As some may know, each February, I start a large number of tomato and pepper plants. This year, I had somewhere near 600 total plants. Most of them I sold or gave away.
One thing I like to do is sample varieties that are new to me. Of course, I have developed a core of varieties that I grow year in and out. Last year, for the first time, I grew a main crop variety called Momotaro. I call it Momo for short. It was successful last year, but this year, a cool and wet season so far, it has been outstanding. The tomato, which was developed and is quite popular in
I have several other winners so far as well. Sungold remains the best cherry tomato I've ever tasted. While my vines aren't producing as prolifically as in years' past, the yellow busts of sweetness can't be topped. I suspect the weather has been a bit too cool for this variety.
Two other salad-sized tomatoes have really shined thus far. Tigrella and Juliet. Tigrella is a small round tomato that is tender and tasty. Its unique red, orange tiger stripes make it a real conversation piece as well. Juliet has blown up in my garden. These small inverted pear-shaped tomatoes are ripening by the bucketful. I literally can't keep up with them.
The biggest tomato so far was from one of my new varieties called Polish. This plant appears to produce few fruit, but they ones put out tend to be quite large. My Polish tomato was about two pounds. In my organic garden that's equivalent to three pounds in a chemical garden. The Polish tomato is large, ribbed, and its coloration reminds me of a Pink Brandywine.
On the pepper front, I've been disappointed so far in my sweet roasting pepper, Marconi Golden. However, another sweet variety I really like is Sweet Pickles. Looks hot, but it's not. Cubanelle continues to impress as a sweet roasting pepper. It's prolific, solidly constructed for excellent grilling, and tasty as all get out.
My new ornamental hot pepper varieties have been outstanding, especially Riot and Filus Blue. The latter was the most expensive seed I've ever purchased, approaching $4.00 for ten seeds. I grow my ornamental hots for their looks, but what most casual observers don't understand is that most of these varieties are indeed edible and are usually hotter than hot.
I'm waiting for my favorite ornamental, Trifetti, to burst forth. It reseeds every year without any assistance from me. This plant is a large bush pepper with tri-colored leaves (lime, cream, and green). The hot peppers are smallish, abundant, and dark purple turning to electric red when ripe.
No comments:
Post a Comment