Advice on my grow list - Page 3

crmauch · February 21, 2014

You are not too late, even to obtain seeds! I'm not sure what zone you are there in MA, but you also need to find out from your extension service what your Average Date of Last Spring Frost is. Here in Zone 6 in SE PA it is around May 15th.

Rohrer's Seed catalog has a nice home garden planting chart in the front of it's catalog. For some of the main garden vegetables it divides them into 5 groups. Tomatoes and peppers are listed in "group D" to be planted when soil has throughtly warmed two weeks AFTER the frost free dates (it lists planting dates as May 20 to June 20).

The catalog recommends (for this climate zone/for this area) to start tomato seeds indoors from March 1 to April 1 and peppers from March 15 to April.

I know there's in the available varieties list that someone is offering Pruden's Purple as one of their varieties for an SASE. That would cover 1 variety. I don't think I know for certain about the other varieties, but I'll check and send you a PM if I do find anything.

matilda'skid · February 21, 2014

I planted sweet banana peppers in a big pot on my friend's patio. I added perlite mixed well into the potting mix for better drainage and put something under the pot so water could get out of the holes in the bottom of the pot. It took a whole bag of Miracle Grow or other potting mix to fill the pot. We fertilized a few times during the summer with soluble blue fertilizer. You can get cheap plastic pots and spray paint them brown or some camo color because after the plants grow you won't notice the pot even if its a cheapo one. The peppers did very well. Some in another smaller pot that wasn't draining well didn't do as well and he noticed he didn't need to water them every day like I think he was doing. He slacked off on the watering and those did well too. I think the green peppers are harder to grow but my friend has zero gardening skill and he enjoyed his peppers very much.

I think you have plenty of cherry tomatoes. Sun Gold in a good spot would be enough for me plus another red cherry of some sort. If that is what you like, then that is what you should plant. I would plant more medium sized red or pink tomatoes for slicers in summer.

dpurdy · February 22, 2014

efisakov,
I've grown eggplant in both containers and in the soil. There wasn't much difference in production between the two methods. The first time I tried growing in containers I had issues with containers drying out. Once I set up a small irrigation system for my containers the problem went away. I have about 10 containers that make up a small container garden near the house that I grow unique vegetables or left overs that wouldn't fit in the tunnels or raised beds. If you use containers, I would suggest that you use the same size container that you would grow a determinate or indeterminate tomato in. Most eggplant that I've grown have a fairly well developed root ball. I've grown Hansel F1 hybrid eggplant in a container. They look really neat when they're full of fruit sitting in a container. Personally, I think that growing eggplant in a container provides a person with more fruit than most other vegetables that are grown in containers.

dpurdy

efisakov · February 22, 2014

Last year I grew Kamo (2) and Rosa Bianca (2) in containers. They did fine until spider mites came alone. I had okra growing in containers and in ground, did not see much difference.
Thanks, dpurdy.

tnkrer · February 22, 2014

Quote:

Originally Posted by kath

peppers: Lipstick is the only one on your list that I've grown, and I did grow it for several years with varying luck. Palanacko Cudo and Slonovo Uvo were both more robust plants and produced lots of huge, sweet red peppers. This year I'm trying Kevin's Early Orange and Super Shepherd, too, and I'd be happy to share seeds if you're interested.

cukes: My favorite so far for production, sweet taste, small seed cavity, smooth fruits and resistance to the common leaf diseases here is Burpfree. I ran out of seeds, hadn't saved any, and realized it wasn't being sold any longer:

http://tomatoville.com/showthread.ph...pfree+cucumber

So I took a chance and grew out 2 seeds that were loose in my large metal seed container in hopes that they were Burpfree. I was lucky and they were and I saved seed from several fruits. Also giving Picolino a try just in case. Ditto about seed sharing.

kath

Hi Kath,
what kind of cucumber is burpfree, is it pickling or slicing cuke? Also how long is the fruit? I read the thread you have linked and I like the fact that burpfree is fungus resistent. I love cukes and my cuke plants always die with some mold/fungal disease. They do give lots of fruit before they die. However, around late august, I run out of all my cukes

Thanks for the pepper suggestions too. I am still looking into those. I will be interested in the pepper and cuke seeds if I decide to go with those. Thanks for the offer.

tnkrer · February 22, 2014

Quote:

