This text also appeared in our 2025 Seed Catalog.
Research and Breeding Highlights
We’ve had funding support over the years from several Producer SARE grants (focused on squash – including in 2023 and 2024), and two Organic Farming Research Foundation grants (for cucumbers). CWSG sales income has also started to fund some research. But the majority of our trialing and breeding work has still been self-funded by the participating farms. If you would like to donate to help fund some of the research discussed below please contact us at info@commonwealthseeds.com, or click the Research Donations link on our website (in the web store).
Besides our own trials, feedback from growers who use our seeds is also an important guide for our work. Please email your feedback to info@commonwealthseeds.com.
Trials and Breeding at Twin Oaks Seed Farm
This year at Twin Oaks Seed Farm, we initiated variety trials of several new crop types – including tomatoes, luffa, hot peppers, Hawaiian supersweet corn, watermelon and honeydew melon. We also continued intensive selection in several of our ongoing breeding projects.
Butternut Squash: We continued intensive selection of South Anna Butternut, tracing fruits to over 60 plants and evaluating for yields, determinacy, and (soon) keeping and eating quality. We also did a large seed crop, and in general it looks like our selection work from past years is paying off, with great eating quality, better keeping, plants that stayed healthy till frost, and improved yields. It was a very hot, dry summer, and Bakers Branch Butternut appeared a little more impacted than South Anna, though it was a less fertile field. There was still a good crop, and its stand-out keeping quality looks to be holding up. We traced fruits for it as well and will soon be evaluating eating and keeping quality. South Anna has had a lot more selection cycles than Bakers Branch, possibly making it more adaptable to different kinds of years.
Other Winter Squash and Tropical Pumpkins: We had moderate success growing seed crops of Chinese Tropical Pumpkin, Guatemalan Green Ayote and Cuban Neck Pumpkin in screen isolation cages with introduced bumble bees. The bees in some of the cages appeared less vigorous, probably leading to reduced fruit set. Also that field has limited irrigation, a problem in such a dry hot year. We’re glad to have seed harvests to sell but it would be better to have more of these varieties – we’re hopeful about getting them their own isolated fields next year (we do expect the isolation cages to continue to be useful for various breeding work and small seed growouts). The exciting part is that selection work particularly on Chinese Tropical and Guatemalan Green looks like it’s really paid off. Guatemalan Green is looking consistently green. Two 2023 self-pollinated selections of Chinese Tropical in particular looked and tasted great, and we’ll be using those exclusively for the 2025 seed crop. Lastly, we grew and self pollinated 24 VBR Kabocha plants this year and are excited with the progress. We’re offering the seed this year as a research sample – see the description on page _____ for more information.
Summer Squash: We’re excited about several kinds of Cucurbita moschata summer squash that we’ve grown the last two years. Moschata-species squash is generally immune to vine borers, resistant to plectosporium, and less attractive to many insects than the standard pepo-species summer squash. See our new offering Mini Paulista from Brazil, and research samples King Ka Ae F3 and Jin Dong Ae F3 from Korea on page _____. We’re also excited about new crosses between Mini Paulista and several of the Korean varieties.
We’ve had trouble in recent years with squash beetle (Epilachna borealis). These are yellow with black spots, closely related to bean beetle. In 2024 we experimented with trap crop plantings that we then sprayed with pyganic (an organic insecticide that we don’t generally use in production) – possibly with some success. We have noticed different levels of attractiveness between different varieties, so selection over time for tolerance appears possible. We also spend time picking the bugs and larva off of plants, and this year we realized that the large wild turkey population at our main fields is especially helpful as well.
Melons: In its fifth generation this year, the Trifecta x Edisto 47 project is looking great. Along with eating quality, yield, and disease resistance evaluation, we honed in on selecting for attractive netting this year – read more in the research sample description on page _____. We also did a June-planted honeydew melon trial and did not really find a standout that could handle the high downy mildew pressure present. However, we included a variety called Melemon from Known-You Seeds in Taiwan (thinking that it might be similar to a honeydew) and were impressed. It’s very sweet, and also tart in a way that’s unusual for melons. We may use this F1 hybrid to start a selection project.
Cucumbers: We did another year of intensive selection for both Common Wealth Pickler and South Wind Slicer, and grew sizeable seed crops of both. We individually trained over 60 plants of each variety, evaluating yields, eating quality, shape, and marketability. Super excited about both these varieties. We’re also working on a cross between Shandong Si Gua and Atrar Rainy Season, with the goal of exceptionally high downy mildew resistance. It may become its own variety, and we’ll likely also cross it to South Wind Slicer.
