Usually I have a few days in December when I’m snowed in and have time to blog…not this season! Believe it or not, but I still have healthy lettuce plants growing in the bed beside my house…fresh salad this week…go figure! This time last year we were buried in snowstorm after snowstorm after snowstorm….the year, my snow shovel is dusty and the grass is green.
I’m going to get things started today by starting my super-hot pepper seeds. Bhut Jolokia, several types of 7 pot, and some habanero will begin the super slow process of germination and growth. I have to start these so early because they just creep along until we get high temps in the 80’s and 90’s and then they grow like crazy.
I’ll start my other pepper and eggplant seeds the first of February and Tomato seeds will hit the grow table in ate February and early March.
I’m going to scale back (that’s the plan anyway) on my number of varieties this year. 83 types of tomato plants was a bit much to keep track of last year, so this year I hope to keep the number of varieties closer to 50…fingers crossed and I have well over 100 types of seeds in my hands now and it’s tough to pare them down to the best of the best.
As always, you can help me out by letting me know what varieties you absolutely can’t live without in your tomato garden and I’ll make sure those are on the list. I can tell you now that Brandywine Sudduth’s, Cherokee Purple, Cherokee Green, Black Cherry, San Marzano, Carbon, Mortgage Lifter, Opalka, and Sungold will definitely be grown as I don’t think any garden is complete without them! If you have some favorites I’ve grown in the past or have some new varieties you’ve heard about and would like to try, please e-mail me or leave a comment here and I’ll be sure to get seeds and grow them for you.
As always, I’ll have my list of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, herbs and other plants available in early March for you to make your pre-orders. Plants will be ready for your gardens by the middle of April through mid-May with Mother’s Day weekend always being the best possible weekend for planting.
Enjoy this balmy weather and before you know it, it will be time to get our hands in the soil once again!
KC Tomato Times Blog 