Seed order for 2019

By Rennie Phillips

For several weeks now I've been working and planning and dreaming about my seed order for 2019. Some of the varieties I could get locally, but many of the varieties I want to grow simply aren't available. I could order the plants in, but the cost would be prohibitive. So we are almost forced to start our own transplants from seed. Normally I grow tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and peppers as our main crops. But we also grow some dill, onions, cabbage, broccoli, kohlrabi and cauliflower. Now and then we grow corn and watermelon and squash. We have a real problem growing corn. When the corn gets tall and is making silk and making ears we get a wind storm and it lays it all down. We've picked corn with it lying on the ground and it's no fun. It was a lot easier to just buy our sweet corn like last year.

We grow about 125 tomato plants in each of our smaller 24x48 high tunnels. In the one tunnel we grow about 25 stupice and 100 Big Beef tomatoes. In the other tunnel we grow about 50 Jet Star, 25 Plum Regal, 25 Celebrity and about 25 Kellog and BHN 871 tomatoes. These tomatoes are a mix of hybrid and open pollinated tomatoes and with them being planted so close we can't keep the seed for next year. We start all of these tomatoes inside and usually transplant them outdoors when they are about 9 or 10 weeks old. In addition to the already mentioned tomatoes we will plant some Chef's Choice, Dr. Wyche, Mortgage Lifter, Mountain Merit, Mr. Stripey and Supersweet. These are both open pollinated and hybrid tomatoes. Normally all these tomatoes would be planted in our outside garden but with the addition of our new 30-by-60 high tunnel many of these will be planted in the new high tunnel.

We grow red tomatoes like Big Beef or Jet Star or Mountain Merit. We also grow striped tomatoes like Mr. Stripey. Some of the tomatoes are orange like Kellogg's or Chef's Choice. Some are yellow like BHN 871 or Dr. Wyche. We also grow a big roma type in Plum Regal which is one of only a handful of varieties which is resistant to Late Blight. It is a great tasting big roma with most tomatoes being 2 ½ inches long and 1 ½ wide. Almost no seeds. We have grown black tomatoes but it seems like they have such a small shelf life they don't work for us.

We grow several kinds of zucchini as well. We grow mostly yellow zucchini but we also grow a few of the dark green/black ones. Our favorite is probably Golden Glory which is a hybrid. It seems to do real well and has a really good taste. Last year we had good luck growing a dark green hybrid called Dunja. We tried the old traditional open pollinated green zucchini and just didn't have much luck with them. The Dunja did real well and fried up good as well. Most of our zucchini are grown outdoors.

Another of our favorite crops is cucumbers. I think it's amazing how the different varieties taste so different. Last year we grew Suyo Long which is a great open pollinated long cucumber. There was times when the suyo long grew to 16 to 20 inches long. We also grew some Tasty Jade which is also a long cucumber. Most of them grow from about 12 to 13 inches long. It's amazing how the Suyo long and Tasty Jade taste so different. Both of these are slicing eating cucumbers. For pickling we grew Northern Pickling cucumbers. They were short at about 4 to 5 inches and maybe an inch in diameter. We tried to pick them when they were about 3 to 4 inches for dill pickles. I love dill pickles. A great little pickle cucumber is Little Leaf H19 cucumbers. We are going to grow a couple other long European/Japanese type cucumbers this year. One of them is open pollinated so we could save the seed.

Most of the cucumber plants we grow are started from seed in my work room and then transplanted. We usually grow about 40 cucumber plants in each of our smaller high tunnels. These are usually just the slicer long cucumbers. Then in our outside garden we grow the pickling cucumbers like Northern Pickling. Not sure how many of them we grow but usually they are on a fence that is about 100 feet long. All of our cucumbers including those in the high tunnels are grown up on fence panels.

When it comes to peppers we grow mostly sweet peppers and very few hot peppers. We have been asked to grow the habaneros or the ghost peppers, but we just aren't going to. We don't want them around our cats and dogs. So we grow a few Ancho or Pablano peppers as well as a few jalapenos. The rest of our peppers are sweet peppers. My favorite pepper is a Big Bertha. I was at the foot doctor several years ago when he showed me a pepper one of his clients had brought to him. It was huge. So I looked up the grower in Chaffee and started growing the Big Bertha's. The Big Bertha is a green pepper that turns red. They are good but the yellow or orange are sweeter. We are growing one called a Yellow Monster this year and it's supposed to be big and sweet. Another we are going to try is an Aconcagua Giant pepper. Should be interesting.

When you buy seed for your garden if you are starting your own plants you can buy enough for two or three years. If you store your seeds correctly they will last several years. I store my seeds in our freezer when not in use. Seems to really work well. There are several places where you can buy seeds locally or purchase plants that are already started. Some of these stores sell bulk seeds so you can buy just a few.

Here in Missouri we are only three months away from having the last frost before summer so we need to do some planning and some dreaming.

Happy dreaming.