Yankees eat your hearts out. I set all my tomato plants on March 15 this year and they are doing excellent so far. I started from seeds on New Years day like usual.


I have Cherokee Purple, Brandywine, Mortgage Lifter, Arkansas Traveler, Marianna's Peace, Sweet 100 OP, and the candy of toamto's Sun Gold.



I have peppers ready and hardening off to go in the ground April 1.

We're doing heirloom tomato varieties this year, and they have been under the sprouting lights in the basement for 2 weeks now.

The skiing is still good here, though.

andy10917 wrote: The skiing is still good here, though.

Heck it is still too cold to ski here, Hell the boat is still in storage.

texasweed wrote:Yankees eat your hearts out. I set all my tomato plants on March 15 this year and they are doing excellent so far. I started from seeds on New Years day like usual.

I have Cherokee Purple, Brandywine, Mortgage Lifter, Arkansas Traveler, Marianna's Peace, Sweet 100 OP, and the candy of toamto's Sun Gold.

I have peppers ready and hardening off to go in the ground April 1.

TW you turkey I envy your long Texas growing season. My garden is a bed of mostly decayed shredded leaves from last fall. Saturday I bought 50 ft of concrete reinforcing mesh (CRM). Today I am cutting it into 6 and 7 ft long pieces to make me some "Texas" sized tomato cages. 5 ft. tall. These are going to be great. First time growing from seeds. 12 Burpee Best Boy Hybrids are growing in an egg carton in my south facing window. Some of them are just now getting their first true leaves. I too hope to grow Cherokee Purple and Brandywine if I can find seeds soon or growing plants around May 15. Green peppers will go into the dinky little tomato cages purchased last year.

billhill wrote:
TW you turkey I envy your long Texas growing season.

Well there is down part of it in my area and most of TX. Veggies and anything else that cannot take extreme hot dry conditions is done by mid June or Early July. But we get a second season from August to about T-Day. Hot weather stuff like some of the peppers, okra, etc does well so it does depend on what we are talking about.


My envy is Calaphonies. They can grow most everything year round with their moderate climate.


Bill have you tried raised beds? They can give you a head start and easy to manage. I build them using cinder blocks two stack high. But you can use any material or no material at all by just piling soil up. Limit them to 4 foot width's so you can reach in and work, but as long as you like. With drip irrigation, square foot garden technique they are a cinch and very productive and effecient. With them being elevated you can usually get a two week head start on planting.


If you want to know more about raised beds write me or start a thread.

Raised beds are very common around here. Oddly enough I never thought of that for my own veggie garden. I do like the idea of a two week head start. I realize the soil will warm up faster in a raised bed. My biggest concern is the inevitable late killing frost. I would need some kind of tent or other frost protection for an early May planting. Usual last killing frost date is June 1 where I live. Not unusual to see people covering their plants with newspaper and plastic covers occasionally in late May early June. I'll have to think about raised beds for my tomatoes. Might be able to get a small one going this year. Thanks for putting the idea in my head.

I learned long ago not to try to plant anything before Mothers day. It's ok some years, but we're too likely to get a snowstorm in early May (less likely in mid May, but it happens). I don't plant much in the garden anyway, because my wife is the kind of person who sees a bug on a lettuce leaf and can never again eat something from the garden (it's somehow different if the bug was gone before it got to the grocery store than if it was only gone before it got to the kitchen). So I usually end up planting mostly ornamentals.

TOMATOES
Stupice
Bloody Butcher
Sun Sugar Cherry
Black Cherry
Park's Whopper
Brandy Boy
Cherokee Purple
Mortgage Lifter

PEPPERS
Aji Dulce #2
Zavory
Garden Salsa
Senorita Hybrid
Spanish Spice
Fooled You Jalapeno
Peperoncino
Cherry Peppers
Delicias
Salsa Delight
Santa Fe Grande
False Alarm Hybrid

LEAF LETTUCE and SPINACH

On Trellis netting
POLE BEANS
Forex

SUGAR SNAP PEAS
Snow Pea Dwarf

CUCS
Eureka

STRAWBERRIES in hanging baskets

billhill wrote: I would need some kind of tent or other frost protection for an early May planting.

Hoop covers are real easy with raised beds, Bill.

Take short lengths of rigid PVC and pound it into the soil along the wall of the raised bed. Anchor it to the wall using any plumbing clamp. Take flexible PEC pipe, smaller in outside diameter than the inside diameter of the PVC and form a curve from one wall across to the other wall. Cover with plastic and attach using pipe clamps, which are no more than short lengths of flexible PEC pipe with a slice going the length so it slips over the other pipe and holds the plastic. A few spring finger snap clamps for the ends and you're set - hoop cover / cold frame too!

Another trick is to pick up some plastic basement window well covers and build a raised bed to fit them. Attach with a hinge, just use a hitch pin so they can be easily removed during sunny warm spring days and reattached at evening or even propped open during cool, yet sunny days. Again, a cold frame or hoop cover for tender plants during inclement spring weather.

PEPPERS
Aji Dulce #2
Zavory
Garden Salsa
Senorita Hybrid
Spanish Spice
Fooled You Jalapeno
Peperoncino
Cherry Peppers
Delicias
Salsa Delight
Santa Fe Grande
False Alarm Hybrid

[/quote]


What a wimp



Grow some real hot peppers you wussy:clapping:



Actually I am impressed with your overall list.

texasweed wrote:Grow some real hot peppers you wussy

bhut jolokia, LOL ??????

I always have fun at work with my hot pepper eating compadres, at Easter.
I challenge then to some FRESH horseradish .... and Polski wins that contest every time!

And horseradish is great - a quick sock to the head and it's gone in an instant, unlike a capsicum burn from 50,000 scoville units, that last for hours!

Actually I am impressed with your overall list.

Thank you - it's a work in progress. I'm always trying something new.

Tomato varieties this year (heirlooms):

Hazel Mae
Green Zebra
Aunt Ruby's German Green
Yellow Pear
Red Calabash
Black Crim

About the horseradish - We're Polish by descent. My dad raised Polish horseradish. After a few years it got invasive. He tried to dig it up and kill it, but the more he tried, the more he spread it. That was in the days before Roundup was affordable. For all I know, it eventually ate the house.

andy10917 wrote:
About the horseradish - We're Polish by descent. My dad raised Polish horseradish. After a few years it got invasive. He tried to dig it up and kill it, but the more he tried, the more he spread it. That was in the days before Roundup was affordable. For all I know, it eventually ate the house.

I remember Dad making homemade chrzan for Easter one year - 'inside' the house. I'm still scared from that experience, but will always love the stuff!

I am now the family's official chrzan chef.

Well my plants survived the last two nights frost, took a lot of work covering everything up. To my knowledge it is the latest freeze here. I thought last year was a freak when the week of March 15 we got 15 inches of snow, we haven't had 15 inches of snow if you added up all my years here.

andy10917 wrote:I am now the family's official chrzan chef.

I was searching for tomato varieties to try in the garden this year when I came across this post.

We like to pass around the horseradish jar (store bought) at holiday meals, but half the time we're complaining that it's too mild. I think it's time we put on the big boy pants and try some home made stuff!

What is your recipe?

I don't have a specific recipe - I use grated beets, horseradish, vinegar and a touch of sugar until it seems right. It's best made a day before eating it.