Too cold to plant?

It's been unseasonably cold outside, which brings me to this question: is it too cold to plant our peppers?
We bought four plants at Home Depot in Yonkers when we visited Mitch's parents for Passover. The Yonkers store has a big outdoor department that kick's butt over Manhattan's, so we go each spring to stock up on soil, mulch and some herbs or veggies like peppers. (We've tried to grow peppers from seed, but we've had no luck in getting them to sprout.)
So, now we have four bell pepper plants (green, yellow, orange and red) but Mitch won't let me stick 'em in the pots. He says it's too cool. He wants me to wait.
But I'm like, so, are they gonna catch cold?
All of our herbs from last year (mint, oregano, thyme and parsley)have come back and are growing nicely. Our spring flowers (columbine, pansies) are blooming. The roses are coming along.
But he's worried about the peppers? Of course, it won't kill them to hang out in the apartment for another week or so. But I think he's being a bit like an overprotective parent.
I'm thinking that if we plant them a little early this year, before Memorial Day, they'll get a head start and they'll yield their fruit sooner too.
So, if you're a planter, let me know what you think.
Thanks!

Time for Tomatoes!

I am so psyched. I got a request to get posting, and I have plenty to write about, so here goes.
Ski season is over and the time for planting has arrived. Of course, Mitch and I have been preparing for planting season since February. That's when we went to our favorite heirloom tomato seed site, http://tomatofest.com.
This year we bought some old favorites: Dona, a prolific plant with small, tasty fruit; and Brandywine, big and beefy.
We also tried some new varieties, to keep things interesting:
Charlie's Green,sweet and spicey beefsteaks with yellow hues;
Cherokee Chocolate (we've done Cherokee Purples for the past three seasons - they're meaty and deep red - but chocolate, who can resist?); and
Angora Super Sweet cherries (cherries produce like crazy.)
Tomato Fest always throws in a freebie. This time we got Mortgage Lifter Red, a classic heirloom, slightly ribbed and huge (1 to 2 lbs!) I guess it's an appropriate variety for this year, considering the housing bust!
The whole deal cost about $20. You can go cheaper with tomato seeds from Home Depot or Whole Foods, but you can't find such old-time varieties in a big box store!

Next step: buying the seed starter kit. We picked up a Burpee kit at Home Depot for $7.99 but swapped it when we found a Jiffy Professional Greenhouse kit at K-Mart for just $5.99 with 72 peat pellets. Mitch grows basil from seeds all summer too, so we'll actually use quite a few of those pellets. Sure, we could get basil plants at the green market for $2 a piece, but a package of organic seeds for $1.50 will make dozens of plants.

By the end of March, it's time to plant. Mitch put the peat pellets into the little plastic greenhouse that comes with the kit, poured in some water and they expanded just like sponges. Next day, he dropped five or six seeds into each pellet, for a total of 12 pellets (2 of each variety.) Then we took off for a beach vacation (yeah!). When we got back, half the pods were sprouting tiny green seedlings (yay!) but the Brandywines, Cherokees and Mortgage Lifters (the big Kahuanas) were awol! (whah)

Mitch popped in more seeds and we waited in suspense for another week. And bingo! The big and beefies came up!

(Of course, if we had to, we could always supplement the crop with seedlings from the Union Square Green Market - though one warning - they often come with big green hornworms! Yuk! see Sept. 12, 2007 post)

Next step, we'll transfer the seedlings to 3 inch peat moss pots and keep them indoors for another month or so (too cool for tiny seedlings right now.) Mitch really does baby these little sprouts. He shields them from too much sun, too much wind etc. Even still, some of them don't make it. But we have more seedlings than we need so, we will easily end up with the seven plants we want.

Finally, we'll put the strongest ones in 20 gallon pots - their summer homes on the terrace. Best to always stick with one plant per pot. It's hard to dump any of these little babies, but they grow best when they're one to a pot.

I'm obsessing about the tomatoes, but we've got plenty of other veggies to talk about - stay tuned...

Spring break

Okay, I know it's too early to be talking about gardening, even if the weather was surprisingly warm today, but we got some seeds for Christmas from our good friend Valerie Smaldone. These prolific and low acid varieties come from the Livingston Seed Co. in Ohio. And just having the little packages in my mits reminds me that planting season is closer than you'd think.
We'll be ordering our certified organic heirloom seeds by mid-February from our favorite website, tomatofest.com, where we get juicy brandywines, cherokee purples and others. We'll experiment with some new ones this year, as usual. I'd like to plant some green zebras, for example, since we've never tried growing green tomatoes.
We'll need to start the nursery by mid-March, so we'll be ready to transfer the seedlings into outdoor pots by May.
Oh, and by the way, if you're a planter, Tomatofest is having a sale on seeds, which run between $2.95 and $3.95 a package, right now.

