I have a special project and am in need of some knowledge from the many experts here on GardenWeb.

I am developing a gardening-related website which will provide some very interesting and useful functionality. One component of the website will be a searchable database of heirloom varieties and commercial cultivars for all types of vegetables, herbs, and other edible and medicinal plants.

My intention is to provide a FREE ready and easily-accessible reference for all known varieties and cultivars. Users will also be able to compare varieties or seek varieties that meet selected criteria (e.g. hardiness zone, days to maturity, disease resistance, fruit size, etc.)

I need your help to find, collect, and catalog all of this information so I can get it loaded into a database. I already have partial information on about 10,000 commercial cultivars of vegetables and herbs. My information on heirloom varieties is a bit more "spotty."

I would like to ask for your help in collecting and cataloging this information. I can accept information in many different ways. Email messages, text files, and excel spreadsheets all work great. Links to websites are also helpful but less so. (I am currently in the process of painstakingly working my way through the websites of many seed companies for varieties and descriptions.) Depending on the feedback I receive, I would even be amenable to posting a working database via a website and providing access for selected experts to enter and edit entries.

Mostly, I just want to make a great resource for people to use.

Some of the specific data elements I would like to collect for each variety include:

- Variety Name
- Other Names (Aliases)
- Vegetable Type (e.g. Tomato)
- Description
- Hardiness
- Fruit size
- Fruit color
- Flavor profile (description of flavor characteristics)
- Distinguishing characteristics (as from other varieties)
- Starting method (sow indoors + transplant, direct sow, etc.)
- Days to germination
- Days to maturity
- Yield (compared to other varieties)
- Disease resistance
- Special planting/growing instructions
- Origin
- Year introduced
- Parent varieties (if a known cross)
- Historical information
- Countries found
- *** Photos ***
- Sources

...etc.

I am very appreciative for any guidance or assistance you can offer in collecting and categorizing information on these heirloom varieties. Thank you in advance!