Well, I've got 10" of snow this morning and still coming down.....after our 60 degrees for a week. At least it is good wet moisture and won't have to water the yard/trees/bushes.

Ah - tricks for sweet peppers - they like a slightly acidic soil, and since things are generally on the alkaline side around here, any additions to modify the pH towards acidic helps. I use compost, peat, and in the past, soil acidifier (granulated sulfuric acid). 2) - Start plants early, like mine are now sprouting. I then use a good sized 4" by 4" by 6" deep pot for the seedlings, so by the first week of June, I have plants that are well-rooted and a foot high, many are flowering.

3) Leave the peppers on a lot longer, once they get to the right size. It seems they get big, then the walls get thick. Even still, they start to ripen before the tomatoes.

4) warm soil - containers go a lot faster than in the ground.

Re the NewMex Joe Parker, its the standard, "medium-heat" green roasting chili.

Re snow, I spoke yesterday with a couple who live about 700 feet higher than I do, their home is on the north side of a mountain, and they still have 3' of snow on the ground. They shovel / snow blow a 1/4 mile driveway - no tractor.

They were of strong opinion upon hearing about this coming weekend storms.

Well, Steve, I can't really critique anything I'm growing this year, because every single one of them is new to me this year. Last year, I bought one tomato plant, don't even remember which one, and did not get ANY ripe tomatoes before the first frost, or peppers either. Since I was mainly growing the peppers for paprika, it worked out okay, since I was able to get them to ripen and dry by hanging them in the garage. Most of my tomato selections were decided by the reviews on last years tomato threads, and a little lurking on the tomato forum lately. I'm kind of with you Skybird, thinking that I'm missing out by not trying the Black Cherry Tomato this year. There's always next year though. As many different varieties of tomatoes that are out there, I think you could try new ones every year, and never run out of things to try.

David, thanks for the tips on growing peppers, I did notice that the ones in containers last year, seemed to put on growth faster than the ones in the garden, so I may do more of them that way this year. Oh, and Steve you don't have to worry about me mixing my 'Fooled You' Jalapenos with the real thing, since I'm not growing anything hot. I need to get my pepper seeds going soon.

I'm not growing any honeydews, but I am going to try canteloupes on my trellis this year, instead of the pumpkins I did last time. I've been saving mesh bags from my produce over the winter to use as slings for the canteloupes. I've heard of people using pantyhose, but I'm not a pantyhose kind of gal, LOL!

It has been snowing here all morning, but the temps have been just above the freezing mark, so it's only sticking on the grass and roofs, and not the road so far.

Happy almost spring!
Bonnie

Congrats on declaring your snow history!! I was ready to do that too...until I saw the weather forcast for the rest of the weekend. Snow and/or rain for the next five days...it's just not fair, I tell ya! I guess I can't really complain, since we've had a fairly dry, warm winter (relatively speaking), but I got a taste of spring with weather in the 50's & 60's lately, and I'm not ready to go backwards now! *sigh*

I can't critique anyone's list...this is only my second year growing veggies, and last year we just grew the heirloom tomatoes my mom started, and some mixed bell peppers - neither of which ripened before August. Hence my starting early this year. I'll have to post my seed list later when I'm at home to look at what I planted, maybe someone can critique it for me...I do know I have too many plants started for the space I have available... :-)

Digit, I'm not a big pepper person, but I bought 2 plants last year at the local garden society sale. I'm pretty darn sure they were Cal Wonders. My bad for not writing it down somewhere! Anyway, we got several peppers off of them. Not sure when the first harvest was though. And we did have a late first frost. This year's diary will be much more detailed!

I might as well mention it here as anywhere, I would highly recommend to everyone the Asian Melons, in particular Sakata Sweet or Golden Sweet. Seeds are available through the usuall suspect companies - I got mine from Johnny's.

They form a baseball sized melon, with a taste like nothing I've ever had melon-wise. Sweet, a bit tangy. Last year was the big break through, when I read somewhere that instead of trying to peel the things, which is a pain given they're so small, just wash them carefully and dice them up, and eat the paper-thin, tasteless rind. Ah-HA!!

They also sell something called Tiger melon, which I'd suggest to skip - pretty to look at, but tastes like a honeydew or something.

Hey all. I am getting ready to go plant my 'maters and peppers. I just thought I would share that I plan on trying Jaune Canari Melon along with the usual suspects. I figure I am down here near Rocky Ford - home of the melonheads, I may as well give it a shot. I will post my list on the other thread for Steve and David to critique. I just have to put it all together.

