What is Calliope like? Any of the peppers early? I am always dissappointed because I have to leave town just when most of my vegies are ready to harvest-- around Sept. 8th. I would like to find reliable tomatoes, peppers, etc. for CO that are early varieties. My neighbors get all the benefits of my summer work!

Peppers:
California Wonder - standard, thickwalled green stuffer
Sweet Pimento Lipstick, to see if I can make pimentos
Corno di Toro Giallo, Italian roaster
Aji Dulce, to dice up in Peanut Butter sandwiches, thats the 'haberno w/o the heat'.
Thai red pepper, that skinny, hot one.

Eggplant,
Applegreen,
Listada de Gandia (purple and white striped)
Ping Tung, long skinny Asian kind
Koyo Guma, an African variety that, I'm betting, is going to be slightly bitter, and if smoked and roasted, is going to make some outstanding Babaganouche.

A note on germinating eggplant, a heat mat and dome worked wonders. Leave the seeds on top the soil.

I love egg plant, and I don't know how many meals I had last year with just brushing them with olive oil and heating in a skillet, or on the grill. Then I discovered that Babaganouche freezes and thaws very well. I must have 60 seedlings started, but there is no way I'll plant out that many. I've also heard, and will try this year, that container growing will double the production as the soil heats up quicker. I'll let you all know.

Terry, the smaller the pepper the sooner they mature in my garden. You may not be interested in HOT but that seems to go with small, also. So, it's Thai Hot then Super Chili.

Ah yes, Shelley, the family Solanaceae (I had to check on peppers since they spend so much time out on the town ;o).

No potatoes . . . shucks . . .

Eggplant -
Kurume (purple)*
Shoya (purple)*
Roleks (green)*
Green Beauty (green)*
Thai Long Green (uh, green)*
Dusky (dependable Italian)
AppleGreen (favorite, thanks David, but do you see what you did to my thinking on green eggplants!)
*all new Asians

Peppers -
Garden Salsa (one of the best producers)
Super Chili (hot little devils)
Thai Hot (this one will do it to you if any will!)
Early Jalapeno
Jalapa (something new but I'm afraid we've already mixed up the plants with the other Jalapeno - did that once with "Fooled You," a near critical mistake)

Cubanelle (not a favorite)
Giant Marconi (favorite)
Marconi
Big Chile 2 (another good producer)

Peto Wonder
Whopper (the best bell I've grown but I must admit to not thinking of Peto as a bell)

Steve

Keystone Giant
Orange Sun
Giant Aconcagua
Napolean Sweet
Kapya
Jingle Bells
Albino
Rocotillo
Sweet Banana
Cubanelle
Frigatello
Spicy Puerto Rican
Georgia Flame
Beaver Dam
and a bunch others I can't remember right now. I may have gone a little overboard for a smallish back yard garden(see my tomato list).

I lucked out a couple of years ago and stumbled on a SASE seed offer on the hot pepper forum.

Tyff

What no eggplant, Tyff? Now that I see Cubanelle I'd better explain my negative comment about it not being my favorite - just by comparison to the other 2 Italian Sweets that I grow.

And, I came across a new-to-me pepper seed source (they've got other things but peppers predominate). (The link is below) I was looking for a picture of Giant Aconcagua. How does this one turn out? Early? Productive? Tasty? With a name like that, it must like Colorado.

Aji Dulce must be like "Fooled You" - I just CANNOT grow 2 peppers that look alike but one lights you up and the other is sweet!! I've grown Corno di Toro before (extremely productive) but not the Giallo. Shelley, your Italian Roaster is the skinny one, right?

Steve

Here is a link that might be useful: Redwood City Seed

Wonderful lists everyone! I enjoy seeing what varieties everyone is growing.

Yes, Steve, the Italian Roaster is the skinny one. Mild but with a little spice. My friend had a GA that went nuts producing last year, that's why I had to try it. Nice pepper for chopping and freezing.

Tyff, that's a great list of peppers! Keep us posted on them!

Steve, it was you and David that convinced me to try to grow eggplant this year. :) Starting with a small hybrid to get the feel of the plant's need. Terry, I don't know anything about Calliope other than I got it in a good deal from Thompson and Morgan and it is a hybrid and early season. I'm anxious to hear Steve's assessment of the green eggplant in the fall.

Shelley

Steve, I grew Whopper two summers ago, and I agree, they were really impressive. Among my gardening neighbors, when we get some huge specimen of a vegetable, we'll take it over and casually put it on their kitchen counter, saying something like "Thought you might need some green peppers. These are some of my culls". I got a lot of milage and smiles out of the Whoppers.

