Time to order Garden Seeds!! post your favorites

[Rojellio Es Caliente]

Its time to get seeds. Here are some of my favorites.

Voyager an Hierloom I prefer to call "Smart Tomato" It looks like a cluster of brains. Multiple cherry type tomato's all bunched together in one conjoined fruit. Each individual "clove" peels apart separately, making it a good stand alone appetizer... kinda like having a handful of cherry tomato's cept its not as easy to drop them.



Sausage Tomato, an Hierloom that looks like Anehiem Peppers. It is a paste tomato. there are a dozen or so different strains of Sausage Tomato.



Peter Pepper, or Scotsman Pepper.... referring to the song with the blue ribbon attached to a drunk Scotsman. Click only if you dare to look. http://www.rojellio.com/peterpepper.jpg This type of Pepper is a novelty, being the most unique looking pepper. It is medium hot, or very hot depending on your taste. Most often this one is powdered. If you eat one fresh.. dont post a youtube video. Some folks pickle them, as a novelty with two small onions.

One of my favorite Seed Companies. J.L. Hudson old Timey Seedsman http://www.jlhudsonseeds.net/ A public access seed bank. They now have Bhut Jolokia !!!!! If you would like to grow your own Tobacco... they have several types of Burly {cigarette tobacco} and Cigar Tobacco. Havana Filler, and Jumbo Stalk Black Mammoth wrapper {shade grown} they also have Giberillic Acid a seed propogation treatment for hard to germinate seeds. This guy doesnt believe in the internet... so you are luck its even possible to order online. But it is possible.

Banana Tree http://www.banana-tree.com/ Guess what kind of trees they have The same 6ft dwarf Banana the Chiquita grows. Also Coffee, tea, Black Pepper vine, Passion Fruit vine, Vanilla Orchids, Cinnamon Tree, and every other exotic you can imagine.

If you cant find it at Banana Tree or J.L. Hudson you probably shouldnt be growing it.

Fertilizers and Stuff. Hydroponic Supply stores are cropping up everywhere. They do actually sell fertilizers and whatnot of interest to gardeners who are not growing "Plastic Tomatoes". Bird & Bat Guano for example. THE best organic high nitrogen fertilizer available to Earthlings. Many garden centers do not carry the good stuff.

Heirloom Tomato's I happen to prefer heirlooms. Superior Flavor. Ugly as homemade sin, and probably not RED in color like those red things at the Grocery Store. If your New to heirlooms try a Black one, and Brandy Wine. . Brandy wine is the tomato that will PROVE Tomato's are a FRUIT. We all know this from an academic standpoint.... but our taste buds dont believe the rumor until you try a Brandy Wine Tomato. You can tell the kids its the same fruit that Hawaiian Punch is made from..... and the kids will might even believe it, after eating a slice.

Heirlooms are that good. Having had a bad experience with Tomato's when I was 5... I ate ALL the tomato's.. until one day I got a rotten one. For about 30 years, people would "preach to the devil" going on about how good tomato's are. When I grew my own Heirlooms, I changed my mind. I like Tomato's now.
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[txluke]

I gave up growing a garden at my house. I just can't keep the deer away. I might put up a high fence next year and try again.

[Rojellio Es Caliente]

[jeepdad]

Just got my Burpee catalog last week!!!!

--jeepdad

[Teleking]

[wyrman]

I have four variety of tomatoes, Big Sun Scotch Bonnets, Caribbean Reds,
Jalepenos, and some kind of salsa chilie. The tomatoes are about three inches tall and the chilies are in various stages, but everything is up and doing well.

[feldon30]

Did I mention my main love other than BBQ is Tomatoes?

I've grown heirloom tomatoes for 4 years now and experimented with a lot of different varieties. I grow ~35 plants a year and have grown about 40 different varieties.

I buy some plants from Home Depot or local nurseries but most of my plants I start from seeds. I grow very few "perfectly red round tomatoes".

My tomatoes aren't always pretty, but I think this is what tomatoes are supposed to look like:


My favorite pink beefsteak varieties:

• Brandywine
  
• Earl's Faux
  
• Stump of the World
  
• Gregori's Altai

Both of the above are over 1 LB.

My favorite red variety is Jet Star.

My favorite black/purple varieties:

• Cherokee Purple
  
• JD's Special C-Tex

Purple varieties taste kind of smokey or like they have been drizzled with balsamic vinegar. I just love em.

My favorite cherries:

• Sungold F1 (yellow cherry)
  
• Black Cherry
  
• Sweet Quartz F1 (pink cherry)

If you want to see pictures of my gardening adventures:
http://www.feldoncentral.com/garden/photos/v/memberphotos/morgan/Best/

And I run a website http://www.SETTFest.com/ which has writeups on how to grow tomatoes in Texas and we have a tomato tasting in June between Houston and Austin. Yes, I'm gonna fly back there just to help put it on. But I won't be bringing any toms...

[Rojellio Es Caliente]

Nice Spread Feldon30!! Those are exactly what Tomato's look like.

One variety I forgot to recommend.. maybe Feldon can help ID the variety.. It was a Green Tomato, just slighty larger than a Roma... It tastes dang near like a Granny Smith Apple. It indetermined to about 5ft tall.
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[feldon30]

Thanks! I have a lot of fun with it. I've definitely got the tomato bug. I try to grow ones that you don't even need any bread, mayo, salt or pepper. Just slice it and eat it. I hope some day to get my BBQ to that level.