Billie

I start my peppers the last week in January and have transplanted them up last week and will repot to bigger pots again in April. They will be planted in the hoop house in June. The ones I have this year are Early Japapenos, Big Bertha, Big Early, Big Chili and Gurney's Giants. I have grown others but these do well for me. I will start tomatoes next week. But I can't make up my mind which ones. I had 40 varieties last year and then I was given several others and then I got 25 to try from a friend in PA that I have not grown before. So which ones do I grow? If I try for more than the 80 tomato plants my husband says he will leave. So, do I cross off some or tell him goodbye? I have grown black cherries for 3 years and they are a good tasting tomato but they are late. They are 2 -3 weeks behind SunGold at least but are a little larger. I really like Black Russian and Cherokee Purple but was not impressed by Black Plum and Black Krim. I grow mostly heirlooms but you can't beat SunGold or Big Beef for production and taste. I grow Gold Nugget and Kotlas for the earliest tomatoes. They are small but have flavor and will take cold nights.

Emagineer, I'm sorry ol' man Winter hasn't let go of your corner of the World. I just saw the news and there were live pictures of a very stormy Colorado Springs. Stormy here too but whatever snow is falling is balanced by an equal or greater amount of rain.

It seems strange to have Jamie say that Kalispell has had "a fairly dry, warm winter (relatively speaking)." Kalispell is about 200 miles from here, uphill. Coeur d'Alene has had a record snow fall this Winter but I'll go along with the "warm (relatively speaking)." I wonder what Margaret in Hamilton thinks of Montana farther north escaping so much of the snow.

David, I really should have gone back and found the names of your Asian melons after learning that you'd been able to ripen them after frost. Your report in September didn't look very promising so I immediately forgot the names. Sooooo, I ordered something called "Sweet Honda" from Evergreen . . . . Hope they do okay (despite the name). They have that odd look of an Asian melon. Funny how the look of something evokes smell, taste . . . memories.

Rocky Ford certainly evokes memories. So does Hearts of Gold and after 30+ years, I've found that one can still get the seed. I'm afraid to try 'em and subject the fond memories to stark reality.

digitS'

Margaret - Men come and go, but a good tomatoe is forever. No, I guess that is carrots, right? Anyway, I can relate to that. I have plants for the garden all over the laundry room now and the flats I just planted are sitting on the stove warming up. I don't have a greenhouse, so when I plant the 25 different varieties of tomatoes I wanted this year, where am I supposed to hide them? My garden is not done yet. I am still building. I also have probably about 15-20 varieties of pepper I wanted to plant.
Right now I am looking at the garden that is not yet finished and thinking that if I was to fence in the other side of the driveway to the barn, I could plant corn, beans and squash there and free up some space in the garden... I have 40 acres, do you think he would notice if the hoses were going over the hill? Maybe if I till the pond...
Ok, reality check.
So much to do, so little time.

Billie

Shows you how long it takes me to write something . . .

What!? You aren't complaining about Kalispell? I'll just say one more thing . . . I still haven't seen anything like a 60 degree day . . . shucks.

d'S'

I picked the Big Jim because it seemed to be a T&T pepper with a relatively short DTM that would be good dried, roasted and especially in salsa. The Niki was on Digit's recommendation.

I'm not growing anything I've grown before either. I did grow a cherokee purple last year, but didn't get to try any of the fruit because it was in a bad location - only got 3 fruits; 2 got BER and the squirrel got the other one.

Most of my picks were based on shorter DTMs and the descriptions - both in the catalogs and on the harvest and tomato forums. I generally figure out what I want to grow, the browse the catalogs, stopping at "ooh..pretty" or "ooh...yummy" then see how long they say the DTM is. I started with 11 different tomato varieties and 11 different peppers, then narrowed them down to 5 maters and 6 peppers.

Well, gee, Steve, I'm certainly not gonna be a thread drift cop if the other thread goes off in its own direction. :D

*chirp* *chirp* (a couple gratuitous chirps thrown in for good measure)

I was just so impressed how early the Bloody Butcher set fruit -- before the Fourth of July -- late June even! Nice tasting tomato that gives until frost. So its taste gets eclipsed by the later season beefsteaks, that's ok, its still a darn fine mater.

Thess is just a little production monster with good flavored fruit. Got my seeds from a sweet Greek who nearly cried at the pics after the hailstorm until he saw it bouncing back with tough vigor.

While the first few Black Prince tomatoes did not impress me, as the season progressed, I came to really like this tomato. It has a nice complex flavor but not overwhelmingly sweet or tart.

I'm anxious to taste the Yellow Submarine. My mentor got the seeds from Ireland a few years ago and a lot of people are growing it this year. They say this is a yellow pear with real flavor to it, not just cute and mealy. :)

NuMex varieties? I like Big Jim, but I really found my favorite with Joe E. Parker. Last year I grew Aji Colorado and really liked it too. Now when I get moved to a longer growing season, I can add a pepper for a little touch of here -- Aji Limon. :D

Can you imagine getting seeds from the source? (There was this little garden in Thessaloniki and the lady handed me a tomato over the fence . . . :o)

A gardener traveling to Crete asked a question on the veggie forum about what he should look for there. This whole idea is something that puts my interests in climate and gardening together (really, really over the garden fence ;o).