All those Asian eggplants sound so good.

I'd take some of your sub-culls, David. I have to admit to being, generally, unable to grow large sized anything in the veggie garden, it is just too exposed. The more sheltered gardens are reserved for flowers and salad veggies.

What I gain with the Whoppers is the chance to have bell peppers of a reasonable size - it's worked. The Peto is actually larger but not really bell-shaped. I grew Tyff's Keystone Giants one year or 2 (they did fairly well as a reasonable sized bell). The largest I've had were Super Heavyweights but often there was only 1 fruit/plant - HUGE. Last year, not a single seed came up . . .

And, the Roleks green eggplants aren't coming up this year . . . They were sent out with the others too quickly to the greenhouse. Once I realized that the eggplants were "stuck," I brought them back in for a couple of days to a warmer location on top the fridge. More of everything popped up except for the Roleks. Haven't seen a single sprout after about 10 days, now. (But, what the heck kind of name is "Roleks" anyway? Who names these things? My appetite for dinner isn't stimulated by the name of a Swiss watch. Excuse me, I'm choking on my Roleks; ak gak . . . thuk!)

To contrast . . . Calliope, such a joyful name and pretty in pictures. (T & M always adds extra days to maturity for the heat-lovers.) Shelley, I think you've made an appetizingly good choice.

Steve

Has anyone experimented with jalapeno's? A few years in a row I had really hot ones and then not as hot. I wondered if the temps and stress from drying out intensified the heat, or if it was just the fact that they were from different batches of seed. I am not doing a lot for peppers this year as I want to try and get the new garden built. We have Jingle Bells up and the other seeds are waiting for open flats.
My favorite dish is just to fry peppers and onions. I could actually live off them, Maybe !!

B

This is only my second time starting peppers from seed. Last time I grew two varieties. I made a major mistake of not labeling each individual cell. I made a map, and one day without thinking I moved the outside ones to the middle and etc. I tried to guess which ones I moved and which ones I rotated, but I won't be saving seeds to share, maybe just some seeds for myself of varieties that are outstanding. I'll be able to recognize some of them, but there are several varieties that are new to me, and that don't have any info about them that I can find online. Needless to say, when I planted my tomatoes I labeled each individual cell!

Tyff

For now my vegetable garden is limited to containers, although I am hoping to create a small veggie/herb patch (30 - 40 sq ft) this weekend if the weather cooperates. I chose Park Seed's 'Redskin' and 'Mohawk' since they are listed as being compact enough for containers. They also sent me some 'Jackpot' seeds for free. Has anyone tried any of these? I am fairly new to growing peppers, but I am concerned that our season may be too short to get a harvest. The two I ordered say 80 DTM, and I don't have any info on the 'Jackpot'. Since I don't have the indoor light/heat mat set-up, they are in mini-greenhouses on the patio (see picture).

This technique works great (see Wintersowing Forum), the only thing is peppers won't germinate until it warms up outside, so they will be a little behind plants that are started indoors. Spinach and lettuce germinated for me in March, one week after sowing and I just planted them out yesterday.

Highalttransplant, those Redskins are sure attractive in Park's newsletter. I haven't tried peppers in containers that I can remember but the picture makes them look like they'd fit in anyone's garden. Park's Whopper works well for me but they are described as a little earlier. Reimer's has Jackpot as an 85 day pepper. They're little guys, too (see link below). I think 85 days would be a little too long here but with containers, you do have the option of putting them in a warm, protected corner with lots of sun.

Looks like there's a real commitment to Winter sowing in your picture. We had a discussion with regards to Winter sowing that lasted up until October last year. Seems like I was thinking that it could work for RMG because of the frequency of sunny Winter days but that very low Winter temperatures wouldn't help.

I was assured by others that they use the technique and have been successful. An idea I had to try herb seed for WS, I suppose, dropped into the "I forgot" bin. Must admit that I don't see a whole lot of personal need for it since I've got the greenhouse. But, if it works - - it works, and could be of real help to a whole lot of gardeners.

Steve

Here is a link that might be useful: Jackpot @ Reimer's

re jalapeños, I don't know of anyone around here who has successfully grown them in the garden. In containers, yes, but not outside, I think it just takes too long in the growing season available.