I don't grow *all* heirlooms, about 95%. You can see the 3 varieties I listed above which are F1, so they're hybrids you have to buy the seed when you run out, can't save 'em. Fortunately tomato seeds are good for about 7 years if stored indoors in dry conditions.


This tomato you are talking about... Does it have stripes? If so, I'm thinking it could be Green Zebra which everyone calls an heirloom but it was actually bred by Tom Wagner in the 80's.

But there are thousands of tomato varieties and people are crossing tomato varieties all the time so it's really hard to be sure. Some day they'll invent a cheap at-home plant genetics kit and then we can figure out all the duplicates there are out there.

You mention indeterminates. Most of my plants get 6-8 feet tall.

[feldon30]

A friend told me it might be Green Sausage:
http://www.seedsavers.org/Details.aspx?itemNo=1316

I've never grown it.

[Rojellio Es Caliente]

Feldon the "Granny Smith" Tomato was Green Zebra.

The tomato's I had in hanging buckets were from seed... and I knew what they were. The ones in the ground were all from a Nursery. Our Wiener Dog Oscar pulled all the tags, so I didn't know which one was which. Not that it matters too much which is which... When I do spaghetti sauce, everything that is ripe gets mulched up in the blender, and cooked.
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[BigOrson]

I put out a huge garden last year, but I've moved in the last month and my new digs are heavily wooded and not garden-friendly.

I still want to try to grow some tomatoes and peppers this year, but I'm not sure where or how much I will do. I heirloomed the seeds from the best plants last year, so I'm prepared as far as that is concerned. We'll see.

[Teleking]

A word of caution from big box store tomatoes. Northern Maine is potato country with a majority of them chip and French fry varieties (think Frito-Lay and McCain’s).

With the wet spring last year, the whole state was hit with tomato and potato blight. I believe that the spores were spread from plants purchased at the national big box stores. At least that is who the farmers blamed and were not happy. To even attempt to save a crop, it needs to be sprayed every 2 to 3 days driving the costs through the roof.

The 2009 growing season is even mentioned here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato_blight

I even lost the majority of my tomatoes last year.

Cheers
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[Teleking]

[Rojellio Es Caliente]

[slow&low]

Feldon I'm in Charlotte too where do you buy your seeds?

[feldon30]

[12TH AV SMOKERS]

Ahhh yes... I was looking at my Tomato Growers Supply catalog just the other night. I was thinking I need to get into the basement and get the area cleaned up and hang the grow lights up so I can get my seeds started for early crops.
I've had a garden nearly every year since I was in the 4th grade. Our student teacher (a hipppie) lived up the street from me. He taught my best friend and I how to garden. Organically. I've never used chemicals, ever.
I love growing peppers and tomatoes the most. I even crossed a bell and jalapeno pepper two years ago and it reproduced last year. We'll see if it'll work again this year.

I had approx 40 pepper plants last year and 15-20 tomatoes. 5 varieties of tomatoes. I'm not sure how many types of peppers. Allot! I use the peppers as landscaping plants. Very few flowers in my yard anymore. I like an edible landscape nowadays.

My favorite sweet bell is called Ariane. I try differernt types each year. I like to have a big crop of Italian/Plum type for making sauce or just for canning.
Teleking, we had major blight issues here too. Most likely due to lower than normal temps and moisture levels. Kinda worried this year because that stays in the soil. I lost most of my tomatoes plants last year nearly overnight! I'd never seen plants attacked and destroyed so quickly. I'm going to plant some blight resistant plants this year to go along with heirlooms. The heirlooms last year were attacked 1st.

This is the cross between a jalapeno and a bell pepper. Had meduim heat and thick flesh. It was pretty good.


Carribbean Red Habanero's - 2 or 3 times the heat of regular Hab's... Whoa! This pic is near the end of the season. I picked buckets and buckets of these.


This pic is from when I cleaned off the plants before the 1st freeze last year. 7or 8 types shown here.


These were some big boys! They were good too.

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[Rojellio Es Caliente]

BLIGHT a Viticulturist / Orchardist friend of mine turned his back on the Chemical Agriculture he lerned at University. According to him, Irish Farmers who DID survive the Potato famine, were those who included Kelp in thier compost. I dont know how true that is.. but I did find this from a Canadian Agriculture site. http://www.organicagcentre.ca/ResearchDatabase/res_soils_late_blight.asp Big Surprise, Compost Tea is a good thing, and so is Kelp.


Humic Acid I have used Humisolve before with good results. Pure concentrated Humus. Applied as a foliar spray, 1 tsp per gallon. Thats 3 lbs per acre if your wanting to boost your yields up to 17%, increase flavor, and decrease nitrogen use.. Not that anyone would want to do any of those things... http://www.ec-securehost.com/FaustBioAgriculturalServicesinc./Bio_Humic_for_Crops.html Its really works. And a small bag goes a long way.

Edamame ... young "sugar snap" soybeans. Growing your own is easy stuff. At Whole Foods, or similar health food grocery... in the bulk grain aisle... Get a pound of those. Select a spot in your garden. Throw the soybeans on the ground. Walk away. Add water once in a while. Harvest fresh Edamame. There is a similar technique for planting sunflowers along a mile of your favorite highway. Not that i ever do that... nor have I ever purchased sunflower seeds at the health food grocery.
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[biopetro]

Not trying to hijack the thread but for the issue with Deer in your gardens. I was told by a Herbologist that he uses a electric fence with only a single strand of wire around his garden to keep the deer out. He claimed they feel the pulses given off the fence in their bones and avoid the area.

Tim