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Tomatoes-n-peppers

Lucille

Lucille

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I am late getting the tomatoes in this year, they stop producing in the height of the Texas heat a lot of times so it is good to get them in early.
I use Earth Boxes for the veggies so they do not have to be watered as often, I think I've had mine three or four years at least and they are standing up well to years of use.
I have in the past experimented with growing heirloom tomatoes and they are good and flavorful but this year time is short so I went to Home Depot and got Celebrity and Better Boy, two varieties that do well in Texas.
They had a bunch of inexpensive six pack baby pepper plants for sale too but none labelled. I just did not have the time to go anywhere else so I have 30 'surprise' peppers planted, hope they are not all habaneros lol. I like jalapenos and love anchos, and I do use habaneros in cooking but one habanero plant is plenty.
Do y'all do tomatoes or peppers? What kinds do you grow? Any tips or techniques for tomato growing?
 
About a dozen of the pepper plants made it to maturity. Fortunately, they were not all one variety: I have several jalapenos (including one of those new 'no heat' variety), some bells, some frying type, don't know what they are called, one that has small, elongated hot peppers, and one with fruits that have not ripened but looks like it might be a habanero.
 
The only thing I have growing this year were my strawberries.....and the chickens got to them. They eat them just before they are ripe enough for me to pick, so I guess I will be putting a fence around them. I transplanted over 100 strawberry plants when we moved here from our old place, and this is he first year they were really going to produce.

I didn't no they had "no heat" jalapenos now...do you know what they are called? I love jalaoenos, but my daughter and other half can't take the hot ones. I'd be happy with a good flavored one.
 
There are several named varieties that have no heat out there including the 'tam' jalapeno. The tam seeds are fairly widely available in catalogues.
 
I'll have to check that out......as you can probably tell, it's been awhile since I've had a "real" garden.
 
I recommend the catalog

of Tomato Growers Supply Company for seedlings of peppers and tomato's. I have grown 22 variates of peppers and 8 of tomato's and resale the fruits at the local city market 2 times a week and do great on sales. Of course I didn't get into the pepper and tomato to originally sale but out here there is very little starter plants to get / find other than your normal peppers and tomato's. I start the seeds in Jan, in the cat pans and transfer the starter plants to foam cups in about March. Then transfer the plants to outdoors to the garden in late May. I had over 200 pepper plants last year and 12 tomato plants. Some peppers and tomato's are of hybrid form. Some peppers like the Thai and Cayenne are way hotter than the Habaneros I swear ! It's all in the Scoville units of fire /heat and hot remember. Yes, there are indeed Jalapeño that is mild but it's all in the veins/membrane and seeds. Any hot pepper can be made not as hot by several methods : remove seeds and scoop out membranes ( they ALWAYS suggest to use plastic or surgical gloves for this ) and or de-skin and or roast. There are some hot peppers with Scoville units in the millions in concentrate form and is believed able to stop the heart from beating momentary ! The average Habanero is 40 times hotter than the average Jalapeño in scoville units of heat with some Habanero being 285,000 units compared some Thais and Philippines of over 500,000 units. The measly Scoville unit of hots are only 500 to 600. Some peppers have outstanding heat units when dried and one is the Caribbean Red with 445,000 units. AND there is that natural HIGH of euphoria from eating really hot peppers and not to mention the medicinal qualities of hot peppers ( Capsicum ) . Sorry for this 101 lesson in peppers..............
 
Great post Old Guy. I just recetly started reading this forum and I find it very interesting. Until very recently I was a Vegetable breeder at New York State Agricultural Experiment Station. It is a campus of Cornell. I specialized in mainly cucurbita (squash), and cucumis (cukes). We did dabble around in the peppers, tomatoes, and lettuce. You have not lived until you are in a field in 90 degree heat trying to pollinate a tomato or pepper by hand. Or have to be at work by three am so you do not miss the lettuce flowers!
The hottest pepper we dealt with were scotch bonnets. The real hot ones were from belize and ran from 200-250K scoville units. And lets say one day I forgot to take off my gloves before I wiped my eyes..... Blind in my right eye for a week and cannot wear contacts aymore.
 
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