Tomato and Pepper season is Done!

[Gardenboy]

Had a great tomato and outstanding pepper season here in south Florida. No problems with hormworms or RKN this season. Here is my final harvest count :


Caspian Pink - 53 tomatoes from 2 plants


Carbon - 21 tomatoes


Black From Tula - 29 tomatoes from 2 plants


Black Krim - 17 tomatoes


Thessaloniki - 22 tomatoes


S.O.T.W. - 13 tomatoes


Earl's Faux - 9 tomatoes


Barnes Mountain Pink - 12 tomatoes ( not sure will grow next season)


Mrs. Maxwell Big Italian - 12 tomatoes ( all over 1 lb)


Terhune - 18 tomatoes - ( first year growing this variety- good tomato)


1884 Purple - 39 tomatoes



Garnet Cherry - 100's


Sun Chocola - 83 tomatoes



Ozark Giant pepper - 47 from 2 plants


Scotch Bonnet - 100's ( grew into a 3 ft. tree)



Sweet Banana Pepper - 66 peppers from 2 plants






Can't complain, was a good season for me. Starting my amaranth and sunflowers for the summer months. Not sure I will fool with okra or herbs this season.

[karstopography]

[mention]Gardenboy[/mention] Very nice harvest. When do you set the wheels in motion and put all these plants in their final place?

[Gardenboy]

I start my peppers seeds first week of August and my tomato seeds around 8/15 depending on hurricane season. I transplant tomatoes and peppers into their 20 gallon container homes and then wait 2 weeks before I start fertilizing. I usually get my first tomato around Thanksgiving.

[Paulf]

Nice harvest...hope mine will be like that. My plants just went into the garden.

[TomHillbilly]

@ Gardenboy
Thanks for the post. I found it very interesting. Some of the tomato varieties that got beat out by those other varieties in production numbers-- I found surprising. Its a good thing I wasn't betting on a horse race. LOL
Black From Tula beating Carbon that much on production numbers, was surprising. I'm thinking, I best put Tula on my next years list. I thought I had grown it, but my thinking is often wrong. LOL ..Are you living down-under ? And what was the top one's on taste comparisons ?

[Gardenboy]

What sure you mean by "living down-under"? As far as taste comparison, Caspian Pink is by FAR the best pink I grow. There are others that are good, but doesn't have that same taste. SOTW was a close 2nd, but was stingy this season. Will grow 2 plants of SOTW next season. Both Carbon and BFT was very good but BFT doesn't keep long and must be eaten or used as the skin is very thin and the tomato goes from ripe to very ripe in no time. I usually have good production of Thessaloniki but was my lowest production this season...not sure why. Will grow another "red" variety instead next season...probably Red Barn. Terhune was a solid, smooth, blemish free tomato and a good tasting tomato as well but I preferred Caspian Pink for taste.
Earl's Faux is always a good producer but was last on the list this season. I prefer potato leaf plants for some reason over regular leaf. Not sure why Earl's Faux was stingy this season. I didn't grow Owen's Purple this season because I had forgot about it so will try next season. Will also try Gary O Sena as well next season. I have not found a yellow variety that I like so have not grown any in several years. I do like Green Giant for green when ripe tomatoes but decided to plant another black variety instead this season. Green Giant, Gary O Sena, McKinley, Owen's Purple and Chocolate Stripes are all on my grow list for next season. If you know of a high acid RED variety, let me know.

[Shule]

[mention]Gardenboy[/mention]
I think you've convinced me to try Caspian Pink again next year.

Hmm. The highest acid large reds that come to mind are (coincidentally), Thessaloniki, Garden Leader Monster, Super Marmande, maybe Cuostralee, and George Detsikas Italian Red. For medium ones there's Burpee Gloriana, and maybe Super Sioux. For smaller ones, there's always Early Girl F1, Nineveh, Silvery Fir Tree, Red Calabash, Matina, Manitoba, Sasha's Altai, McGee, New Yorker V, and Mountain Princess.

