Produce Profile: It's time to sew those seeds!

Alright, Produce Profilers -- after last we met, you ran out andprepped some ground for a spring planting extravaganza "... correct?

Now you are all set to put some goodies in the ground. The firststep is to decide how much you want to start off with seeds and howmuch to go with mini-plants, aka transplants.

A general rule is that you go with transplants when you want tosave time between seed to harvest days. The best veggies to startout with transplants are naturally those that mosey along until theythrow off fruit. These include tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, bellpeppers, corn and melons.

For everything else you can go with seeds. It is early enough inthe spring season to plant anything and get a good crop. Thisincludes all greens and lettuces, radishes, spinach, beets, carrotsand so on. Let me pass something along that I learned long ago. Donot plant in rows like the seed packs say. Instead, use the "square-foot method." Plant in one-by-one or one-by-two etc. squares. Thissaves lots of space in a small garden, and it makes for easiergarden management.

Now for the goods. When it comes to carrots, nothing compares tothe nantes (non-tay) variety. This carrot (or nantes types) is notthe type that you will find either displayed loose or even in two-or five-pound bags at the retail level. Here's why.

The nantes variety of carrot is too brittle and has too weak atop to be machine-picked, plain and simple. That is why you want toput them in your own back 40.

To get the most bang for my real estate buck I plant lots of polebeans, as opposed to bush beans. My favorite is an old-fashionedItalian bean called the romano. It is "beanier" in flavor and verycreamy. Slap me silly, but this bean is DEE-licious when it isovercooked! Another fairly standard bean is a bush-variety, yellowwax bean. This is good to home-grow because it dries quickly at theretail level and also has a tendency to "rust," meaning it getsbrown spots.

What about tomatoes? ANY variety that you grow will be betterthan most you'll find in the stores. That being said, try to stickwith old, "heirloom" varieties. These tend to be larger fruits, witha longer transplant to harvest time. But the wait is well worth it.

Any "black" variety is tasty. Black crimson, Cherokee purple andblack prince (smaller size) will give you full flavor.

The brandywine line comes in pink, red, yellow and even black --very flavorful fruits but a bit tricky to grow in milder climates.

For foolproof cherry tomatoes, go with the Sweet 100 or sungold.If those don't tickle your tomato fancy there are plenty of othercherry tomatoes that do well around these parts. They are alsoeasier to grow because of their smaller size.

Now where do you get all of these goodies? Right about now anyhardware store, local nursery, mega-plant outlet and maybe even a 7-Eleven or two sells seeds and/or transplants. Poke about, ask orcall around.

The Internet is a great source for seeds. You can shop gardenseed catalogs and order online if you choose. But many specialtynurseries carry old, heirloom-type seeds and/or transplants, so callaround.

Now get GROWING!

Contact Guido the Gardener, aka Mark Ferro, in care of theAlameda Journal, 1516 Oak St., Alameda 94501.