They make excellent pickled peppers. The “peach” flavor really comes out. I stuff a jar with slices/ rings and some onions, then I pour hot vinegar with some salt and a bit of sugar. They will stay crisp if you keep them in the fridge instead of canning. Really is the best use of them.
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Definitely trying this. The only pickling I’ve done are pickled daikon radish, so good. Might need a recipe with measurements since I don’t want to mess it up. 
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I have a couple of tomatoes varieties where my seed count is low or I’ve finished them up. This is the sixth year planting them, and I’d like to save seed. Does anyone have a good article or video on seed saving for tomatoes? Since I am planting two of each variety of which I have low seed, should I place a blossom bag on the flower cluster of each and try to pollinate them together? Does this help avoid inbreeding? I honestly don’t know. Because I plant so tight, I’d like to avoid cross pollination.
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Family stuff kept me out of town so I’ve gotten a very late start this year.
I’ll be grafting most of the large-fruited indeterminates tonight or tomorrow and planting them in about 10 days. The rest will probably be planted this weekend.
Peppers
Big Jim Legacy
Store Jalapeno (seeds saved from very large ripe jalapenos purchased in a Latino market - better than any commercial variety I’ve grown including hybrids)
Lemon Spice Jalapeno
Carmen F1
Pepperone de Senise
Sargento F1 (Pablano)
Rogers Giant Habanero
Fatalli
Sugar Rush Peach
Prairie Spice
Mellow Star (Shishito)
Padron
Rehza
Alek’s Sivri (from a guy named Alek from Serbia, probaby the same as Aci Sivri)
Orange Devil’s Horn (sweet even though it sounds like it wouldn’t be)
Goddess
Aji Guyana
Aji Colorado
Eggplants
Poamoho dark long
Listada
Summer Emerald
Chinese Finger
Dwarf Tomatoes (growing a bunch this year to renew seed that’s getting old)
Tennessee Suited – dwarf
Velvet Night – dwarf
Adelaide Festival – dwarf
Rosella’s Purple Dwarf
Sleeping Lady – Dwarf
Walter’s Fancy - Dwarf
Shimofuri (dwarf plant with variegated leaves)
Determinate tomatoes
Pertsividnyi Zheltyi (a yellow paste type, more elongated than regular plum types)
Indeterminate medium to large tomatoes
Bacon Lettuce and This
Negrillo de Almoguera
1884 Purple
1884 Pink
Cherokee Green
Aunt Ginny’s Purple (which is actually pink)
Kazula 25
Limmony
Malachite Box
Stump of the World
Biskaya Rosa
Pale Perfect Purple
Nizami (yellow/golden heart)
Fish Lake Oxheart
Grightmire’s Pride (heart)
Berkely Tie Dye Heart
Morado di Fitero
Linda’s Faux
Estler’s Mortgage Lifter
Red Lithium #2 (red beefsteak)
Red Lithium #1 (striped red heart)
Not Black Prince (yellow multi-color small heart shape – came in a trade and has been worth growing every year even though it was obviously an accidental cross)
Highland Hero (an accidental cross that has created an elongated medium/cocktail sized yellow striped tomato)
Schokoladnaja Sosulka (a dark paste)
Cherry tomatoes (all indeterminate)
Chadwick Cherry
Helsing Junction
Golden Cherrywine F1
Dr. Carolyn
Lucky Tiger
Brad’s Atomic Grape
Black Cherry
Sungold F1
Favorita F1
Sakura F1
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Sowed Sungold, and a whole bunch of other varieties, on Sunday and it sprouted already. I think that has been the quickest of all my tomatoes ever.
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Impressive list!! Do you end up giving away a lot or canning?
that’s how I do- flowers that are just about to open I’ll bag the cluster. then cut all but the best one or two when fruit forms. I do a lot of shaking to make sure they pollinate in there
then I save seed from the best one that ripened soonest in the bag. it seems to work pretty well
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I’m thinking bagging the first cluster would be the easiest to identify and work with. I’d rather save seed at the beginning before I’m flooded with tomatoes. 
Do you pollinate by swapping pollen between two plants of the same variety, or do you keep it within the same flower cluster?
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I usually start them all early, growing about 600-800 seedlings and participate in a local plant sale which basically subsidizes my gardening for the year. But I plant at least one of each variety myself and give away a lot to friends, neighbors and the local foodbank. I don’t can, but we do freeze some of the paste types whole and just toss them in the boiling water when making pasta for a second, pull the skin off and use them for a quick sauce.
Most of these are grown as single stem on 12-15 inch centers so I can cram a lot in a limited space. And the cherries I grow up along the fence at my community garden plot. Many get taken since people can just walk up, but there are plenty left for me and I think it actually has reduced the theft inside my plot since people can get something easily. I grow most of the peppers at the house and fight the deer for them, but the deer just destroy all tomatoes so those go to the community garden.
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Finally made some hot sauce. 3 ingredient recipe; peppers, vinegar and some salt. I used serranos, red jalepenos, 1 green jalepeno, and thai dragon seedling peppers. Little too many thai dragons, alot of up front heat. Very good flavor, just can’t pour it on everything I eat like I do with Crystals.
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Finally have peppers sprouting! It’s been eight days with the newly purchased seeds. I want the rest to germinate; I used four-year-old seed here. Might be a reason why it is taking a bit. Serranos just don’t want to come up along with Sunbright and Orange Sun bell peppers.
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When do you normally plant them out? Peppers don’t really seem happy outside here until July some years.
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I hear you about July.
I put my pepper plants outside when the overnight lows are above 47F. They’d much prefer 55F but my growing season is so short that wouldn’t leave me enough time.
I also start them early so they are ready to kick off and flower mid late-June.
