Monday, 18 March 2019

I started my tomato, pepper, basil and flower seeds about a month ago.  They are currently thriving.  I add a Miracle Gro  Quick Start fertilizer (4-12-4) every time I water them, which is daily because they are in the little cells for now.  They need  more water the bigger they get.

Tomatoes:
3 types of determinate
24 types of indeterminate regular tomatoes
11 types of cherry tomatoes

New varieties this year:
   Bella Rosa - determinate
   Chapman - indeterminate
   Amish Gold - indeterminate (free trial packet)

Progress:  Out of the 100 or so tomato seeds I started, only 7 didn't come up....all of the Cherokee Chocolate and all of the Big Zac.  I'll need to throw out the rest of those seeds before next year.

Peppers:
I only grow ornamental peppers and hot peppers.  At times I have grown the sweet varieties, but to be successful at it, I have to grow them in pots because I  have so many earwigs.  With our hot summers, it is too labor intensive for me.  I didn't start any for this year.

New varieties this year:
Sahuaro
Lemon Drop
Numex Joe Parker
Big Jim

One type of my ancho peppers didn't come up, but the 2nd variety (Mulato Isleno) did come up.  


Flowers:
I love growing Tidal Wave Petunias in hot pink.  I found a great deal on seeds this year from a new company I've never tried.  I was disappointed because only 29 of the 44 seeds came up.  However, I did also buy Easy Wave Petunias and all 36 of those came up, and I planted a few other varieties of petunias and had great success with those too.

I also started some Impatiens in 4 different colors, and only 4 out of 40 didn't come up, so I'm excited to try those this year.  These flowers remind me of the wonderful flower boxes on windows and patios when I lived in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.