Suggestions for Early Maturing Tomato/Pepper Varieties?

Lesa, your mention or Marconi reminded me of something. Every year I get a few pepper plants from an
“organic” guy that sells plants every spring. I’ve gotten Marconi from him and yes, they do well. But I also get one he calls Olena Red. If I look Olena Red up on the internet I get a red bell pepper. But this Olena Red is shaped like a Marconi but is usually much bigger, maybe three inches longer. Not great wall thickness but not bad. And it produces very well. It’s not short season though. It comes on late.

He saves his own seeds. I’m sure his Olena crossed with something and produced this superior product. For two years in a row that “Olena Red” has produced really well. I haven’t mentioned to him that the shape is different than it’s supposed to be. I don’t want him to quit offering it. If it is consistent this year, I may start saving my own seeds from it. Third year in a row should mean it has pretty well stabilized.

lesa said:

I really enjoy growing Marconi Peppers. They are fairly thin walled- but I pop them in the ground and they grow like crazy. They freeze perfectly, make great stuffed peppers- and are not picky about weather. We had so much rain this year, I lost every tomato I planted- but I have pounds of peppers in the freezer. I highly recommend them.

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I second this! I love the Marconi's because they are easy to grow, are fairly early (definitely earlier than the sweet bells) and have very heavy yields of large, long peppers that have the most pleasing sweet flavor especially when they turn red. We eat them like candy all summer long. You can use them green too, of course. We cut them in strips and eat on salads or with dip, grill them, stuff them, or dehydrate and use them in all sorts of soups, chili and meat dishes. Dehydrating them brings out a subtle smokiness to the flavor too. There are several different varieties out there. I grow the Giant Red Marconi. Marconi's come in both hybrid and OP varieties. Here's what Baker Creek has. You are near to where I live, so they should do well for you. You'll not be disappointed with them, I'm sure.

Now, for tomatoes...I am still looking for an early tomato that suits me. I find most of them are lacking in flavor. I like the old, long season heirlooms the best, so I can't really think of an early to recommend for you. I like to grow cherry tomatoes to get me by until the big guys are ripening. And then there's fried green tomatoes...

ETA: I noticed in the reviews on BC that some people did not consider them to be heavy yielding...this is probably because theirs are OP. I got mine from Jung Seed and they were hybrids, actually, which would have a lot to do with it. If you have room to plant several, then you'd still do well with the OP.

Your mileage may vary, SeedO'. RidgeRunner is already on the off-ramp. And, I thought that hybrid Marconi was much less productive than the standard. It grows such a nice big, sweet pepper that I really want to have every year. But then, I grow the standard Marconi, which has smaller peppers and less sweet, because there are so few on the hybrid plants. So, I've had both varieties for a half dozen seasons.

thistlebloom said:

. . . The one I do remember was Alaskan Fancy. It was the first to ripen. It's on the smaller side, but a nice shape and the taste was good. . .

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Sand Hill Preservation says that Alaskan Fancy are: "mid, SD, 4 to 6 oz., uniform round globe fruits, above average yeilds." So that is mid-season and Semi-Determinate.

Tomatofest says that Alaskan Fancy are: " The earliest plum-shaped tomatoes available. TomatoFest organic seeds produce short, bushy, regular-leaf plants that yield abundant crops of 1-2 oz., red, juicy, tomatoes with luscious flavors." Semi-Determinate.

Thistle',

• round or plum
• 4-6 oz or 1-2 oz
• you have already said they were the earliest to ripen, that doesn't sound like mid-season

Steve
if i type before a quote . . . the text looks like what is in the quote . . . i think. trying green text to differentiate

Well Marconi I will definitely give a try! Especially when I read nothing but good reviews at Baker's along with your suggestions! Even though Baker says it's 80 days till maturity and thick-walled, kind of confusing. We love stuffed peppers so that is also good. Golden Treasure and those Alaskan Tomatoes sound like they may be good ones also.

Digit, Baker's has two different variations of Corno di Toro peppers. Corno di Toro Rosso, which is red. And Corno di Toro Giallo which is yellow. Which one have you grown? Even any difference other than color? Green text is a nice change, how did you do that?

Ridgerunner, those cross-up Olena Red peppers sound pretty interesting. Maybe the beginning of a new variety? Maybe you should call them Razorback Red?

SeedO, it must have been the red Corno di Toro.

