeners contributing to the Vegetable
Varieties for Gardeners website <http://vegvariety.cce.cornell.edu>,
profiling more than 4,100 varieties. Gardeners who visit the
site can rate and review their favorites, as well as pan those
that aren't worth the garden space.
"The Web site is like an Amazon.com for vegetable varieties,
only we don't sell the seeds," says Lori Bushway, a senior
extension associate in the Department of Horticulture. "Just as
avid readers visit Amazon to see what books are available and
what other readers recommend, vegetable enthusiasts can visit
our site to learn what varieties are available and what their
fellow gardeners think of them."
For example, the burgeoning variety database details more than
560 different tomatoes. Site visitors can trim the list to just
view such specific types of tomatoes as paste, cherry or
heirlooms. They can also sort lists of varieties by how quickly
they ripen, or how other gardeners rate taste, yield and how
easy they are to grow. Gardeners can also filter their results
to view only ratings by gardeners in their state or with similar
growing seasons and find links to companies that sell the seeds.
"I joined the effort because I wanted to connect with a larger
community of gardeners," says McQuain. "I've learned a lot I
want to share, and I'm anxious to learn more from other
gardeners' experiences."
That's exactly the kind of spirit of sharing Bushway wants to
foster. "We want gardeners to know that their experiences are
valuable, and that they can make a difference by contributing
what they know through our Web sites," she says.
Like scientists, most gardeners are keen observers, and many
record what they see in garden diaries.
"There are 7 million gardeners just in New York. If we can find
new ways to tap into that information, it can be a win-win
situation for both gardeners and researchers," Bushway adds.
Varieties that have been overlooked may rise to the top in
gardeners' ratings, or gardeners may discover varieties that are
particularly disease- or pest-resistant under their particular
conditions, she points out.
Meantime, McQuain is happy to have a forum to let others know
that Alma is a great paprika pepper for cool-season gardeners.
"If I'd had something like this when I first started, it would
have saved a lot of trial and error," she adds.
By
Craig Cramer,
Cornell University |