Kid in a candy store..... need advice on tomatoes and peppers

15 years ago

I decided a couple of years ago that it really is better if I buy plants rather than try to start seeds. So.... I just go the heads up email from my favorite local tomato and pepper source. Yes, they sell other stuff too, but I usually focus on the unusual tomatoes and peppers.

I am looking for 4 - 5 tomatoes

1 - yellow (prefer yellow grape, will consider others)

1 - cherry (probably Sun Gold since that has gotten so much praise in the past)

1 - good red slicer

1 - odd color (purple or green ideally)

1 - any other you think would be a must have

And I am looking for 3 - 4 peppers

1 - small very hot for stir fry, etc

2 - jalapeno types (ideally to use as is and smoke the red ones)

1 - any other you think would be a must have

So given my preferences above.... what should I target from the list?

Thanks

Alexa

Here is a link that might be useful: Chile Pepper Plants

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Comments (20)

lpinkmountain
15 years ago
Italian paste tomatoes!! They are awesome for canning!
malna
15 years ago
I didn't have time to look through their entire offering, but here's our "must have" plants (we grow our own from seed):

1 - yellow (prefer yellow grape, will consider others) Personally not fond of grape tomatoes (don't like the tough skin, but we've grown Ildi which is prolific)
1 - cherry (probably Sun Gold since that has gotten so much praise in the past) We grow Black Cherry. Actually, we start and sell about 15 extra plants for the folks in the neighborhood that adore them.
1 - good red slicer Our standard is Aker's West Virginia. Love it and highly recommend it.
1 - odd color (purple or green ideally) We've grown Cherokee Purple. Fabulous tasting tomato, but not much production. Might have been a marginal year though. A great orange beefsteak is Kellogg's Breakfast. My favorite tomato of all time.
1 - any other you think would be a must have For a paste tomato good enough to eat off the vine, try Opalka. Another must have in our garden.

Hope this helps.
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Glad to have you here, Tracy! You don't have to just wait - that's why you get annuals and pots. View this year as a prep year that will make the remainder of your gardening years in this house more successful and rewarding. One other thing you can do this summer besides annuals & pots is to work on improving your soil. Once we are well into summer and you know what you have (& you may want an experienced gardener to walk around your garden with you to help figure out what are weeds and what are plants worth keeping) you can plant a cover crop to turn in come fall or start working in compost (does your town have a composting program where you can pick up finished compost free or cheap?) or even just top dressing with compost. I really think that the best thing you can do to have a successful garden is to start with good soil, and that's always easier before you plant, amending whole beds with organic matter rather than just adding it to planting holes which tends to restrict root growth. If you can't get compost, look up lasagna gardening or sheet composting. Any organic matter added will be to the good, particularly in your sandy soil. Watching your garden for a season while planting temporary plants (that's where annuals and pots come in) will help you get a feel for light levels, moisture levels (are there areas that stay damp to gooey all year or other areas that are powder dry in high summer?) while giving you time to decide what you want from a garden as others have suggested along with knowing a bit about how you will use the yard. Where will the BBQ be? Do you want a patio in sun or shade? Do you need a play space for kids? Do your pets have favorite places to run, sleep or dump? (Not good places for plants!) Where do folks take short cuts around the yard (don't try to plant there or else give them stepping stones to cross the garden.) Around here early fall is the best time to plant since warm soil and cooler air coupled with regular rain make it easier for the plants to settle in. You can spend your summer like KPaquette, visiting other gardens and deciding on plants and styles you like. (Take a camera and a notebook so that if photos are allowed you can have records of plants you like, & be sure to take good notes &/or make sketches to keep track of ideas and plant names.) Another good source of ideas is your local public library and book stores, as they often have great eye candy that will get your creative juices flowing. Finally, there are frequently sales in the fall, so you'll get more bang for your buck as long as the plants are healthy. Some ideas for this year's dappling - Coleus comes with red or green or yellow leaves (usually some combination) and likes shady areas. Outdoors, it makes a great pot plant that you can then cut back before the first frost and keep it all winter as a sunny window sill plant. There are many Salvias that may or may not be hardy for you (but aren't for me) like Salvia guaranitica 'Black and Blue' which grows well in a large pot and attracts humming birds. Scarlet runner beans are an annual vine that will twine up a trellis or strings. They have screaming red flowers that the hummers love and you can eat the beans as green beans if picked young or harvest the mature pods for dried beans. Nicotiana in a self-seeding annual that has red, pink, white, or chartreuse flowers with heavenly late afternoon and night-time scent.
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Several things jumped out at me in your follow-up post. Just seems that either it is small seedling or 3 ft plant get transplanted I still harvest the same time as everybody else. That sounds like a nutrient issue and nothing can stunt a plant faster than transplanting a 3' plant. Some unconventional practice? No unconventional practice but usually it is some conventional practice being missed. For example, are these all being grown for production in containers? Not real clear from your post. If so then what soil mix is in the containers? That is the most common cause of problems in container growing. Growing in containers is a totally different ballgame than in-ground growing so have you done any reading on the Container Gardening forum here? Great info on mixes, feeding, tips and techniques, etc. As far as pot growing. I grew peppers, but they need lots and lots of fertilizer in container. Not even sure if I should been eating it that much fertilizer. Yes they do, any container plant does since it leaches out every time you water. One reason why liquid ferts works so much better than granular ones do. But which specific fertilizer are you using? How much and how often? And no, you are not "eating it" anyway. Tomato in containers... I used about 80 gal pots with 2-3 tomato in each. Real potential problems there. To begin with I tried mix in bone meal and blood meal into compost, but it didn't seemed to help. No they won't. Both are slow acting and unless there is an active soil microweb in the container - which would be unusual - they aren't useable by the plants. Using organics in a container is a whole other set of issues. Then I started with tomato fertilizer. Then they started growing. And still very little, usually quite small tomato even on beefsteak varieties. Timing of the application as discussed in the thread I linked above is crucial. What type of fertilizer? After first batch of peppers harvested plants slowly started dying - leaves and blossoms just started falling off. Usually caused by over-watering issues that leads to root rot. Especially common if soil (dirt) is in the containers. In your first post you said I do have greenhouse and tried to grow those thing in pots, but that way they produce small quantities of fruit lots of leafs and usually ends up dying before summers end. As others have mentioned you have the ideal set up then for growing a good tomato crop in that protected environment. Even I can do it down here in my greenhouse with much greater heat problems. So if it isn't working in yours then, assuming good environmental controls and adequate sun exposure, the cause isn't that they are in the greenhouse, its in the methodology - the container mix being used or the nutrient methods being used. More details please on those. Especially nutrients and timing of applications since you mention "lots of leafs and small fruit". ...
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noinwi
15 years ago
You definitely need a black tomato. Black Krim is excellent, although it tends to get concentric cracking, it has wonderful flavor. And I second Black Cherry.

