What Heirloom Vegetables Are You Planting?

[heirloomgal]

I'm trying again with Thunder Mountain @Zeedman as I had a poor seed source last year. I found a better source this year and so far they are looking good. That is such a wild looking pepper I really hope it comes true this time.

 

[Zeedman]

I'm trying again with Thunder Mountain @Zeedman as I had a poor seed source last year. I found a better source this year and so far they are looking good. That is such a wild looking pepper I really hope it comes true this time.

My seed source was really skimpy with the seeds, only 10 per pkt. The envelope weighs a lot more than the seeds! But all of the peppers grown for seed will be from 2016 or 2017 - and will need to be pre-sprouted - I'll just treat Thunder Mountain the same way.

The same source offered a brown version, Thunder Mountain Cacho. As new as this variety appears to be, I wonder if it might just be a recent unstabilized cross? Since I have a thing for brown peppers anyway, I think I'll try that one first.

 

[heirloomgal]

TMC is a beauty! The pepper seed vendor I got the red TM from has that one too - thiers doesn't look quite as skinny as the red version. I wonder if the brown was originally introduced into the genetics via a cross, it was stabilized (it seems to be since it's offered in several places) but the brown genetics took a wee bit from the super spaghetti noodle quality?

I ordered all my hot peppers from Atlantic Pepper seeds this year and all the packets have only 10 seeds! Gosh I thought that was grinchy, particularly because they want $5 per pack. But I must say, though some peppers took longer than others, they nearly all germinated at very high levels. The Chocolate Chiltepin is still sitting there doing nothing ( I didn't treat the seed first and should have) and the Mucho Nacho Jalapeno (apparently the most productive Jal on earth!) sprouted one single dud that couldn't get beyond cotyledons. Can't complain though since I considered the germ rates astounding for hot peppers.

 

[digitS']

Hybrid Peppers: I will mention that there are 2 hybrid hot & 3 hybrid sweet.

Open Polinated/Heirloom Peppers:

• The sweet Italian is Jolene. I had it/her for the first time in 2022 and  they did very well. A very nice fruit but I am a little concerned about the slow growth of the seedlings right now. This could reflect my enhanced expectation for the plants as a result of the '22 experience.​

• The sweet bell is King of the North. Honestly, my anticipation waiting for the hybrids is higher but this is a tried & true bell in my garden over many years.​

• Early Jalapeño has to fall in the same group for trust and since Jalapeños are a favorite with me, that is saying something. I am open to trying other varieties but don't like to be disappointed .​

• Thai Hot won't disappoint but, I gotta say, I can't enjoy too many because they are nearly off my heat tolerance chart! It will be a little silly if there are very many set out in the 2023 garden since there is such a BIG bag of dried Thai Hots already in the kitchen .​

​

Steve​

 

[flowerbug]

I would categorize them as 'mild heat'... less than most jalapenos, and definitely mild if the placental membranes are removed. Thick as a bell pepper, and great flavor cooked. This was DW's favorite for making pepper steak, and my favorite for mild- to medium-heat canned salsa. A short DTM, reliably heavy producers, and peppers heavy enough that it doesn't take many to get enough for a large recipe.

i'm looking forward to trying it sometime in the future.

Aji Cristal is my favorite pepper for hotter salsa, but that is mostly for giving to fire eaters.

haha! i remember when Hatch Green Chili was considered fire by me, now i am used to it and can tolerate it.

one very memorable hot sauce i found in the past was based upon Aji peppers but i've never been able to find it again commercially so i couldn't say what brand it was, but i really did like it and wish i'd have kept the bottle after it was gone. i liked both the heat and the flavor. over 25 years ago and i was on the road camping all over so i don't even remember what state or country it was in.

I prefer the milder salsas, which I use as an ingredient for chili, spaghetti sauce, or DW's meat loaf. And for my FINALLY perfected salsa bread.

sounds interesting! please post the recipe in the cooking section if you don't consider it a top-secret family recipe.

 

[ducks4you]

@Zeedman , funny you should mention skimpy, 10 seeds/packet.
On my thread I have listed the tomatoes that I just started on Wednesday. I planted in the order of soonest to maturity to latest, and I just looked to see that I have 4 Indigo Apple tomatoes Just sprouting. They are on top of the fridge, easy place to check.
A few tomato packages that I bought in January, 2021 from High Mowing only had a handful of seeds, but if the germination rate is good, I guess it's not that much of an issue with me, at least.
Still, seeds, like stuff from China (cast iron, for instance) have been "dirt cheap" for a long time.
Guess we are all gonna get better at seed starting and seed saving!

 

[Zeedman]

My garden planning is really disorganized this year, I'm basically picking what needs to be grown, and will figure out later where to put it. Starting more varieties than I intend to plant too - the varieties with lowest germination rates will have priority when it comes time to transplant. Honestly, I didn't really expect all of this old seed to germinate. I might need to give away more than I planned, but that's a good problem to have.

Started these tomatoes on 4/16:
Elfin (2021) - semi-determinate OP grape tomato, the only tomato I grow every year
Hungarian Heart (2015) - pink oxheart
Inciardi's Paste (2016) - elongated red paste
Japanese (2016) - elongated red paste
Orange Beef Heart (2015) - orange oxheart
Roughwood Golden Plum (2017) - orange plum-shaped paste
Santa Maria (new) - large paste, in memorial of the late Remy Orlowski of Sample Seeds
Solanum Spontaneum (2014) - invalid species, appears to be orange currant tomato
Sunray Farm Paste (2016) - large egg-shaped red paste
Wolford Wonder (2015) - large pink oxheart

No slicers this year per se, but the larger oxhearts should perform that role. As in years prior, all of the tomatoes germinated at close to the same time (in 5-6 days) regardless of age or variety. Tomatoes are FAR less vulnerable to age-related germination issues than peppers. The lowest germination rate of this 7-9 year old seed was 83%... and Hungarian Heart was still 100%.

I planted one eggplant too, "Diamond", at the same time as the tomatoes. Not up yet, but eggplant always tends to be slower, so should see them in a day or two.

I'll probably start mapping everything out in early May, at which point I will be able to complete the grow list for this year.

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

I just planted your Diamond eggplant seedsthat you sent me, last week.

 

[digitS']

This morning, I was looking on a website where information on vegetable cultivars is stored by a NCSU professor. It lists origins and dates of introduction, almost invariably by a company or university (link). A little disappointing but understandable that "heirlooms" are not listed. However, when does an introduced variety become an heirloom?

The soybean list is so few, I can't imagine that it is the extent of it but varieties newer than the 1940's are probably owned and protected. Scrolling, I see Tampala. Well, what is tampala? Ahh, I see that it is that amaranth group, grown as vegetables; the name "callaloo" was learned after I took an interest in those.

Whether, from India, Japan or the Caribbean -- I imagine that they arrived in mainland N America as heirlooms. Then, seed companies may have gotten ahold of them, perhaps enhancing one quality or another.

Amaranthus tricolor, selected for the beautiful foliage, some call it Summer Poinsettia. I understand that, ornamental or otherwise, all are edible. Ha! So I'm eating Summer Poinsettia every year? Yeah, well I guess so. Or, callaloo, or tampala ...

Steve

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I think that callaloo may be a general term for a LOT of Afro-Caribbean greens, as I have heard the same term used for some members of the okra family whose leaves are used as a vegetable (my seed seller in Ghana actually got annoyed with me when I asked what the "sorrel" drink looked like when you made it from the all green roselle. the drink is made from the red one only (not that I am not going to try with the green) the green one is for leaves.