Garden Leader Monster actually tastes pretty great. It would make a good all-purpose tomato if it produced enough fruits. Mine wasn't in good conditions, but it did produce a number of large fruits (not lots, but it could probably do better); some nearby tomatoes didn't produce anything; the soil probably needed organic matter and potassium. The fruits are reasonably durable, too, if I recall, and a nice shape. The fruits were maybe a little bigger than my Thessalonikis grown the same year (2018) in similar conditions. I'm growing GLM again this year (unfortunately, I didn't save seeds from it in 2018; so, it's from the original packet again); so, I should have more to report by August or September.

One red that's not very high acid, but that gets a good size, is very prolific, and has very good flavor is Marion.

[TomHillbilly]

@Gardenboy. Sorry-- I missed the Florida sentence. . I speed read to get to your outcome report.
Thanks for the evaluation. I'll scratch BFT, and put Caspian instead.

[Shule]

I'm very impressed by your Ozark Giant pepper harvest! That's a lot of peppers! Were they large?

[Gardenboy]

They were medium to large peppers but not GIANT! I always let all my peppers ripen to red so I can save the seeds. It was my best season for peppers in 10 years and not sure why. I've tried Aker's W. Va and N. A. R. as well but production is very low and switched to Thessaloniki past 3 years. Will grow Red Barn next season instead. Mule Team was also a good red but plant had a few disease problems and I never grew it again. I hardly grow any early tomatoes because they are more cold tolerant and don't like our warm/humid December climate. I'm going to try Mr. Snow a dwarf variety next season as well. I've saved lots of seeds for tomatoes and peppers if anyone would like some of my varieties. Just send me SASE legal size return envelope. I don't send outside of the USA.

[WoodSprite]

What a great report! Thanks for sharing.

[wildcat62]

Looks like a good year.

[GoDawgs]

Congratulations on a successful season! Enjoy all the fruits of the labor.

Now, what's on tap for fall or do you take a break and not mess with fall?

[Gardenboy]

We don't really have winter or fall in south Florida. I mostly grow amaranth and sunflowers for summer months. Will have strawberries in June and July and then start my peppers and tomato seedlings in August...depending on hurricanes. Will probably not mess with Okra or herbs this season.

[MsCowpea]

You had a fantastic year. I used to grow Earl’s Faux when he first made the seeds available and it was excellent. Don’t remember why I stopped growing it. Same goes for Stump. And I will definitely try
Caspian Pink again. Some tomatoes just fall by the way side as there were too many other tomatoes to try. Love Carbon as well with the
correct seed. Your Ozark Giant pepper production was phenomenal. Wish I had your success with non-hot peppers. Thanks for the report.

[Shule]

[mention]Gardenboy[/mention]
Are you into sunroots at all? They're technically perennial sunflowers (but they're a root vegetable). I'm not sure how they do in Florida, but they're pretty invasive. They'll even grow nice tubers in the shade (I discovered that this year). They might retain more inulin in Florida, though, since it probably doesn't freeze much there (but the inulin would likely make them great for lacto-fermentation and such).

[Gardenboy]

Never tried sunroots. I'm sure I would since I love sunflowers. My grandmother use to grow them way back in 1955 when she and my grandfather moved here from Kentucky. She would let the beans and cucumbers climb up the sunroots instead of making a trellis. There are a few in my neighborhood but I think the seeds are sterile and therefore never got to grow any. Do you plant the root like a potato? They sound very interesting and have really forgot about them. Can you buy sunroot starter plants? Thanks again.

[PlainJane]

Thanks for posting your harvest statistics. Very helpful.

[Shule]

… Do you plant the root like a potato? … Can you buy sunroot starter plants? …

Yep, you can buy tubers for about $10 from many websites online, and you can plant them like potatoes (but plant them ASAP or they might die). You probably want to plant them horizontally. There are a couple places you can get fertile seeds, too, but they tend to be wild or crossed with a wild kind. Mine are from seeds of a wild kind.

[MissS]

I can't believe that this was your first season growing Terhune. By my standards, it is a very good tomato and returns to my grow list every few years. This season I too am growing Caspian Pink, Carbon, Terhune, Black from Tula and Stump of the World. All of them are repeats for me due to their great flavor. I will try to keep track of their performance up here in the north and compare with your results down under there in Florida.