Vegetable Gardening Page 8
Not all problems with tomatoes are related to insects or diseases. Too much or too little water, too much fertilizer, cold temperatures, and varietal differences can all contribute to deformed fruits. Here are a few of the more common problems and some solutions:
Blossom drop: Your tomatoes are flowering beautifully, but the blossoms all seem to drop without forming any fruit. This condition, called blossom drop, is caused by air temperatures above 90 degrees Fahrenheit or below 55 degrees Fahrenheit. At these temperatures, most tomato flowers will not set fruits. The solution is to grow varieties adapted to the heat (such as ‘Solar Fire') or cold (such as ‘Cold Set'). Or you can protect the plants during flowering with floating row covers.
Blossom-end rot: With this condition, the bottom, or blossom end, of tomatoes turns brown and rots. Blossom-end rot is caused by fluctuating moisture conditions in the soil, so the best cure is to mulch the plants well, plant them in well-drained soil, and keep them evenly watered.
Fruit cracking: Many types of fruit cracking affect tomatoes, but all involve fluctuating moisture conditions and exposure to cold temperatures early in the season. To avoid this problem, plant varieties that are less likely to crack (such as ‘Big Beef'), reduce nitrogen fertilization, mulch the plants to keep the soil moisture even, and protect flowering plants from cold nights with row covers (see Chapter 21).
Sunscald: You'll know that your tomatoes have sunscald if the top surfaces of the fruit skins have lightly colored patches. These patches, which are caused by direct exposure to the sun, eventually rot. To avoid sunscald, grow indeterminate varieties that have lots of foliage to shade the fruits (such as ‘Better Boy'), avoid pruning the leaves, and provide afternoon shade with shade cloths. Or you can grow the plants in cages instead of staking them.
Harvesting tomatoes
Harvest tomatoes when they're fully colored and still firm to the touch. Tomatoes don't need direct sun to ripen, just warm temperatures. Tomatoes will continue to ripen indoors if they're picked too early, so it's better to err on the early side when harvesting. As long as they show some color when picked, they'll ripen indoors with that vine-ripened flavor.
If you want to push the harvest along, you can prune off some new branches and tiny fruits to redirect the plant's energy to the larger, maturing fruits. You also can root-prune the plant, cutting 6 inches into the soil in a circle one foot away from the stem of the plant. Root-pruning severs some of the roots, shocking the plant and forcing it to ripen its fruits faster. It will, however, stop the production of new fruits, so this technique is best used at the end of the season.
If you live in an area with bright sunshine, don't prune off tomato foliage. Removing too much foliage results in sunscald, a condition in which the tomato skin literally gets sunburned. Sunscald itself doesn't ruin the tomato crop, but it opens the door for other rot organisms to attack the fruit. (See the previous section for more details.)
Chapter 5: Meeting the Tomato's Cousins: Peppers and Eggplants
In This Chapter
Surveying sweet, hot, and ornamental pepper varieties
Examining eggplant varieties for all occasions
Growing peppers and eggplants in your garden
Peppers and eggplants, which are two tomato relatives (they're all in the nightshade, or Solanaceae, family), may not have the popularity of their big, red tomato cousins, but their varieties do have a similar diversity of tastes, colors, and shapes.
Peppers, in particular, are experiencing a resurgence of interest, and breeders have responded to that interest by creating new and improved varieties. Whether they be sweet or hot peppers, you have many new varieties to choose from. No longer simply green, yellow, or red, sweet pepper varieties come in a rainbow of colors, including orange, purple, and chocolate. The new varieties adapt better to cold and hot temperatures and have more ornamental qualities. With the popularity of salsa (which is now the number-one condiment in the United States, according to the U.S. government), nachos, and spicy foods in general, hot peppers are gaining heaps of attention as well. From the mildest jalapeño to the hottest 5-alarm habañero, varieties are available for all taste buds and heat tolerances.