Originally Posted by dpurdy

tnkrer,
A suggestion for an eggplant to grow would be Hansel Hybrid. I grow these every year. They take about 55 to 60 days. If you grow only one of these, you'll have plenty of eggplant for your needs. I've seen as many as 50 on a single plant. They are a dark purple or almost black in color. They contain fewer seeds than others and are more sweeter and more tender than others that I've grown in the past. You can harvest the fruit when they reach 6 to 8 inches in length, or you can even let them get a little bigger. My eggplant customers prefer this variety over others that I've grown in the past. One other variety is called Fairy Tale which is a purple and white in color. They are similar to the the Hansel except for the color and their production is a little less. Either one of these will provide you with many eggplants.
dpurdy

Thanks dpurdy. hansel looks good. Looking around I see there is gretel the ivory one. so might do hansel and gretel, any experience with gretel?

tnkrer · February 22, 2014

Quote:

Originally Posted by crmauch

You are not too late, even to obtain seeds! I'm not sure what zone you are there in MA, but you also need to find out from your extension service what your Average Date of Last Spring Frost is. Here in Zone 6 in SE PA it is around May 15th.

Rohrer's Seed catalog has a nice home garden planting chart in the front of it's catalog. For some of the main garden vegetables it divides them into 5 groups. Tomatoes and peppers are listed in "group D" to be planted when soil has throughtly warmed two weeks AFTER the frost free dates (it lists planting dates as May 20 to June 20).

The catalog recommends (for this climate zone/for this area) to start tomato seeds indoors from March 1 to April 1 and peppers from March 15 to April.

I know there's in the available varieties list that someone is offering Pruden's Purple as one of their varieties for an SASE. That would cover 1 variety. I don't think I know for certain about the other varieties, but I'll check and send you a PM if I do find anything.

Thanks crmauch. Many generous members of TVille have offered to send the seeds for many of these varieties. With their help and couple of seed stores, I should be able to get all the seeds I need.

Quote:

Originally Posted by matilda'skid

I think you have plenty of cherry tomatoes. Sun Gold in a good spot would be enough for me plus another red cherry of some sort. If that is what you like, then that is what you should plant. I would plant more medium sized red or pink tomatoes for slicers in summer.

Matilda'skid - My family simply loves the cherry tomatoes and would like to eat more than a pound a day. So I need to produce 40-50 lb of cherry tomatoes

I am hoping that 4 plants would give me that much or more. On the other hand, big slicers are just for me!

efisakov · February 22, 2014

Black cherry is my son's favorite, well you already have that one. In August I was getting about a pound a day for few weeks in a row (this one I grow in ground), it gets up to 10-12 feet tall. Enjoy. We are expecting another round of snow in a few days.

dpurdy · February 22, 2014

tnkrer,
Yes, I've grown the Gretel eggplant before. They would be a nice contrast to the Hansel eggplant. The Gretel eggplant is white in color and can be harvested the same as the Hansel. Both varieties grow to about the same height and size, and take about the same time to harvest. Both are less bitter than the large eggplants. I think if you like eggplant, these two will fill the bill.
dpurdy

kath · February 22, 2014

Quote:

Originally Posted by tnkrer

...what kind of cucumber is burpfree, is it pickling or slicing cuke? Also how long is the fruit?... I love cukes and my cuke plants always die with some mold/fungal disease. They do give lots of fruit before they die. However, around late august, I run out of all my cukes

It's a slicer but doesn't get very long. I pick them from 6-8" or so. I get lots of spots, discoloring and dying leaves, too, but this variety seems to keep going longer than the others. I also plant another batch 3 wks. after the first one to get into Sept. a bit but cukes don't seem to like the cold nights we sometimes get in Aug. at all.

kath

tnkrer · February 23, 2014

I think I have finalized my list. (and the seeds that I had saved are on trial, In a week of two, I should know if they will sprout and grow seedlings). Looking around I like pinetree as one of the commercial sources for seeds. TVille members have generously offered seeds, so between them and pinetree, I should find most of the seeds.

For each type of vegetable - I have mentioned the date for indoor planting and planting outside. Indoor planting involves keeping in damp paper towels until they sprout, then moving to 36 cell seed tray and then moving to 4" pot)