I also grow peppers individually in 15qt pots, simply to keep the root ball warmer in the sun. Probably something those of you and warmer climates would never do. I’m able to grow everything from sweet to extreme that way. Jimmy Nardello and Goddess Banana through Naga Viper Brain and 7Pot Primo.
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Usually plant out everything in late May. I have planted sooner but because of May freezes, I’m a bit gun-shy, even tho this year the last freeze was mid April.
My tomato and pepper starts indoors have really struggled to get going. I transferred them from starter mix to potting mix a couple weeks ago to drinking cups like I usually do. But they’re just not doing well. The potting mix has a bit of fertilizer in it, and I’m trying not too water too much, but they’re having issues.
We bought some plants last week and I put them in the garden last weekend. We might have to buy more if these indoor plants don’t get it together.
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I start my tomatoes, peppers and eggplants using starter mix in large styrofoam cups with holes poked in the bottom. Not the little coffee cup size, but the ones you might use for iced tea or soda. I put a few seeds in each cup, and usually most, if not all will come up. I do use a heat mat to get them started because our house is fairly cool most of the time and have them under grow lights until they are ready to be hardened off outside and planted.
Most people start their veggies in tiny pots seed trays, or cubes, but I am lazy and hate repotting things so I thought I would just start them in big cups that would be fine for the roots to grow large until time to plant out. If too many seedlings came up in each cup, I just let them grow a while together and snipped out the weaker ones. With tomatoes, I left two plants to grow together in some pots, and just grasped each plant and half the rootball in each hand and tore them in two and planted. Tomatoes are quite tolerant of root disturbance and both plants took off growing after planting outside.
The plants did great in their big ole cups, grew large and healthy, and I had much less work since no repotting into larger containers was required. I think it helped even more with the eggplants and peppers since I did not have to disturb their more delicate and less resilient roots by repotting. I will never start my seedlings in tiny containers again.
This year due to time constraints, I had to buy tomato and pepper starts. I was hoping to already have them in the ground last week, but saw where it was supposed to get into the mid-40’s this week. I will bring them into the garage for the next couple of days, and then hope to plant them out on Saturday, May 24. I have read that temperatures in the 40’s will stunt them, but I don’t know for sure. Since I have waited this long, might as well wait a couple more days!
Sandra
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I actually bought heat mats this year when I saw them on sale. I was simply sowing them in small containers and leaving them outside until they germinated. Unlike my dad, who direct sows peppers and tomatoes; I followed his advice with tomatoes this year (the first round), and now we have a lot of fruit set. He threw some Black Cobra pepper seeds around February or March; they’re a nice size to transplant. I don’t really care for them though, not that much flavor and a lot of upfront heat.
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I soil block for the heat mats so I can fit everything under the lights on the mats at the beginning then put the blocks into either 4 inch pots or tall cups depending what they are. the blocks are less like transplanting, they’re not as fussy. I try to only up pot once, I let the roots get nice and crowded before they go out
I use trays with forests of seedlings for the tomatoes I give away, then split them off into cups or whatever I was given at the swap the year before. this year it was solo cups and Dixie cups. last year I had a bunch of waxed cups someone brought
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I’ve been starting my tomatoes and peppers indoors for all but one of the last 12 years. At first I used those little Jiffy peat pods, which worked okay, but they’re in little baggie like things that made them difficult to transplant to bigger cups.
So I switched to Jiffy hex pod planters, just add starter mix, which varied over the years. After they get maybe 2-3" high, I’d transplant them to 12oz drinking cups with holes punched in the bottom, with potting soil instead.
Whether in the peat pods or hex pods, they’d be on a heat mat until most germinated then the heat would be removed and they’d go under four T8 6500K fluorescent bulbs. They’d stay under the lights whether in the pods or cups. When it was close to planting them out, I’d harden them off by putting them outside a few hours every day, slowly increasing that to most of a day. Then plant out.
This year my seedlings just didn’t look right from the beginning, don’t know if I waited too long to transplant or they had a gnat and or fungal issues. Even after transplanting to cups they’re still struggling. I’m careful to not over water, so I don’t know what’s going on. Here we are near Memorial Day, which is usually when I plant out, but that’s not happening this year. Next year I will try a different starter mix.
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@resonanteye Yes, I can see that if you are starting lots of plants for various purposes that putting them in large cups from the get-go would take a lot of heat mat space. I just start enough for us and if there happen to be a few extras they go to the neighbors.
I bought cheap plastic shelving that has 4 shelves and I set it up in the small hallway guest bath that has a walk-in shower, which is almost never used. I splurged on 3 heat mats and some pretty decent grow lights for 3 shelves. I bought some inexpensive clear plastic shallow storage containers for each shelf to sit the cups in. The plastic shelves sitting in the shower make for easy watering and clean-up and are lightweight and easy to stash in the basement after seed starting time is done.
The main issue, which is not so bad once you get used to it, is the otherworldly pink glow coming from the shower. Those grow lights definitely have an unusual hue to them!
Sandra
@subdood_ky_z6b I feel your pain. Your process with heat mats, grow lights, hardening off and not overwatering sounds just like what I do. Sometimes with living things they just don’t take off robustly like they usually do.
It would be nice to know why, but I have found that often I cannot figure out the cause. Could be older seeds, the fluorescent lights growing dimmer over the years if you have had them for a while, or the seed starting or potting mix. I bought some potting mix once (can’t remember the brand now) and nothing in any pot did well. So it would be worth trying a different mix next year.
Hope they perk up and start sizing up for you. I guess you can resort to buying starts but, of course, the varieties in most places are quite limited! I am throwing some positive thoughts toward your little plants. 
Sandra
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