Steve, if I had room for a greenhouse, or even a good sized cold frame, I probably wouldn't have tried it either. We have a small yard and three children, and no place inside for the indoor growing set-up, so this method allows me to grow things from seed that I would have otherwise had to buy transplants for, so I am saving a good bit of money this way. Plus, these plants are tough, since they have been hardened off from the very beginning, and I get the pleasure of growing from seed.

I don't know what the differences in our areas are, but we can grow jalapenos here---they aren't quite as big as the ones in the store, and seem hotter. You also might consider over-wintering a late maturing pepper indoors. My neighbor is doing that with a Rocoto plant that didn't produce fruit last summer. I've heard peppers often do better in their second year. My peppers did great last year with that heat wave that we had, my tomatoes not quite as good. I use black plastic as mulch and the peppers seem to really like it.

We'll have to post pictures of our peppers as the season progresses.

Tyff

david52- I had Jalapenos for 4 of July in 1999, I think I would have to check records. I remember it being the 4th though cuz we always did a big BBQ and my sister-in-law's husband at the time grabbed on off the plant, I warned him, but he said nothing was too hot then he bit into it. Best I can describe it is any of the cartoons where the face turns red and steam comes out of their ears. I thought he was going to dive into the stock tank. That is why my question. We made all the jalapenos that year into stuffers and drown them in ranch dressing. My kids were little then and I could not add them to chili or anything for fear that it would be too hot for them.

highalt- love the greenhouses. Maybe I should do that as my laundry room ia a jungle of starts. I just have to wonder if the dogs would leave them alone. Do you bring them in for the night or just leave them out?

B

Billie, I leave them out. Some of them have been out there since early February, some I just did last weekend. They started germinating at the beginning of March. Last night it was extremely windy, even for here, and when I got up it was only 18 degrees! The forecast said it was only going down to 30, so I didn't do anything to protect the sprouts. A couple of Columbine seedlings have leaves that turned black, but everything else looks unfazed. They are predicting snow for tomorrow night here, and I may bring the sprouts into the unheated garage if it drops into the twenties. The jugs that haven't sprouted yet, I will leave outside, they will be fine.

I go with russet and red seed potatoes from the San Louis Valley. Family does not like yukon Gold.

Eggplnt none.

Pepper seeds from Burrells of different varietys to test here at 7800 feet and with less than 12 hours direct sun.

Grow Pueblo Chili, Espanol Chili, and Jalapenos. These 3 I buy seedlings from Pueblo area.

Highalttransplant, I am also attempting Redskins and something I am hoping is similar to Mohawk from Parks that was labeled as "Fruit Basket." I grow in containers every year and I have been disappointed in the low numbers from the larger peppers (bells, anchos, etc.). You will have to let me know how yours work out. I started mine indoors.

I am doing:
Eggplant: Rosa Bianca (striped, small and round) and the Bride (long, skinny and striped).

Bell Peppers: Redskin, Fruit Basket, and Golden Summer (yellow)

Hot Peppers: Lemon Drop, Ancho/Poblano, and Serrano

I normally grow more hot peppers, but we tend not to use them much and I needed the space for other things.

highalt, your ws setup looks terrific. I've thought of trying it but never have, may have to give it a shot with a few things next year.

I have less problems with hot peppers than the bells, kinda like Lindy Loo describes. That's why I went with a really short season variety like Fat 'N Sassy. Hopefully it will mature properly.

dave1949, well, you have the choice pickin's there in potatoes if they come from the San Luis Valley! They grow good taters there! Your peppers sound terrific too!

Wonderful lists everyone with such variety and diversity!

I decided to bring this thread up again so that others can express themselves as we get a little nearer the time to transplant. And, so I can make some confessions.

Had to spray the peppers in the greenhouse to kill the darn aphids . . .

I put in a 50 row of potatoes - something I havenÂt done in the last 5 years or so. ItÂs the cheapness "thing" with regards to the spuds  not that I donÂt like growing them. Finding a passel of tubers is one of the special thrills of gardening. One never really knows what will turn up.

The last time I grew potatoes, I had some unusual fingerlings the name of which I can no longer remember. They grew real well but I only had a few plants and ended up giving away almost all of the potatoes. That left me with enuf for one meal  the lesson is grow more than you will give away. Otherwise, you may not get a craving for them the following year.