Tomatoes - 15 march indoor planting 10 May - move outdoors
[CODE]Variety Comments
---------------------------------------------
Pruden's Purple
Amazon Chocolate
Cherokee green
Stupice
Black Cherry Saved Seeds
Sunsugar
Sungold OP if possible
Selbo's red ribbed Source - Carolyn
---------------------------------------------[/CODE]
Cucumbers - Planting out day would be June 1st. I can't make cucumbers do anything before that date when I have planted them before. They don't die, but they don't grow either until the daytime temps go to 70 (and probably night time temps do not go below 50). So planting inside on April 19th. Also, like kath's idea of doing another plant out 3 weeks later. So few plants on June 1st and few more on June 28th
[CODE]Variety Comments
---------------------------------------------
Pickling Cuke
Diva
Poona Kheera
BurpFree kath
---------------------------------------------
[/CODE]
Peppers - Peppers will be planted out on 17th May, so indoor planting will be 10 weeks ahead, around March 7th. When looking at sweet pepper recommendations on TVille, I didn't really see anyone saying that yellow or orange are their favorite peppers. So I suppose that their taste is not as good as the red ones. So I will only keep one yellow and two reds
[CODE]Variety Comments
---------------------------------------------
Golden California wonder
Palanacko Cudo kath
Slonovo Uvo kath
---------------------------------------------[/CODE]
Eggplants - Hansel and Gretel. Both are hybrids and pinetree does not carry them. Will find some source for them or substitute with something at pinetree. Eggplants will be planted out on mem day weekend. They will be planted inside 8-10 weeks before. (That's what about.com tells me)
[CODE]Variety Comments
---------------------------------------------
Hansel
Gretel
---------------------------------------------[/CODE]
Lettuce and Chard – I am thinking direct sow of these in my containers. I am planning to make these containers in next month. They will be 6 foot long, 5 inches wide and 1 foot deep boxes attached to my deck. They will have a bottom layer (4”) of water reservoir and 6 inches of soilless mix on top of that. Still need to figure out when I can direct sow them
[CODE]Variety Comments
---------------------------------------------
Jericho
Winter Density
Vulcan
burpees mixture of red and white chards
bright lights chard
---------------------------------------------[/CODE]
Herbs – Basil and would like to plant rosemary and thyme, but haven’t done those in past and need to investigate how to do that

tnkrer · February 23, 2014

TotallyTomatoes has hansel and gretel, so that would be my other seed store choice. They also have sun sugar tomato and diva cukes. (I think these 4 are hybrids from my entire list)

tnkrer · February 25, 2014

Results of saved seeds - cuke seeds sprouted in 2 days
Waiting on tomato seeds

tnkrer · February 28, 2014

Kath, Gary (tormato), Dale(dpurdy) - Thank you very much for your generosity. I have most of the seeds I need thanks to you.

Also, tomato seeds (black cherry, yellow pear) sprouted on day 4. (though its just a speck of white on the side of the seed right now). I will now put those in a seed tray to see how well the seedling does.

February 22, 2014	#34
efisakov Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: NJ, zone 7 Posts: 3,162	Last year I grew Kamo (2) and Rosa Bianca (2) in containers. They did fine until spider mites came alone. I had okra growing in containers and in ground, did not see much difference. Thanks, dpurdy. __________________ Ella God comes along and says, "I think I'm going to create THE tomato!”

February 22, 2014	#38
efisakov Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: NJ, zone 7 Posts: 3,162	Black cherry is my son's favorite, well you already have that one. In August I was getting about a pound a day for few weeks in a row (this one I grow in ground), it gets up to 10-12 feet tall. Enjoy. We are expecting another round of snow in a few days. __________________ Ella God comes along and says, "I think I'm going to create THE tomato!”

February 23, 2014	#41
tnkrer Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2013 Location: MA 6a/b Posts: 352	I think I have finalized my list. (and the seeds that I had saved are on trial, In a week of two, I should know if they will sprout and grow seedlings). Looking around I like pinetree as one of the commercial sources for seeds. TVille members have generously offered seeds, so between them and pinetree, I should find most of the seeds. For each type of vegetable - I have mentioned the date for indoor planting and planting outside. Indoor planting involves keeping in damp paper towels until they sprout, then moving to 36 cell seed tray and then moving to 4" pot) Tomatoes - 15 march indoor planting 10 May - move outdoors [CODE]Variety Comments --------------------------------------------- Pruden's Purple Amazon Chocolate Cherokee green Stupice Black Cherry Saved Seeds Sunsugar Sungold OP if possible Selbo's red ribbed Source - Carolyn ---------------------------------------------[/CODE] Cucumbers - Planting out day would be June 1st. I can't make cucumbers do anything before that date when I have planted them before. They don't die, but they don't grow either until the daytime temps go to 70 (and probably night time temps do not go below 50). So planting inside on April 19th. Also, like kath's idea of doing another plant out 3 weeks later. So few plants on June 1st and few more on June 28th [CODE]Variety Comments --------------------------------------------- Pickling Cuke Diva Poona Kheera BurpFree kath --------------------------------------------- [/CODE] Peppers - Peppers will be planted out on 17th May, so indoor planting will be 10 weeks ahead, around March 7th. When looking at sweet pepper recommendations on TVille, I didn't really see anyone saying that yellow or orange are their favorite peppers. So I suppose that their taste is not as good as the red ones. So I will only keep one yellow and two reds [CODE]Variety Comments --------------------------------------------- Golden California wonder Palanacko Cudo kath Slonovo Uvo kath ---------------------------------------------[/CODE] Eggplants - Hansel and Gretel. Both are hybrids and pinetree does not carry them. Will find some source for them or substitute with something at pinetree. Eggplants will be planted out on mem day weekend. They will be planted inside 8-10 weeks before. (That's what about.com tells me) [CODE]Variety Comments --------------------------------------------- Hansel Gretel ---------------------------------------------[/CODE] Lettuce and Chard – I am thinking direct sow of these in my containers. I am planning to make these containers in next month. They will be 6 foot long, 5 inches wide and 1 foot deep boxes attached to my deck. They will have a bottom layer (4”) of water reservoir and 6 inches of soilless mix on top of that. Still need to figure out when I can direct sow them [CODE]Variety Comments --------------------------------------------- Jericho Winter Density Vulcan burpees mixture of red and white chards bright lights chard ---------------------------------------------[/CODE] Herbs – Basil and would like to plant rosemary and thyme, but haven’t done those in past and need to investigate how to do that Last edited by tnkrer; February 23, 2014 at 03:07 PM.