Eggplants (named because some varieties have fruits the shape and color of hens' eggs), aren't as popular as peppers, but they have gained a lot of attention because of the discovery of varieties other than the traditional dark purple, teardrop shape. Long, thin, Oriental types make excellent grilled snacks, skin and all. Small, round, green, Asian eggplants are great in soups and casseroles. You can even find unusual round, orange, Turkish types that are used in specialty ethnic cooking.
Both peppers and eggplants are beautiful plants to grow in your garden, and they make excellent container plants if you have limited space. Some pepper varieties have purple stems, leaves, and fruits; eggplants have beautiful purple flowers, and the fruits can be a variety of colors, including white, purple, striped, green, and orange. So, reserve a spot in the vegetable or flower garden for these beautiful, edible fruits.
Producing Plenty of Peppers
An abundance of pepper varieties are available to home gardeners, including many new varieties of hot peppers. In the following sections, I classify peppers into four groups: sweet bell peppers, sweet nonbell peppers, hot peppers, and ornamental peppers. Most of these pepper plants grow to 2 to 3 feet tall unless otherwise noted.
Those sweet bells
Bell pepper fruits come in blocky, round, or elongated shapes. Most fruits start out green but mature through a variety of colors before ripening to their final color.
The days to maturity given in the following variety descriptions represent the time from transplant in the garden to full size. Add 2 weeks to this number to know when they'll mature to their final color. Sweet bells have the sweetest flavor when harvested at the mature color stage, but they still can be harvested green and taste good.
Variety descriptions for sweet peppers frequently use words such as lobes and blocky. No, I'm not talking about ear shapes. When you cut a pepper crosswise near the stem, you'll notice that the walls divide the pepper fruit into sections. Pepper experts call these sections cells or lobes. Well-defined lobes or cells make peppers blocky. Most bell peppers have three to four lobes. Blocky fruits are best used for stuffing or slicing into pepper rings. The thick-walled varieties are best for stuffed-pepper recipes.
Here are a few of my favorite varieties of sweet bells, all of which offer good disease resistance:
‘Ace': This early, 3- to 4-inch-long hybrid bell matures within 50 days and grows well in cooler climates.
‘Bell Boy': These four-lobed, thick-walled All-America Selections, or AAS, winners yield fruits that turn red on compact (smaller than usual) hybrid plants. They mature in 70 days.
‘Blushing Beauty': This AAS winning hybrid features 4-inch-long-by-4-inch-wide blocky fruits that mature in 72 days. The fruit color is amazing. It starts out ivory white, turns to gold, turns to orange, and then finally turns to red. It tastes great at any stage.
‘California Wonder': These classic, thick-walled, 4-inch-by-4-inch blocky hybrid bells mature to red in 75 days and are great for stuffing. They also come as a yellow-fruited variety called ‘Golden CalWonder'.
‘Chinese Giant': These old-fashioned, thick-walled, huge (6 inches by 6 inches) heirloom bell peppers mature to red and are very sweet. They're good stuffing peppers and mature in 75 days.
‘Chocolate Bell': These 3- to 4-inch-long hybrid bells mature in 70 days to a rich chocolate skin color with red flesh. The fruits have a smokey-sweet flavor, but sorry, they don't taste like chocolate.
‘Golden Summer': These blocky, thick-walled, four-lobe hybrid fruits are lime green in color and mature to gold in 67 days.
‘King of the North': This variety is reportedly one of the best open-pollinated bell peppers for cool areas with short growing seasons. It takes only 57 days to mature the 3- to 4-inch-long, thick-walled fruits that start out green and mature to red.
‘Islander': This unique, light lavender-skinned and pale yellow-fleshed hybrid bell pepper also has yellow and orange streaks before turning bright red at maturity. These three-lobed fruits are produced within 80 days.
‘Jingle Bells': These hybrid bells mature in 60 days. Compact plants are loaded with miniature (1 to 2 inches in length and width) bell peppers that mature to red.
