Pacific Northwest crop variety reviews · 2026.
The Pacific Northwest splits into two agricultural worlds: maritime west of the Cascades (vegetables, grass seed, hops) and semi-arid Palouse east of the Cascades (soft white wheat, lentils, dryland canola). Variety choice differs dramatically between the two zones.
Maritime west of the Cascades; semi-arid east of the Cascades. Soft white wheat dominates the Palouse; specialty crops dominate west-side valleys.
Strong performers in Pacific Northwest
- Russet BurbankExcellentPotatoesUniversity Trial Data
Russet Burbank is the dominant processing potato variety in the Pacific Northwest — Idaho and eastern Washington production is built around Russet Burbank for french fry processing. Long established performance under PNW irrigation systems and storage protocols.
- TomatoesCommunity Reports
Early Girl is the widely-recommended early-season slicer for the Pacific Northwest's short-summer environment — 50–60 day maturity gets ripe fruit from transplants set in late May / early June, before the typical PNW summer ends. Dry-farmed Early Girl has a cult following on the West Coast for concentrated flavor.
Pacific Northwest variety trial programs
Land-grant universities serving Pacific Northwest publish annual variety trial reports. These are the gold standard for variety performance data — independent, replicated, peer-reviewed methodology.
- Washington State Cereals Variety Testingsmallgrains.wsu.edu ↗
- Oregon State Extensionextension.oregonstate.edu ↗