This season, we bought Yukon Gold and Kennebecs - nothing unusual but nice to have, nonetheless. A neighbor bought a big bag of Red LaSoda seed potatoes. She claimed that they were over $3/pound at a local garden center so she felt compelled to buy a big bag when she found it at a lower price. Turns out the Red LaSoda were the same price as the YG and Kennebecs that I bought out of the bins beside them, about 60 cents. (The neighborÂs confusion on the matter should serve me well this Fall when I volunteer to dig a few of her overabundant reds. ;o)

Finally - - the seed for the AppleGreen eggplants that I had anticipated growing this year didnÂt arrive on time for me to start for 2007. No fault of Fedco from whom I bought the seed. I just agonized too long as to what else I could purchase with the AGÂs so that my order was late. Territorial didnÂt carry the variety this year and that put me off balance. The good news (I hope) is that the Asian long green eggplants finally germinated in sufficient numbers and weÂve got a lot of these to try in place of the AGÂs this year. Hopefully, they will come close to being as nice. And, as I say, weÂve got the AppleGreen seed for 2008.

DigitSÂ

I have 3 flats of 18 - 4"x4"x 5" deep pots with eggplant. I just filled 12 - 5 gallon pots with a mix of old potting soil, compost, and dried pond bottom, and I'll try to plant some in containers this week. I dunno what I'm going to do with all the rest of them, I may end up planting them in my garlic bed, which is going gang-busters this year with the earlier warm temps. the garlic plants are all over a foot high, about ready to shoot up the stalk, and thats a full month early.

I know I'm off, but every time I see this thread, I think, "Wow! That's a lot of peppers. The most I've planted is 5. But 2007, more power to you."

Are there any reports on how these various peppers, eggplants and taters did?
David52- How did your experiment with container grown eggplant go? Id love to hear the results!
My hubby makes a yummy Eggplant Parmigiana and my nine year old has already claimed the eggplant growing responsibilities for next season.
Id love to hear how all your crops did.

Eggplant in containers it the way to go. I had a dozen plants in containers, another dozen in the garden. Got at least 4 X the fruit from the container ones, and a month earlier.

Problems - Its hard to keep them wet enough, particularly in Aug when the plants are huge, its hot, and they're busy producing fruit. They have to be watered daily. If the plants dry out, the fruit gets bitter. If you can keep it moist, they are unbelievably mild and sweet.

What I'll do differently next year, I'll try to modify the soil mix so it hold water better, perhaps see if I can rig up a holding basin at the bottom. I'd like to use larger, 20 gal pots if I can find them. Thats a hit - miss deal; at Walmart in the spring, some years they'll have these huge plastic pots for $5.00, and some years they don't. A dozen containers gives more eggplant than I could eat, and I froze about 3 gallons of babajanouche.

I won't grow Listada de Gandia again - maybe 4 or 5 decent fruit on each plant for the season, compared to 20 on the Apple green. I did like the Asian ones for variety, and they seem sweeter.

Okay, Azura,

Eggplant - Kurume & Shoya were both much better tasting Asian long purples than the Yasakanaga that I grew in 2006.

Thai Long Green was the best of the long greens and very, very productive. I have now decided that I prefer the taste of green eggplants. The whites have been good too but I never had very large or very many fruit on the whites.

Dusky eggplant was just as dependable as always as an Italian bell.

Peppers - I never was able to sort out the Early Jalapeño from the Jalapa after mixing up the seed. That was odd because I thought that the Jalapa was a more refined jalapeño. Actually, the plants and fruit were really good so maybe they were all Jalapa.

Had a good pepper year all around and every variety performed a little better than expected. Won't grow Cubanelle again, tho'. There are too many of that type that are better.

The spuds did fine. I want to grow more in 2008 Â more new potatoes, more keepers. IÂve got a question over in the veggie forum about how I might do that in a 2 crop schedule.

digitS'

The Calliope Eggplant was terrific, Steve. Very prolific plants and tasty. Great small-fruited variety. Grew them in containers and they did dandy.

Favorite pepper had to be Giant Aconcagua. What a wonderfully sweet non-bell pepper. Gonna have several plants of these next year. Fat 'N Sassy did better than most bells I've tried, but I'm just gonna give up on bells. Loved NuMex Joe E. Parker for a medium heat pepper.

Yukon Gold taters did great, as usual. Grown in a big lined laundry basket.

Jaliranchr, I'm curious about your Yukon Golds... can you describe the "laundry basket" thing? How did you keep the sun from greening them? Also did you grow these from seed, or tubers? Thanks!

I didn't grow any eggplants or potatoes this year, no one in my family eats eggplants, and I don't have room for potatoes.