February 21, 2014	#31
crmauch Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2013 Location: Honey Brook, PA Zone 6b Posts: 399	You are not too late, even to obtain seeds! I'm not sure what zone you are there in MA, but you also need to find out from your extension service what your Average Date of Last Spring Frost is. Here in Zone 6 in SE PA it is around May 15th. Rohrer's Seed catalog has a nice home garden planting chart in the front of it's catalog. For some of the main garden vegetables it divides them into 5 groups. Tomatoes and peppers are listed in "group D" to be planted when soil has throughtly warmed two weeks AFTER the frost free dates (it lists planting dates as May 20 to June 20). The catalog recommends (for this climate zone/for this area) to start tomato seeds indoors from March 1 to April 1 and peppers from March 15 to April. I know there's in the available varieties list that someone is offering Pruden's Purple as one of their varieties for an SASE. That would cover 1 variety. I don't think I know for certain about the other varieties, but I'll check and send you a PM if I do find anything.

February 21, 2014	#32
matilda'skid Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Missouri Posts: 309	I planted sweet banana peppers in a big pot on my friend's patio. I added perlite mixed well into the potting mix for better drainage and put something under the pot so water could get out of the holes in the bottom of the pot. It took a whole bag of Miracle Grow or other potting mix to fill the pot. We fertilized a few times during the summer with soluble blue fertilizer. You can get cheap plastic pots and spray paint them brown or some camo color because after the plants grow you won't notice the pot even if its a cheapo one. The peppers did very well. Some in another smaller pot that wasn't draining well didn't do as well and he noticed he didn't need to water them every day like I think he was doing. He slacked off on the watering and those did well too. I think the green peppers are harder to grow but my friend has zero gardening skill and he enjoyed his peppers very much. I think you have plenty of cherry tomatoes. Sun Gold in a good spot would be enough for me plus another red cherry of some sort. If that is what you like, then that is what you should plant. I would plant more medium sized red or pink tomatoes for slicers in summer.

February 22, 2014	#33
dpurdy Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Norwich, New York Posts: 255	efisakov, I've grown eggplant in both containers and in the soil. There wasn't much difference in production between the two methods. The first time I tried growing in containers I had issues with containers drying out. Once I set up a small irrigation system for my containers the problem went away. I have about 10 containers that make up a small container garden near the house that I grow unique vegetables or left overs that wouldn't fit in the tunnels or raised beds. If you use containers, I would suggest that you use the same size container that you would grow a determinate or indeterminate tomato in. Most eggplant that I've grown have a fairly well developed root ball. I've grown Hansel F1 hybrid eggplant in a container. They look really neat when they're full of fruit sitting in a container. Personally, I think that growing eggplant in a container provides a person with more fruit than most other vegetables that are grown in containers. dpurdy

February 25, 2014	#43
tnkrer Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2013 Location: MA 6a/b Posts: 352	Results of saved seeds - cuke seeds sprouted in 2 days Waiting on tomato seeds

February 28, 2014	#44
tnkrer Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2013 Location: MA 6a/b Posts: 352	Kath, Gary (tormato), Dale(dpurdy) - Thank you very much for your generosity. I have most of the seeds I need thanks to you. Also, tomato seeds (black cherry, yellow pear) sprouted on day 4. (though its just a speck of white on the side of the seed right now). I will now put those in a seed tray to see how well the seedling does.