Species and Varieties

Pennsylvania lends itself very well to growing vegetable crops such as tomatoes and potatoes, but there is a wealth of other suitable crops you can grow commercially. Use Penn State Extension’s extensive resources and learn about choosing species and varieties of vegetable crops, including lettuce, onions, broccoli, cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, squash, potatoes, beans, corn, garlic, peppers, eggplant, and pumpkin.

How to Choose What Vegetables to Plant

There are a number of factors you must take into account when selecting what vegetables to plant. Key factors for you to consider include site selection, water supply and quality, crop and variety selection, and market opportunities. Market opportunity is perhaps the most important as most vegetable crops are highly perishable and there must be a market for your produce before you plant your crops.

In Pennsylvania, the conditions are right for growing both warm and cool-season crops as well as a number of specialty vegetables such as bitter melons, ginger, globe artichoke, novelty winter squash, specialty peppers, and watercress.

The Mid-Atlantic Commercial Vegetable Production Recommendations provide growers with information to help them make managerial decisions on general production, soil and nutrient management, irrigation management, and pesticide safety and management, as well as choosing what vegetables to plant. The most popular vegetable crops include:

• Potatoes: You can market potatoes through various outlets such as farm stands, farmers’ markets, and other local retail outlets. There is also a substantial wholesale market in the Mid-Atlantic region.
• Tomatoes: There are many different varieties of tomato including grape, saladette, cherry, or paste. Choose to produce a mixture of tomatoes and you expand your market as there are both niche and more substantial markets.
• Cucumbers: Cucumber production is suitable for growers with less than 5 acres as there are multiple markets to take advantage of. They harvest cucumbers in the United States primarily for picking and fresh marketing.
• Pumpkins: This is another crop that is well-suited to small-scale and part-time farming operations. Marketing opportunities include retail, pick-your-own, and wholesale.
• Onions: You can also produce onions on a small-scale. Fresh-market onions are available in the northeastern United States from the beginning of July until the end of October. Marketing options include roadside stands, local retailers, cooperatives, and wholesale markets.
• Garlic: This can be an excellent crop to include if you’re looking to diversify your operation. You can sell them by the braid or rope, by the pound, and at farmers’ markets by the individual bulb.
• Sweet corn: Sweet corn acreage in Pennsylvania has declined in recent years, but nationally, the crop is worth $750-850 million per year. Sweet corn grown in Pennsylvania is usually available from early July to the end of September and is traditionally sold from open bulk containers or by the dozen in paper or cellophane bags.
• Broccoli: Broccoli produced in the northeastern United States is usually available from June through October. Marketing alternatives include produce auctions, cooperatives, roadside stands, local retailers, and wholesale marketing.
• Snap beans: Snap bean cultivars recommended for Pennsylvania include Gator Green, Podsquad, Mustang, Golden Rod, and Goldkist.
• Peppers: Several hundred seed varieties of both sweet and hot peppers are available to choose from. They sell most as fresh produce from the first of June until the end of October.
• Asparagus: This perennial crop lends itself well to small-scale and part-time farming operations. You can sell it wholesale, at produce auctions, cooperatives, roadside stands, and local retailers as well as pick-your-own operations.
• Watermelon: You can sell watermelons wholesale, from a roadside stand or as part of a pick-your-own operation.
• Cantaloupe: There are multiple markets for growers of cantaloupe melons. The alternatives include pick-your-own operations, roadside stands, cooperatives, wholesale markets, and local retailers.
• Edible greens: Edible greens include different types of lettuce and other greens, such as chard and kale.

Selecting Vegetable Seeds and Varieties

Penn State Extension has been working with many different growers in order to determine the best seeds and varieties to grow in Pennsylvania. They perform a number of trials and conduct research to determine the best crops for Pennsylvania. For example, they evaluated muskmelon varieties in 2018 and 2019 to see how well they performed compared to the standard ‘Aphrodite’. Most varieties produced marketable yields that were much the same.

Potato cultivars recommended for Pennsylvania are based on several years of ongoing research. It’s not always possible to plant short day sweet Spanish onions in Pennsylvania unless planted between March 15 and April 1. Recommended onion varieties include Chianti and Pinot Rouge. In 2013, a high tunnel trellised cucumber variety trial highlighted several varieties that were suitable for this system of production.

High tunnel trials have also been used to evaluate a wide variety of tomatoes grown in tunnels. Trials include cherry and grape tomato varieties. They performed trials with 25 broccoli cultivars in 2014 to determine which are best suited for Pennsylvania.

In this section, find more information and resources on types of vegetables, choosing seed varieties, and more.