Getting ready for 2019 season

Hi Guys,
This is Moe from Sacramento. I just joined Growing Fruit and I am finding it a super informative forum. Thanks to the moderators for providing this opportunity. Hoping to learn more about gardening.

I am getting ready to get the following seeds and would like your input:

1- Tomatoes : Brandywine, Beef steak, Early Girl, San Marzano
2- Pepper: Carolina Raper, Jalapeno, any other interesting variety?
3- cucumber: no specific variety in my mind. any recommendation?
4: Watermelon: Congo, Sugar Baby

Thank you for your time

USDA Zone 9B

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Welcome to the community Moe.
I just recently found this place as well. Furthermore, we share the same city.

Tomatoes generally does well in our climate if you don’t count the height of the year. But bury them deep when transplanting to make the plant more draught tolerant. And save seeds from the best plant if the variety is open pollinated. I noticed a gradual increase of the hardyness with each generation. Cross pollination is possible but I’ve always got seeds that grow true to type.

If you want to grow Reapers, you should start those seeds right away. They take forever to ripen up and they despise our heat. Drops flowers like there’s no tomorrow. What variety you choose depends on what you want out of the peppers. Drying, fermenting, sauce, salsa and so forth. I mainly grow peppers each year so I can give you some pointers on what to grow if you reveal the purpose beyond just growing.

If you want a cucumber to eat directly from the garden or add in salads and sandwiches and such, Beit Alpha is great. Produces like crazy, tollerates high temperatures, and they are very tasty.

Ask anything and I’ll try to help where I can.

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wow great to find someone from the same area.

so what is your recommendation on tomato varieties for our region. not interested in cherry types.

and my purpose of getting peppers are to have unique taste that i can’t find in the grocery stores , this also goes with tomatoes. So i found reapers to be the hottest of all kinds which is interesting and there is another flavor call Ati pineapple? or if you know if any other variety that is unique and does well for our climate.

Is Beit Alpha a pickling type or the traditional cucumbers? I will certainly try that.

Any thoughts about watermelons?

The tomato variety that has done the best for me, which also is the tastiest and drop dead gorgeous is Lucid Gem. Very heat tollerant, but whatever you grow, bury them as deep as you can when transplanting.

If you’re drying peppers or making roasted salsa, nothing beats Rehza Macedonian. Any Baccatum variety does extremely well in our climate. Aji Lemon and Sugar Rush Peach comes to mind.
If you want floral with heat, Bahamian Goat, MOA Scotch Bonnet, or Aji Chombo are great choices.
If you want near death, Chocolate Bhutlah, Carolina Reaper, or Naga Morich are excellent choices. But with most superhots, start the seeds now.

Beit Alpha is a sweet burpless cucumber and not pickling.

Watermelons…hmm, well. I have limited space so I grow cucumbers and melons vertically so I prefer smaller melons. My favorite is probably Petite Yellow. A yellow fleshed water melon with barely no rind at all. My kids even eat the rind. That is how sweet and thin the rind is.

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One more, very important thing: mulch heavily. Leaves works best, but straw and de-seeded hay works well as well.

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Thanks Peter…
I have learned so much already from you. One more thing , where do you recommend to buy seeds from obviously reliable and affordable.

Welcome to the forum!

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I like parthenocarpic cukes - less seedy and more production

Diva is a good one, but I plant Tasty Jade, a long Asian variety

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I pretty much only buy from Baker Creek. Used many different sources in the past, but I find Baker Creek being the most generous. Furthermore, I only grow open pollinated varieties which Baker Creek by far has the most of. And finally, free shipping is really nice.

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