Seedlings

The seedlings above are being hardened off to set out in the garden. They are mostly tomatoes and peppers, but also include various herbs and flowers. Not pictured are 20 or so tomatoes that are already in the garden as well as some that are potted up into 1 and 2 gallon containers. I start a few in late December and continue sowing through January and February to have started plants with various maturities. I do this for several reasons. First of all, I like to have a few ready to sneak in the garden in late February, to get an early start. These will most certainly need to be protected when frost is predicted, so I don't want a lot to cover. Also, even though we are getting close to to our frost free date, some beds are still producing fall/winter veggies so I don't have room to plant everything at once. We want to have a continuous supply of fresh produce, and these new plantings will not be ready for harvest for at least 2 months. So as cabbage, Brussels sprouts, peas, potatoes, carrots, cauliflower, kale, chard and lettuce are harvested, I want plants of appropriate size to fill their spots. This will also stagger the harvest of the spring/summer crop.

I've used mostly recycled containers for these so my main cost is seed and potting soil. I always shop the feed and seed store for bulk seed first. You can buy a package of seed from them for their minimum cost of 1.00 which contains much more seed than the catalog seed packet. The varieties they offer are usually non-hybrids that are tried and true for the area. I do place a catalog order every year, but mostly for tomato and pepper seeds that the farm store does not carry. I have three or four favorites in each catagory that I grow every year, but each year I am enticed by catalog descriptions to try a few new varieties.

Here is what I'm growing this year:

Peppers

My favorite sweet bells are Early Thickset (the earliest bell but still quite large), Colossal (A large pepper with thick walls, good for stuffing) and Big Bertha (best all around sweet bell, huge, good for stuffing or roasting). The last two years I've grown banana peppers as I like them mostly in salads. Sweet Spot is a bit more productive than the generic banana, but of course the seed costs more. I always grow one or two Jalapenos for chili and salsa, and for friends that like hot peppers (true hot pepper lovers will tell you that jalapenos are not all that hot, but they are plenty hot for me). Marconi and Carmen were two frying peppers I tried for the first time last year. They were good enough to earn a few spots in this years garden. I've also planted a pepper called Golden Bell. Although not as prolific or large as others, I like its light green color which matures to a lovely yellow. New this year I bought a packet of mixed orange, red and chocolate peppers. I'm all about color.

Tomatoes

For years I mainly planted two varieties; Homestead and Celebrity. These are delicious, productive, and do well with our heat and humidity. These are determinate varieties. Tomatoes do not set fruit when daytime temps are over 90 degrees as their pollen "clumps up". As the determinates mature mostly before this happens and provides a large amount of harvest in a few weeks time, they are ideal for freezing and proccessing. Last year though, I planted several indeterminate tomatoes, Better Boy, Goliath and Whopper and had tomatoes for a month after the bush tomatoes were done. I've learned that to flick the tomato blossoms with my fingers will help pollinate when the temps and humidity are too high to do this naturally. I always grow one cherry tomato (not our favorite for flavor, but very prolific) and several paste tomatoes. In addition to the above tomatoes, new this year, I'm trying Jet Star and Rutgers, Opalaka (paste tomato) and Giant Valentine (supposed to be very meaty). I've also started Legend (blight resistant) and Solar Set (developed to set under hot and humid conditions).

I'll post a flavor and productivity report in July.