Part of my grow plan every year includes trialing new variety selections. The source of these selections may be my own crosses or crosses from other breeders. I am a grower in the southeastern U.S. Our climate in the summer is typically very hot and humid with abundant rainfall. My success with a variety can be much different when compared to a grower in another region, due to differences in both climate and disease pressure.

When evaluating a new variety, I like to create a set of controls. First, I will grow the variety in both the ground as well as in a grow bag. I always grow a percentage of my crop in grow bags, so this is a factor for me. I think it is important to trial new dwarf varieties in grow bags because many folks are drawn to the dwarf varieties for the purpose of container growing. From a control perspective, container growing in a soilless media eliminates the factor of soil-borne diseases whereas in-ground planting allows the evaluation of soil-borne diseases like verticillium and fusarium. These diseases are prominent in my soil.

Another control that I evaluate is water. For plantings in the ground, I like to use both a water-permeable mulch as well as a waterproof mulch (plastic). I also use grow bags as a water control. The grow bags require daily watering during the summer. This allows me to test the propensity of cracking as well as the flavor profile from a “heavy” water cycle.

Pollination is another control that I implement. My climate has a prolonged period of high humidity. This presents challenges with pollination that folks in a drier region do not experience. I grow all plants on a trellis system. I have a process where twice a day I will walk each row and vigorously shake the plants. I will leave other plants alone. I also will use a pollinating wand on yet another set of plants. This gives me 3 different points of data to evaluate fruit set for a given variety.

For certain varieties, I will choose to prune a plant and leave another plant unpruned. Some growers cage their plants and thus probably do not prune. Other growers use a trellis system and may choose to prune their plants. These controls serve to provide feedback that is critical to my growing conditions. The evaluation of these controls is another topic.