Ordered my first batch of 2013 seeds!

[HotPepperQueen]

So I got excited and ordered most of my tomato and pepper seeds for the 2013 season. I took requests from my customers last year on what they wanted to see for 2013. Tell me what you think! This is what we have come up with so far:

From Burpee
- Northern Exposure Hybrid
- Brandy Boy Hybrid
- Orange Wellington

From Penny's Tomatoes
- Giant Beefsteak
- Oregon Spring
- Early Girl, bush variety
- BushSteak
- Italian Tomato Tree

From Totally Tomatoes
- Sugar Lump
- Black Sea Man
- Old German
- Martino's Roma
- Jalapeno Goliath Hybrid

From Pepper Joe's
- King of the North Bell
- Garden Sunshine
- Sweet Banana
- Giant Jalapeno
- Peter Pepper (hehehe)


I was going to start more peppers from seed this year but due to the lack of space (and the fact that I only keep maybe two plants of each super hot variety) it just makes more sense for me to go buy them from my good friend Gordon who owns a greenhouse/garden center. I'll have to go there to get my flowers anyway.....and I get an awesome discount! I think I'll be getting about 7 free packets of seeds this year, too. I am sooooo ready for winter to be over with!

 

[so lucky]

Uhh...I hate to tell you this, HPQ, but it's not even winter yet.

 

[digitS']

What do I think?

I think that you are gonna have lots of tomato & pepper plants, HPQ!

I've only had 2 of each of the varieties in my garden. I'll give you the brutal truth (cause I know you can take it ). The Early Girl, Bush -- I thought, how could I possibly go wrong? It's an Early Girl, right? It went right off the rails . . . I had maybe a half dozen plants, they all performed poorly, here. That doesn't mean they won't be okay for you and you may have already grown them, HPQ. Just what happened here.

Wore myself out picking Sugar Lump the few years that I had it. I think you will be happy if they perform as well. I didn't find them especially sweet but you just have to wait for the little guys to fully ripen.

What can I say about Sweet Banana? Had them again this year and they did just fine. Easy, prolific - with a nice flavor. I'd almost be willing to give up the hybrid bells and just grow King of the North. It isn't especially thick-walled but it is tender with a nice flavor, great production and it ripens early. I've had it a good number of times and it stands up to most everything that is thrown at it, weather-wise.

Just my experience with a very few of them with 2 thrown in . And, I'm a long way from placing an order for my own - probably the end of January

Steve

 

[Jared77]

All I can say is NICE!!! I went to those sites and read the descriptions I think your going to have a fantastic year. How many of these varieties are new to you?

 

[HotPepperQueen]

It's been winter here since early November! Let's just hope it lightens up a little bit...

Steve- I love hearing your 2 cents! I was a little leery of the Bush Early Girl just because I thought "why would they change something that doesn't need fixin'?" but I figured i'd try it anyways. Let's hope it at least earns it's keep! I am pleased to hear about your King of the North results- I am very excited about those. Growing bell peppers in MN can be tricky!

Jared- Uh, about 9 of those varieties are new to me! NONE of my new varieties from last year were worth keeping so I got rid of all those seeds at a seed swap. I'm kind of at a point where I have only found a handful of things that I have to grow every year because they earned their place. Still in the trial and error stage. This will only be my third or fourth attempt at starting plants from seed myself. Here's to hoping these are worth it!

 

[baymule]

I have ordered seed several times! I had to order the multicolored butterbeans that wsmoak posted pictures of.........couldn't order just ONE packet could I???? Then I got the new Baker Creek catalog........already got that order.....had to try the "blue" cherry tomatoes........then I got the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange catalog.....just when I thought I was through........I just GOTTA have those trombonicino squash seed.......I'll find SOMEWHERE to put a couple of them......and I can't order just ONE seed packet......and so it goes.......

 

[digitS']

Now,

you two are in the same

Time Zone, right?

Steve's
in the "comfort" zone with snow falling all around

 

[baymule]

Now,

you two are in the same

Time Zone, right?

Steve's
in the "comfort" zone with snow falling all around

Uhhhhhh...........twilight zone???

 

[Jared77]

HPQ I know the feeling, I've only had 2 keeper varieties with tomatoes, that's why I wondered what's working for you. The Black Krims have inspired me to try Japanese Black Trifele to hopefully get a good black paste tomato for sauce. Id love to have a black tomato sauce vs adding a black slicing tomato to enhance the sauce.

Do you have problems with bell peppers in general or getting colored bells? I have a devil of a time getting colored bells. Doesn't seem to matter what color either. Orange or Red. Maybe yellow will have a better chance of turning? I don't know. I talked to one person at the Famers market who has LOTS of colored bell peppers for sale and he said they start them with the tomatoes even to the point of repotting them just like their tomatoes to get them big enough to color up. He said once the are transplanted they produce well its just getting them big enough so the focus is on the fruit not growth. Once I can get a greenhouse Id do the same but until then well Im kind of stuck.

I'm really tired of eating just green peppers, or having other colors that don't turn and eating them green too. I may have to breakdown and buy the biggest red bells I can find at the nursery and hope I can get some to turn. I had a few last year but it was so blazing hot here that I think factored in. I hate not having my own greenhouse.

I even tried some hybrid supposedly really early to mature reds, they were a bust too. They were red alright but never got any bigger than a habanero. They had bell shape but were mushy. Plants were small, weak and had very little in the way of leaves either.

Anyway PLEASE keep us posted on how your varieties go over, as well as customer feedback. I'm always looking for something new so I can find some more keepers and save more seeds.

 

[ninnymary]

HotPepperQueen, it's good to know that I'm not the only one that won't be trying the new heirloom tomatoes that I had again. All of the 5 new ones won't be planted again. That's a pretty large percentage! At least it gives me the chance to try new ones again.

Mary