Vegetable, poor stuff, I hesitate to say (5)
I believe the answer is:
tater
'vegetable' is the definition.
(I know that tater is a type of vegetable)
'poor stuff i hesitate to say' is the wordplay.
'poor stuff' becomes 'tat' (I have seen 'Shoddy stuff' mean 'tat' so perhaps 'stuff' could also mean 'tat'. I am not sure about the 'poor' bit.).
'i hesitate to say' becomes 'er' (expression used when hesitating).
'tat'+'er'='TATER'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tater that I've seen before include "Murphy" , "Spud" , "Potato (informal)" , "found in vegetable basket" , "Champ is mostly" .)