I've got a couple places marked on my Google Earth - one is the "opposite side of the Earth" - darn close to Antarctica in the middle of the deep blue sea!! That won't work . . . but the opposite side of the Earth in the Northern Hemisphere at this latitude is in Central Asia. I wonder what they're growing in Turkmenistan . . ?

Anyway, the climate maps make some of eastern Europe and western Asia look like the Rocky Mountain Gardening region. And, even in those Mediterranean gardens, early-maturing varieties should work here!!

d'S'

With talk like that, Digit, youÂd love to spend a few days with Panayoti Kelaidis (yeah, thatÂs Greek!) from DBG! He travels all over the world to collect and research new plants than might do well here in the intermountain west, and then he tests them out at Denver Botanic Gardens to see which work well, and if they do, he introduces them and promotes themÂoften as one of the PlantSelect plants. ItÂs almost unbelievable how much he knows about perennialsÂand other stuff, IÂm sure. Below is a link to one of his treksÂbut not to the other side of the worldÂbut, well, to the bottom of it!

Here are a couple other links about himÂdonÂt have time to live link them!

http://www.botanicgardens.org/pageinpage/resourcepanel.cfm

http://www.bbg.org/gar2/topics/plants/handbooks/cacti/hardycacti.html

Here is a link that might be useful: Expedition to Chile

Skybird, I enjoyed reading about Mr. Kelaidis' expedition in Chile (never thought about where calceolaria comes from - aren't they cute?).

Seems to me that they should have titled it "Expedition to Chili and Argentina." I was just reading about the area of northern Patagonia and the province of Chubut. The name comes from the Indian name for the river which is pretty much "the Clearwater."

If the expedition had crossed into Argentina and turned south instead of north, they would have entered Chubut. This is the place you read about in the National Geographic where the Atlantic penguins are on one side and Andean mountains and glaciers are on the other and a part of Patagonia with lots of petrified forests and fossil beds is in between. In Chubut live Welsh immigrants and many of the towns have Welsh names.

I've never been there but the photo's (here are some) remind me of Oregon on into Glacier, Tetons, and Yellowstone. Reminds me of that except everything is upside down and backwards - if you know what I mean.

digitS' scratching his head

Today I received 'Canary Bell' Pepper and 'Golden Marconi' in a trade, and I noticed that the Marconi has a DTM of 80 - 90 days. Anyone had any luck getting these to ripen before the first frost?

Skybird, I may just break down and order the Black Cherry and Snow White Cherry from TGS. If I do, would you like me to send you a few of the Black Cherry? It's partly your fault I'm growing tomatoes this year anyway, LOL! You told me I had to have a LEAST one tomato plant to call it a veggie garden, and now I can't seem to stop my tomato seed acquisition, even though I don't have anywhere to put them all.

Bonnie

Bonnie, I gotta jump back and critique Snow Whites.

I thought they were just fine and something special when they started to ripen a few years ago. Then something went wrong. All of the fruit (& I mean all) developed brown blotches on the blossom end. They didn't develop a canker, however so I tasted the healthier end of one of 'em - terrible! All the good flavor from earlier was lost.

I assumed that this was blossom end rot and even mentioned it on the tomato forum where I was told by some that cherries couldn't have BER. So I searched the literature and, sure enuf, even tho' Snow White had only been trialled a few times by the universities - 1 or 2 reported BER.

You may miss this problem and it doesn't happen often in my garden with other varieties but Snow White would be too much of a risk for me.

Steve's digits

I haven't grown the Golden Marconi, Bonnie. The Red Marconi is a new one for me this year. It said 75 days on the seed packet, I'm pretty sure.

The Giant Marconi is NOT supposed to be a true Marconi. I think it is Totally Tomatoes that tells us this. I harvest most of them green and they just start to turn red in the garden before frost. These Giant Marconi peppers will fully ripen hanging in the kitchen.

The "regular" Marconi has never ripened beyond green in my garden but I still grow it.

d'S'

Just a quick correction - I'm in Billings (south-central Montana) not Kalispell. Kalispell is way north & west of where I am, down in the "plains" area of Montana! :-)

Hmmm, how in heavens did I get the idea you are in Kalispell? Gosh, and to think that I sometimes talk about places that aren't just a few miles away . . .

Sorry, Jamie.

Steve (digit)

Jumping in a little late in the thread, but the mention of Greece and getting tomatoes from the source reminds me of a vacation a friend and I took a few years ago to Crete. We stayed in this little, family run apartment complex. They had a nice pool and bar, where every afternoon that that we were there (we spent one day touring, one day relaxing, and so on) we would either have ice cream, or a Greek salad. Or maybe both.

Anyway, when we'd order the salad, the lady owner would go out into her garden and pick tomatoes and cucumbers for it. They were the best salads ever I have to tell you. Sigh.

Alice