Guajillo is a good medium heat pepper that dries well for powder, as is Georgia Flame and Espelette, although I didn't see those two on their list.

A sweet 'cheese' type of pepper is also nice to have. I'd roast, peel and freeze for a little bit of heaven during the winter. Wonderful on pizza, chopped in omelets, etc.

You can never have too many Jals...I'd go for the largest pod...Billy Biker is popular.
My two cents.
loagiehoagie
15 years ago
I started to look through that website and holy cow....they have a huge offering! It's really hard to narrow down from that list...they have many I love and a lot I have not grown. Not to mention year to year weather conditions and individual growing conditions combined with individual taste perceptions makes it incredibible tough to whittle down that huge list.

What I can tell you is Sungold is wonderful. It's more like candy than a tomato, seriously. I'm not that big on Black Cherry but many people love it and request it from me yearly. Cherokee Purple is great but as Malna mentioned not very good on production. I don't care though...it's a must have in my garden every year.

My favorite 'other' color is Aunt Gerties Gold. Very similar to Yellow Brandywine but better taste IMHO.

Brandywine Sudduth is well know as a big pink beefsteak, but if they offer Earl's Faux that would be my pick because it has the same great taste but much higher production.

For a baseball sized red 'Sioux' is my fave.

One more week and I will be starting tomato's from seed. Can't wait!!!!

Duane
ci_lantro
15 years ago
Momotaro is a great tomato. Medium size. Dark pink/ almost red. Would use it in the slicer category. Good production, too.

Opalka is a good paste tomato. Good production on that one, too.

First time growing them last year. Successful here in Central Wisconsin.
Teresa_MN
15 years ago
I've been growing Sungolds for 10 years. I always try one or two other cherrys each year, but nothing is as good as a Sungold. They are sweet with a wine aftertaste.

