Can you believe it? It is definitely time to order plants because my seed starting spreadsheet needs to be filled in, and peppers will get seeded this weekend. Yes! That’s such a happy thing to think about. Please use the Contact Me button in the lower right of your screen to message me your order by Saturday, please. Here’s the list of peppers, tomatoes, and a list of other things that will be grown for this spring.
Peppers:
Ace Small plant that grows small, lobed bell peppers that go from green to red. These mature in less days than larger varieties and provide plentiful harvest.
Alma This is a sweet paprika pepper that is often smoked, dried and ground into a powder. The peppers are shaped like a small, slightly flat tomato with gorgeous colors from pale to dark orange with a reddish undertone. This is a smaller plant that would do well in a large container (18” or so).
Carmen An Italian frying pepper, but we use it instead of bell peppers because of its lower acidity. The fruits are often called bull’s horn because of the blocky shoulders that taper, and sometimes curve, to a pointed end. Carmen is a large plant that needs support and plenty of good compost, these plants outperform all the other bell-type plants that we grow.
Goddess This is a sweet banana pepper that produces big peppers and lots of them! Under conditions with some cooler nights or as the days cool in the fall, Goddess gives very colorful yellow, orange, and sometimes red peppers. This is a large plant that needs support.
Jalafuego The name implies fiery jalapeno. The plants are medium sized with large (about 4 inch) peppers all season. If you keep these plants supported and fed with good compost every other week, you will have loads of jalapenos!
King Arthur If you’re looking for big, blocky, thick-walled bell peppers, this is for you! King Arthur is a big, bushy plant that needs support and regular feeding. Because the plants and fruits are so large, it takes a little while longer to get ripe fruits, but once they get started, you’ll be rewarded for the rest of the season.
Lemon Dream If you want something pretty on your deck in a container, consider this pepper. It is small at only 18” tall but these little wonders are covered in small, yellow, tapered sweet peppers for many weeks! Snip them off the plants regularly and feed them to keep more blooms and fruits coming.
Pepperoncini This is new for us this season, and I’m looking forward to pickling some! The plants should be just about 24 inches tall and the peppers are an elongated light green that mature to red or streaked with red. There is a slight spiciness – not hot – to these peppers.
Serrano This is the answer to a hotter pepper than the Jalafuego. Unlike the jalapeno, the Serrano gives just heat. There is little to no “green vegetable” flavor associated with the Serrano. The plants are about 24-30 inches tall and loaded with slender peppers all summer long! These have thinner walls and make an excellent choice to slice lengthwise and dehydrate for grinding into a HOT pepper powder.
Tomatoes:
Determinate (D) is a plant that has a definitive set of fruit and then is generally done. Most fruits are harvested within a few weeks.
Indeterminate (I) is a plant that continues to set flowers and fruits until frost.
Amana Orange A big, orange, productive heirloom slicer. This one is a huge plant that needs plenty of support and trimming & tucking throughout the season. Amana Orange is sweet and juicy. (I)
Amish Paste This heirloom is a sauce or paste style tomato with deep red skins, meaty fruits and very little seed pouches. If you want a heavy producer of medium to large tomatoes for sauce, soup, canning or as a firm/less juicy tomato for salads, Amish Paste can do it! Again, these are large plants that require good support and assistance keeping them supported during the entire season. This is one of the last ones giving harvests each year. (I)
Big Beef Plus This has been one of our large slicers since the beginning, and the “plus” indicates that it has been bred again for great disease resistance. This plant is tall and full, producing sweet fruits with deep red skins and flesh in the 8-16 ounce range. (I)
Big Mama We’ve grown this large sauce/paste hybrid for many years and it is a heavy producer of orange-red fruits with the shape of a big lemon. For you canners, this one is meaty, flavorful, has disease resistance, and slips its skins easily. The plants are sturdy, but get weighed down with 6-10 ounce fruits, so good support is needed. (I)
Carbon Last year was our first year with this heirloom slicer, and it is making a return! The plants were healthy, full, and loaded with tomatoes, for an heirlom. The fruits are a dusky red, almost as if a dark glaze was put on a red tomato. Fruits range from 8-12 ounces and have a good firmness, yet are juicy and sweet to slightly smoky. (I)
Cherry Bomb This has been my go-to red cherry for several years because the tomatoes resist cracking, are fairly consistent in size, and when trellised and fed compost regularly, they are an amazing producer. (I)
Cipolla’s Pride Another heirloom sauce/paste tomato, but this one poduces very large fruits. The plants may produce slightly fewer fruits than Amish Paste, but they are almost always larger. This one slips the skins easily for prep and canning. These are the meatiest sauce/paste in our garden. Again, sturdy supports and training through the season are required. (I)
Defiant This plant is about 3 feet tall and slender, and makes the nicest small fruits around 6 ounces. They tolerate a little cooler spring weather allowing them to get set out early and give us tomatoes around the 4th of July. If fed and lightly pruned at the base, these will flower two or three times before finishing. (D)
Mountain Fresh Plus This has been our second slicer for several years, and the short plants give big, beautiful red slicers. With light trimming at the base and a regular feed of compost, we usually see two heavy fruit sets. Shorter, but sturdy, supports are needed as the heavy fruit production weighs down the branches. This hybrid, like the Big Beef Plus, has been bred to have good disease resistance. (D)
Mountain Magic This long vine plant produces oodles of red salad tomatoes! The plants are bushy and do need to have leaves thinned out a few times each season to help promote better flower and fruit production, but the reward is easy to see. (I)
San Marzano This heirloom is thought to be the original Roma tomato and that all others are direct descendants. San Marzano plants look like a lifesize Cousin It, with lots of leafy growth on medium to tall plants. The sauce/paste tomatoes have a small tomato of 6 ounces or less and can be slightly pear shaped or oblong (weather and time of the season can affect this). Good support and regular assistance to keep the plants tidy are important to preventing fungal issues, as heirlooms have very little disease resistance. This tomato is perfect for making soup with its deep red color and if you roast them, the flavor just gets better! (I)
Other Plants:
Basil, sweet
Basil, Purple Ruffles
Thyme
Parsley
Cilantro
Cucumber
Zucchini
Sunflower, Pacino Gold
Sunflower, Big Smile
Sunflower, Dwarf Music Box
**Others by request**