Tomato Trial: This year’s tomato trial was an eclectic treasure hunt for standout varieties in a few different catagories: cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, paste tomatoes, storage tomatoes, and dwarf tomatoes. Maybe it was because we were too busy to harvest as regularly as would be desired, but we really got clear we don’t have time for tomatoes that have cracking and splitting problems. With this in mind we’re discontinuing Quadro and starting to offer Roma VF Virginia Select (which we neglected to get in the trial, but we had grown and seen it grown several times, and this year’s seed crop looked great).
New standouts from the trials included:
-Summer Kiss, a lovely dwarf paste tomato from Peace Seedlings in Oregon – very productive, pretty tasty and doesn’t split
-Bellevue Cherry – for great flavor, split resistance, and long lasting vines
-We liked the Flavorino grape tomato from Oikos nursery for its sweet and rich flavor and split resistance.
-Several varieties looked promising in the storage tomato trial: Annarita, Grappoli D’Invierno, Pienollo Giallo, and Pienollo Rosso. However, to be useful these need to be planted in a later window than what we did this year. No use storing tomatoes harvested in August – so we’ll try again next year with a later seeding date.
Hot Pepper Trial: With this trial of 20 varieties we endeavored to really experiment with cooking and preservation, especially looking in a few use categories: pickling peppers, drying peppers, and chiles for roasting. It was a very hot, dry summer, and water in that field is somewhat inadequate, so we were also able to evaluate for drought tolerance. The New Mexico chiles had mixed results: in each variety some plants looked very strong and healthy but others didn’t make it. Giuzeppi Hatch was maybe the most promising, but again Joe Parker and Big Jim also had nice looking plants. We’ll be trying these out again. We really liked Charger F1, an Anaheim chile, for its flavor when roasted, its size, and its drought tolerance. We saved seeds and are excited to see what the F2 generation looks like. Both of the pepperoncini varieties we tried (Stavros and Golden Greek) grew well, with no plant losses, and they made great fermented pickles. Peppers need to have thin skin to be good for pickling, otherwise the texture isn’t right. Aji Marchant was also a good pickler. On the drying front – we dried a lot of peppers in the dehydrator and also experimented with drying them in the seed drying room as a test. The ones that did best with this slightly less ideal drying environment were Syrian Goathorn and Gernika (actually a sweet paprika pepper we threw in). We’ve really enjoyed having the homemade dried pepper flakes and are learning about the subtle flavor differences. We were also impressed with Aji Amarillo, in how they grew and produced, and in the unusual flavor of the dried pepper flakes.
Luffa Trial: We were looking for earliness, for good sponge quality, and to learn about the culinary potential. Luffa fruits can be picked young like summer squash. In China they’re popular stir fried with egg. They have nutty, sweet, and sometimes slightly bitter and smoky flavors, and also something else that’s hard to describe. Every bit as good as summer squash and similar in many ways, but also different. We found four varieties that were much earlier and somewhat more compact than the rest, offering fruits for eating starting in late July, a month earlier than the more common sponge luffa varieties. Three of these are from the USDA seed bank (originally from China and India) and we plan to grow them out separately next year to save seed. These varieties were also able to mature all the sponges before frost, although sponge quality was more variable. We liked a sponge luffa that we got from Patryk Battle of Living Web Farm, and will be growing that out in the future. A hybrid variety from Known-You seeds called Purposeful stood out for its fatter sponges, as well as good sponge quality. We’ll likely start working with that as well. The luffa plants were virtually untouched by disease or insects – a significant advantage over summer squash and other cucurbit crops.
Hawaiian Supersweet Corn Trial: Jay Bost supplied us with the seeds for this trial. He used to study with James Brewbaker, a prolific and celebrated corn breeder at the University of Hawaii whose work there spanned 60 years. Created by Brewbaker, the Hawaiian supersweets incorporate genetics from tropical field corn varieties, making them more resilient and disease resistant in hot climates, and typically taller and more vigorous than other sweet corn. We liked several of the lines we trialed and will be growing 2-3 of them separately next year to save seed.
Watermelon Trial: We trialed 18 varieties of watermelon and found out a few things, though the trial was significantly disrupted by a bear. The F2 of a Known-You Seeds variety called Sweet Beauty stood out for sweetness, showing only slight segregation. A population created by Richard Goerwitz of East Wind Community in Missouri stood out for foliage disease resistance.