I had to chuckle at Malna's comments about Cherokee Purple. CP must perform diferrently for people. I had three plants last year and I consider them invasive! The tomatoes were so huge and heavy that they bent my heavy duty cages. After bending the cages the vines travelled another 10-12 feet. Not even the Sunshine (winter) squash bent the cage! My Cherokee's were well over 2 lbs each. I gave a ton to the foodshelf. The flavor is excellent - but I won't be growing them again!
loagiehoagie
15 years ago
Teresa, you didn't happen to save seeds from those CP did you!?? If not, I sure wish you did. I never heard of CP getting that big (plant AND fruit size!). You would be famous in the tomato world! Could call it something like "Teresa's Minnesota Cherokee Purple Massive Monster Gargantuan"!!

Duane
dcarch7 d c f l a s h 7 @ y a h o o . c o m
15 years ago
"Posted by dukerdawg ---I never heard of CP getting that big (plant AND fruit size!). You would be famous in the tomato world! Could call it something like "Teresa's Minnesota Cherokee Purple Massive Monster Gargantuan"!!
Duane "

But Duane you don't understand. Teresa is of part Native American heritage. It is possible that Cherokee Purple can be that amazing in her yard. LOL!

You never know. I had a Black Cherry last year with fruits size of golf balls. Remember also the problem of Black Cheery seeds from Baker Creek?

All good suggestions from all so far. Just want to add Carmelo and Momotaro for consideration. Both very sweet, productive and reliable in zone6 to zone 7 area.

For show, try Ananas Noire. The most beautiful multi-colored tomato.

And BTW, I have friends who has done business with Cross Country, a very reliable company.

dcarch

Here is a link that might be useful:
cloudy_christine
15 years ago
Alexa, that place looks great! What a selection! I may have to drive there.... although paying for shipping would probably be cheaper.
annie1992
15 years ago
I also love Sun Gold, first ones I had were from seeds given to me by Cindy, for which I will be eternally grateful. Now they are a standard in my garden.

Having a short growing season, I find that some tomatoes just take too long for me to get a really good crop, so I stick with a few old standards and always try one or two new types.

In spite of my Native American heritage, I find that Cherokee Purple don't do all that well for me. The plants are tall and the tomatoes are a good size, but they are not particularly prolific, I get 5 or 6 nice tomatoes from a plant and then frost hits. They also seem to be more prone to blossom end rot than some other types, but they do have a nice flavor and they look good on a plate of mixed slices. I guess they must not grow so well for northern Potowattomi as they do for other tribes, LOL.

I do like Taxi a lot, it's a yellow tomato, I got my first seeds from Ann T. A second choice for yellow tomatoes, if you don't mind hybrids, is Lemon Boy. For canning I plant Rutgers or Bonny Best, I get a big crop at once with either of those, perfect for canning and both have nice flavor.

I'm also a huge fan of Mortgage Lifter, one of the best tasting tomatoes I've ever grown and last year I planted Big Rainbow and liked it a lot.

This year I'll be having knee surgery in June, and so any gardening will be in my backyard here in town in raised beds. What will get precious space? Definitely SunGold, a couple of Rutgers, Taxi/Lemon Boy (which ever I can get), and one each of Mortgage Lifter and Big Rainbow. My "new" tomato is still undetermined, but I'm leaning toward White Wonder.

I don't have any "favorite" hot peppers, other than I always plant habaneros for Gold. I can get jalapenos and cayenne inexpensively at Magic Land, so I'm going to depend on them this year and help support a local family farm.

Annie
loagiehoagie
15 years ago
Annie, skip White Wonder.....not very good tasting IMO. Taxi is a so-so and Lemon Boy not bad but kind of bland too. For a really nice yellow tomato and very early for a beefsteak size consider Azoychka. One of the earliest and very good tasting for a big yellow. Let me know if you would like to try it. I am starting my seeds next weekend and can send you a couple of plants if you are interested.

Duane
annie1992
15 years ago
Duane, I'd love to try it, but how the heck are you going to get tomato plants to me intact?

Too bad about White Wonder. I did Tigerella last year too, very intersting, very pretty, very good flavor. Very small. LOL

Annie
dcarch7 d c f l a s h 7 @ y a h o o . c o m
15 years ago
Annie, I agree with all Duane said.

If you like white, try Great White or White Queen. Actually there is no such thing as white. They are all pale yellow.

I am curious about the Sungold seeds that were sent to you. I don't think you can save Sungold seeds.

dcarch
caliloo
Original Author
15 years ago
Thansk for all the info and advice, I will print it and take it with me when we go up. Yes, it is only 45 min from my house, so I take my 83 year old neighbor up and we shop for tomato plants together, then go for lunch (she likes a stiff cocktail with hers) and do a little antiquing and hit some other nurseries on the way home. It is an annual tradition for us.