Peppers I grew from seed this year: Mohawk, Redskin, and Jackpot. The first batch I planted out were done in by cutworms or something, so the second batch I grew in containers and they are still in a container which I haved moved to the garage. The peppers are STILL green since they got such a late start. I misplaced the labels I made, so I don't really know which ones are which in the container anymore. I also purchased transplants of a couple different bells, and a Paprika pepper, which I had to harvest while they were still green due to frost. I hung them in the garage, where they are finally turning an orangish red, but now they are wrinkley, and I'm not sure if I should still use them. Basically, it was NOT a good pepper year for me.

With a new year, there is renewed hope though. I've already bought seed for next year - Alma Paprika, Fooled You Jalapeno, and King of the North.

Bonnie

Alice, I just line a big 2 bushel laundry basket with cardboard, drill drainage holes in the bottom, fill it with compost, and plant a YG tuber. Then I pile more soil and compost on the top as the plant grows and edge it with more cardboard. It sounds goofy, but it works quite well! I love laundry baskets for container veggie gardening, they are cheap and usually last two or three seasons - sometimes more. Line them with cardboard and dump in your soil. {{gwi:1195787}} in lined 1 bushel laundry baskets.

Bonnie, if they are wrinkley, let them continue drying and grind them up into a pepper powder, I did that with a lot of mine.

I haven't grown potatoes now for 4 years, the last time I planted 5 lbs of seed and harvested 3 lbs of big ones - just too much disease issues. I might try that laundry basket approach, I really only want a dozen lbs or so for new potato salads in the summer.

I used to grow Yukon Gold, but around here, people prefer something called 'Pontiac', or 'Pontiac Red" which is a red potato, great for boiling, and has a remarkably good flavor. Certainly would recommend it for a try.

Wow Jaliranchr, that is very cool! I'm thinking about what a space hog the potatoes were in the garden this year, so I think I may try the same. Do you tie the vines up on those poles?

David, I bought an unnamed red potato from the nursery here. I wasn't too excited about it, as I wanted a white potato, but I have to say we were thrilled with the taste and texture.

I almost forgot, when I received my order from Diane's, she included a packet of 'Buran' peppers for free. Don't know anything about them, but the price was right.

I grew a nice brown-skinned fingerling spud a few years ago and can't remember its name. Something like that bothers me so much that I try to forget the whole thing. Actually, I gave a neighbor most of the tubers (think there were only 4 plants) after he said something about not being able to enjoy anything from the garden. (Could have mentioned the view but I didn't.) I didn't even get a thank you. It was the time before that - that the gophers got the entire spud crop. The 2007 Yukon Golds and and Kennebecs helped me move on.

Anyway, the fingerling had something to do with the Monterrey Peninsula in my mind. Since I was born there, I didn't think I could forget . . .

Jali, how would you classify the Giant Aconcagua? Doesn't seem likely that they would be considered a sweet Italian (even tho' Cubanella, Aruba, and this new-to-me Havana - are). My Anaheim is Big Chili and I'm fairly happy with that but always interested in trying something new. So, what's a Giant Aconcagua?

digitS'

I'm making notes on potatoes to try. :) Thanks all. :)

Alice, I just used a sturdy dowel in the potato baskets. Worked fine.

Steve, GA would prolly fall in the category with the sweet Italians. It is BIG - about 10-12 inches long and about 2-3 inches across. Saw it described as "sweet as an apple" and that's darn close. It is just wonderful cooked or grilled or raw in salads. My two plants were very productive with these BIG boys, but I wanted more! So more plants next year. :)

Okay, so Columbus took all those South American peppers back to Italy . . . or something! It's wonderful to find plants that WANT to grow in our gardens, Shelley - especially if they are delicious as well! Maybe they'd want to grow in my garden.

I found the fingerling! It's more yellow than brown.

They were Amandine potatoes. The name looked like Almaden to me. Almaden is south of Los Gatos but not to be confused with Amandine which is a way to prepare trout. And, I've never understood why it isn't written Almandine since it is made with aLmonds. Anywaaay, Amandine potatoes were available at the garden center a couple years ago but I haven't seen them since.

The WSU site has links to all sorts of spud info. It looks like it's for the farmer but they seem to be doing this for gardeners.

Want to try Caribe in 'o8 because of their reputed earliness. After I've got a few hatfuls of new potatoes in early July, I intend to replant some of the Caribe and grow storage potatoes to harvest in the Autumn. I may be dissuaded from this adventure but I think it might work if this variety (or another) has the ability to grow during the heat of Summer. Two crops, maybe on the same ground!

digitS'

Here is a link that might be useful: WSU - huge list of potatoes