Trials and Breeding at Care of the Earth Community Farm
In 2024 Megan and Lalo focused on evaluations of Lalo’s family heirloom varieties, as well as seed production, and ongoing breeding projects. Breeding projects include downy mildew resistant winter squash, disease-resistant muskmelons, a plectosporium-resistant pumpkin, and low-input, drought-resistant sweet corn.
They continued evaluations of Cucurbita pepo summer squashvarieties from Mexico and Central America for resistance to plectosporium blight and downy mildew, as well as for production in both dry and wet spells. They conducted trials of several different varieties, both in mesotunnels and in the field, and did a large comparison trial of several Tatume squash strains from Southern Texas and Northeastern Mexico (see Tatume listing on page ________).
They carried out a large comparison trial of 18 different watermelon varieties, including some breeding material and family heirlooms from Mexico. Conditions were mostly dry, except for a sustained period of rain at the end of July. Both alternaria leaf spot and downy mildew were present in the field, providing a good opportunity for comparison of resistance among the varieties planted.
They also trialed several different cucumber varieties, from seeds that they have been adapting to their farm for several seasons. The trial ran from late June through August, with good exposure to bacterial wilt, angular leaf spot, and downy mildew. Several of the varieties performed well, and they are excited about the potential of a couple of crosses that they made.
Lastly, they compared six varieties of NuMex chiles for both production and flavor, with recommendations from Nora at Laughing Springs Farm, who used to live and farm in New Mexico. NuMex Joe Parker was the standout for production. Megan and Lalo preferred Big Jim for flavor. It is spicier. NuMex Joe Parker is good for mild spiciness.
Breeding and Trials at Laughing Springs Farm
For research projects this year we continued onwards with too many maize breeding projects despite our best intentions to focus. We grew out 60+ varieties/lines, concentrated around Cateto/tropical orange flints, blue masa corns, waxy corns, and multi-color su (sugary) sweet corns. We have continued to produce Waimanalo Orange – a Cateto type started in Hawaii. Further explorations of Cateto-derived varieties already in North America, plus some accessions from the USDA, have led us down the road to developing a diverse Cateto genepool: we made crosses between the different Cateto landraces/varieties in 2023 and then crossed the crosses in 2024. We’ll see if we can’t get in another year of crosses and then release it for others to work with. We’ve continued work in sugary sweet corn based on Hawaiian Sugar, having crossed in Double Red, Aonsu, and Delectable. These will remain diverse populations, but hopefully in 2025 we can grow larger plantings, make some selections, and get some seed to share. With blue masa corns the wormhole continues – there are some lines that started in Hawaii as crosses between tropical blue aleurone landraces and disease-resistant white endosperm Hawaiian varieties. Many of these we subsequently crossed to Appalachian/Southeastern white endosperm landraces (also some blues like Cherokee White Eagle and Ohio Blue Clarage). We’ll be eating these through the winter and trying to pick some to focus on. If anyone is interested to try any blue corns, get in touch.
In squash, we have mostly been chasing the green flesh and messing around with some progeny of Tetsukabuto. We are feeling good about some stabilized good, dark green flesh color in some lines. In other lines we are continuing to work with Chinese Tropical Pumpkin and Crowning progeny and to cross them with Koginut to work towards a tropical type of manageable size.
In tomatoes, we have continued a few lines that started as crosses between GoFarm Gold (an orange cherry tomato with Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl resistance that we developed with students in Hawaii), and various Brandywine types as well as some Indigo types. Probably the most exciting is a line derived from GoFarm Gold x Indigo Pear Drop from Jim Myers. With a class at Appalachian State we ran some markers to verify that the TYLCV resistance alleles were still with it (and they are!) – we have sent some to Hawaii for a winter growout, and will work on stepping them up in 2025.
Combine Design and Research at Living Energy Farm Alexis Zeigler of Living Energy Farm built a successful prototype of his “Easy Reaper” combine this past year. We used it to harvest more than 1000 pounds of wheat in test plots at both Twin Oaks Seed Farm and Living Energy Farm. The Easy Reaper is designed for small farms – to be small, affordable, and easy to repair. It runs off one belt, is powered by a small air-cooled gas engine, and can be pulled by a small tractor or riding lawnmower. Alexis has funding help for the project from the University of Missouri, and is in dialogue with manufacturing shops in Ghana and Ethiopia about producing machines for African farmers. He is still looking for a US manufacturer. In November we planted more winter wheat for next year’s harvest. The varieties are NU East and Appalachian White, two Southeast-bred hard winter wheats that were released by the USDA in 2009. We will be looking into selling these through Common Wealth Seed Growers in the future. Read more at livingenergyfarm.