Peppers don't usually mature beyond green in my garden. And, as we all know, no pepper is green at maturity . . . So, I am seldom able to try any of the sweet peppers that are fully mature.

The Marconi will begin to change to red and I can bring them in and hang them. In the kitchen, they will change color as they begin to dry.

This is what we will do with them:


Steve

i had tried growing about 30 varieties of tomatoes in containers this year. there were only a handful that i kept seeds from that i found worthy of continuing to keep in my garden. Celebrity, Juliette Grape, Oregon Spring, Sub Arctic Plenty, Linne's Oxheart, my romas that volunteered in the garden, and one type that was mislabeled so i don't know what it might actually be. i have to say the Linne's Oxheart was a great success for me! it was HUGE, sweet, blemish free, sweet, and did i also say HUGE?!? the Juliette did really well and kept producing till the end along with the Oregon Spring. the Sub Arctic Plenty didn't hold up to it's name when it came to cold weather tolerance.

The Alaskan Fancy were definitely round, and about 4 oz. Steve.

Thank you, Thistle'! (I remember that picture!)

That is nearly the size of an Early Girl, SeedO'.

There are quite a few Determinates that are very early but this one is a Semi-Determinate, all have said . ..

Steve

I had an oops tomato last year. Was supposed to be a black cherry but ended up being a red pear and they were fabulous! We'd snack on them every trip out to the garden & even with snacking on them we still took in more than any hybrid cherry I've ever grown. These seriously blew the doors off them. They were also more tomato flavored like a bigger variety of tomato in a little body than sweet like a cherry. Good strong tomato flavor was VERY impressed with them.

I've got some early tomato strains from Gleckler Seedmen they offer a number of rare seed strains stuff I had no idea about. Most of the info was on their website & usually on Taitana's website. Otherwise there wasn't much posted about the variety. VERY good people, service was fast, even though their website is not flashy. Just really rare stuff. If your looking for alternative seeds I'd go there. I'm a big fan of them.

I'd have to go home & check what all seeds I ordered from them but I know I've got some pretty early varieties & some ox hearts since I'm on a heart kick lately.

I also ordered King Of The North from them too. That's a sweet bell that's supposed to turn red early a 68-70 day pepper. I've never tried them but have heard good things about them.

2yrs ago I tried an Early Big Red Bell pepper. It was early alright they were red with in days of pepper production but never got any bigger than a habanero.

I'm north of you & am zone 5B/6 depending on which map you look at. That's been my experiences. I still grow quite a few Early Girls asI dabble with heirlooms to find suitable alternatives.

Unfortunately that's the best I can do for you right now with early tomatoes.

Thistle, those are some good looking tomatoes! Ours always seem to have problems with cracking, except for the resistant cherry types.

Jared, thanks for the link! I may have actually tried Early Girl before. It was actually my first year of gardening, before I knew much of anything about seed-saving. If I remember right I also grew a variety called "Big Boy" or I think that was it. Both varieties did great that year, and that was when we lived further up north. I'd say worth getting again if they were early girls.

Ox hearts are my favorite type of tomato. I actually got the seeds of a mystery heirloom from a neighbor. He got it when he was somewhere out west from another guy, I think Colorado. Anyway it was an orange oxheart type, probably about the size of a small apple. Great flavor, I'd describe it a fruity. I'll post a picture when I grow them out and let you guys see if it looks familiar.

I already have Black Trifele Tomatoes, Lemondrop peppers, and Fish peppers. The lemon drops are of the super-hot type, related to habaneros. They are not supposed to be hot but supposedly with a rather mild pepper flavor with a little bit of lemon mixed in. Being related to habaneros they mature later in the season. But I should be able to take a cutting off of one of the plants if I need to and put it in a pot.

I think for tomatoes I will choose determinate and semi-determinate types, Early Girl and Alaskan Fancy, and some of those Siberian varieties from Baker's. I could also root-prune the plants to speed up the ripening process.

SeedO', the hot peppers I have every year at Thai Hot and Super Chili.

They don't really have any problem with ripening to red.

I tried Habanero once. I can still remember the silly things. Each small plant had one or two misshapen pods that never filled out and were completely green at the end of the season. Jalapenos do fairly well and I prefer them green but they would ripen enough for mature seed. I've grown several varieties but have had Jalapeno M, most often.

Steve