Winter finally arrived!

Well, tomato season is like a memory now. We chopped down the last of the plants a couple of weeks ago, pulled up the roots and dumped bags of vines. It's sad to turn back to store bought tomatoes, but we had a good run. This year's harvest lasted well into October. In fact, we still had a few tasty tomatoes on the vines when we returned on November 5th from our trip to Vietnam.
Well, check us out next year, when we start our heirloom tomato garden all over again
See ya in the spring!
Valerie

Wonder Weather

By this time last year, the garden gave out to the inevitability of the changing season. Not this year. We're almost into October, but still the plants are sprouting. We've got the best eggplants of the season. The peppers are going strong. The basil won't quit and the tomatoes - well, they just keep growing, taller and taller. The plants look sickly, with their brown leaves, and much of the fruit is cracked and creviced. Still, the tomatoes taste delicious - sweet and juicy. I've kept them on a diet of Miracle Grow Tomato Food every 10 days, as if to hold the fall at bay. Maybe it's working.
I heard the caw of the blue jays (yes, they fly over Manhattan on their way south) last week and I thought the time had come to say adieu to morning watering, pruning and harvesting. But our babies just keep on growing.
I guess there is a positive side to climate change...

Fruitful Fall

Crisp air and chilly weather may be on the way, but don't tell that to our tomato vines. Most of them are still thick with green fruit waiting to turn cherry red. Yes, our Brandywine is done, the Japanese Trifel has given up and the Cherokee Purple is a shadow of its summer self. Still, the Donna is heavy with green globes, the Black Ethiopian has plenty of life left in it and the cherry tomato is out of control! Of course, an untimely frost will nip any new tomatoes in the bud. And shorter days mean the ripening process will take longer, making sudden death that much more likely. Still, a girl can dream of baskets of tomatoes right through October...

eek! a worm

All summer we managed to avoid them, but I thought I saw telltale signs of green horn worms on one of the plants last week. Little black droppings that just couldn't have been soot. But though I searched under leaves for the invaders, I didn't find any. Until this morning! I was pruning the dead branches from the Japanese Black Trifele when I tried to pick off a leaf - and it turned out to be a big squishy worm! Ugh. It wiggled between my finger tips as I threw it to the ground and smashed the bugger! Splat!

September blues

September is a bitter sweet month for an urban gardener. The plants are still rich with fruit, but the leaves are brittle and dry. Yes, we've got a new crop of eggplants hanging like globes on green stems. Peppers are sprouting anew and cherry tomatoes are still going strong. But there is in the air the knowledge that time is not on their sides. Despite the 90 degree days this weekend, a frost will inevitably come. Even without the chill of autumn, the days get shorter as the sun begins to wane. Though the tomato plants continue to flower, even they seem to know deep down that these shoots will come to naught. Instead of producing, the flowers will wither and die.
So, as I survey the glut of red fruit sitting on my kitchen counter, prepare my gazpacho and wonder how we'll eat the rest, I know that the end of summer is the end of gardening season. The wind will pick up, the cool air will come and the bounty of the harvest will give way to store bought produce.

Ask Us/Tell Us

With three summers of tomato farming under our belts, we've seen just about every disaster, disease and disorder possible with our plants. We'll share our remedies on this site. If you have had any experiences and have thoughts or tips, please post 'em here!

Vitamins and Minerals are for plants too!

We found out that tomatoes need fertilizer in our second growing season (2006). That may seem obvious, but we didn't have a mineral deficiency problem in our first year. We used Miracle Grow soil and cruised. But when we found purple and black spots on our leaves last year, it meant we needed to put phosphorus on the menu.

Saiffee Hardware on 7th St. and 1st Ave. in Manhattan had the goods. Hoffman's Tomato Food 5-10-10 includes the proper balance of phosphorous, nitrogen and potassium and restored our babies to health.

This year we were prepared with Hoffman's when the spots showed up. However, next season, we'll start feeding them before the problems start and continue with regular fertilizing. I bought Miracle Grow tomato food, a balanced mineral diet, and will try using it after the seedlings are transfered to outdoor pots and are strong enough for fertilizer. Of course, if the spots show up, I'll be back with the Hoffman's.