I have always had good luck with the plants I have gotten from them, but I am always looking for suggestions since, as Duane pointed out, they have an enormous selection. Of course, I will be buying a few hot peppers too, so if anyone wants to make suggestions on those, I would love it.

Thanks again everyone - you are all a wealth of knowledge!

Alexa
annie1992
15 years ago
dcarch, I know that SunGold is a hybrid and so saving seeds is an "iffy" proposition. But I got seeds and grew some and they were good. My memory may be failing me, but Cindy either sent me the seeds or told me about them and someone else sent them, because I thought "this is never going to work". Not wanting to push my luck, I decided to buy plants after that and couldn't get any, I ended up with Sun Sugar, which are very similar. So now I buy whatever plants I can, and sometimes I can't get either. I get plants from my local 4H and I never know exactly what they are going to have. Sometimes I buy some that are tagged one thing and then I'm surprised, it's something else entirely, LOL, but that's only when the really little kids are tagging plants.

Annie
loagiehoagie
15 years ago
Hey Annie, I have sent plants via mail a few times and they arrived fine. It takes some creative packing but it can be done. I would be so happy to send you Azoychka plants around mid-May if that sounds okay to you. No rush, just send me the address you want the plants sent to my email addy: Dukerdawg@aol.com

Duane
KatieC
15 years ago
Wow...I got lost in the pepper section.

We have a short season with cold nights, so my experiments are limited to early varieties. Favorites have been Black Krim and Green Zebra. I've grown SunGold and SunSugar the last two years. Both yummy, but we think we liked SunSugar better (lost the tags last year). This year I'm re-trying an open pollinated variety that I grew years ago called Gold Nugget.

For peppers, we really like Jimmy Nardello's Sweet Frying Peppers (Nardello on your site). Can't help with hot peppers. I grow some early jals, Hungarian wax and Holy Mole (mine don't look like the ones on that site...they look more like poblanos). For real heat we drive an hour to the u-pick, where the climate's warmer.
bunnyman
15 years ago
Tomatoes... I just grow a few different types. What does good one year seems to fail the next. With variety I seem to get a couple hits from the season. I don't work real hard at gardening.

Peppers! I have jalpeno, cayenne, and habeneras growing in my kitchen. I make pets out of them and even for some emotional attachment to them. They live for years and put out peppers all year long. The cayenne have been the best at that and the habeneras mostly duds in the winter. It does look like my habenera is about to put out a batch of peppers... it flowered and now I've got baby pepper bumps where the flowers were. I still have lots of habenera peppers from the summer crop which was huge.

Last week I started a half dozen jalapeno, cayenne, habenera, and some new red habeneras. If they all sprout I don't know what I'll do with 24 hot pepper plants... some in pots and some for the outdoor garden. Mostly I want the new habeneras. I have a yellow habenera with very good flavor but not the one I'm looking for. My cayenne is from my own seed so that should be a known flavor profile... great in lentils and black beans. Peppers take 2-3 weeks just to sprout but after that are tough little plants. Much better luck growing from seed after building a sprouting table with a 4' shop light.... easy room enough for 70 seeds to sprout and grow a few inches tall. I've even started saving seeds so my garden gets plants from a gene pool that has done well with my particular conditions.

A couple nice things from potting and keeping hot pepper houseplants. I get fresh peppers all year long... they hang on the plant edible for a month without spoiling. When I do pick a couple I know exactly how they taste... jalapenos best in chili or nachos, cayenne best in beans or lentils, habeneras to lots of heat to chili. My cats would add that jalapeno leaves are delish and habeneras make fun cat toys to pick and bat around... after the Red Savina cultivar they don't bite the habeneras while playing with them anymore. Red Savinas are not much to cook with... 5 times hotter then most habeneras but they did not have a flavor that did much for me... interesting promise as a deer repellent when dried and ground (pity the deer that gives it a sniff).

: )
lyra
caliloo
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks Katie and Lyra - I will definitely put Nardello's on my list and at least 1 habanero for Gold and for chili. Great suggestions. And that is interesting that you keep them as house plants in the winter - I may give that a try this year. Thnaks for the suggestions!

Alexa
spacific
15 years ago
If I'm not too late, my favorite pepper, not for heat but for taste, is the Shishito. The flavor is awesome, more sweet than hot, but occasionally you get a really hot one which makes it interesting. Just grill a batch and eat them as is, or saute in a bit of peanut oil and a drop or too of soy sauce.

Here is a link that might be useful: A good explanation of Shishto peppers

Kid in a candy store..... need advice on tomatoes and peppers

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