‘Purple Beauty': This 4-inch-long heirloom features a short, bushy plant with fruits that start out purple and mature to red. The thick-walled, sweet fruits are ready to harvest within 75 days.
‘Valencia': These hybrid plants have good foliage cover and produce large, 5-inch-by-5-inch peppers with thick walls and sweet, orange flesh. They mature in 70 days.
‘Vidi': These French hybrid bells mature in 70 days. The plants mature into red, 5- to 7-inch-long peppers that withstand less-than-ideal growing conditions.
‘Whopper Improved': It ain't called a "whopper" for nothin'. This classic green hybrid bell pepper that turns to red is widely adapted and matures in 72 days. The bushy plant has good foliage cover to reduce sunscald (lightly colored patches on the fruit caused by direct sun exposure that eventually rot), and it produces reliably large yields of 4-inch-long-by-4-inch-wide fruits.
Long and round sweet peppers
Sweet peppers are more than big, blocky bells. Some of the sweetest peppers I've ever tasted have been long, tapered (or blunt-ended), thin-walled, Italian frying types. These types of peppers have gone through a renaissance of late, with more varieties available for outdoor grilling, frying, and sautéing than ever before. Other great sweet peppers come in round, cherry shapes and short, fat heart shapes. Both long and round varieties of pepper plants grow 2 to 3 feet tall and most mature to the color red, which is when they're the sweetest. So heat up the frying pan, fire up the grill, and dive in! Here are some of my favorites:
‘Biscayne': These 6-inch-long, 2-inch-wide, Cubanelle-type (which feature a blunt end) hybrid bells mature in 65 days. They're good for frying.
‘Carmen': An AAS-winning hybrid variety, these bull's horn-shaped fruits are 6 inches long and 2 inches wide. Fruits turn red in 75 days and are very productive, making this a great variety for cool-summer gardeners.
‘Corno di Toro': These bells are original Italian "bull's horn" peppers. They received their name because the fruits are 8 to 10 inches long and are curved like the horn of a bull. Three-foot-tall plants ripen yellow or red fruits in 68 days. These peppers are great for frying. ‘Sweet Toro' is a newer hybrid version; and now you can purchase a golden version called ‘Corno di Toro Yellow'.
‘Cubanelle': These 6-inch-long, light green, open-pollinated fruits have thin walls and blunt ends, making them perfect for frying. They mature in 65 days.
‘Giant Marconi': This AAS-winning variety, which stretches to 8 inches long, is known as one of the largest Italian frying peppers available. It matures early at 63 days and is high yielding and flavorful. It's the perfect grilling sweet pepper. These hybrid plants are also disease resistant.
‘Gypsy': These AAS-winners produce 4-inch-long, wedge-shaped fruits early in the season; the fruits mature from yellow to orange-red in 60 days. This hybrid variety is very productive and adapts to many growing conditions.
‘Jimmy Nardello': Okay, so I couldn't resist a pepper close to being my namesake. This tasty variety features very sweet, 8-inch-long, open-pollinated peppers that mature to red in 90 days. Long, thin, and sweet — just like me!
‘Paprika Supreme': Care to make your own paprika powder? Well, here's the pepper for you. These 7-inch-long, flattened, thin-walled hybrid fruits are perfect for drying after they mature; maturation takes 100 days.
‘Peperoncini': These 4-inch-long, wrinkled, open-pollinated peppers are best known as the pickled, light green peppers served in Italian antipasto. They take 62 days to mature.
‘Sweet Banana': Probably the most well-known of the long, tapered, open-pollinated sweet peppers, these 6-inch-long fruits, which mature from yellow to red, are born on compact 1 1/2-foot-tall plants. They take 72 days to mature. ‘Banana Supreme' is a hybrid version.
‘Sweet Red Cherry': These thick-walled, 1 1/2-inch-round sweet open-pollinated peppers are often available at salad bars and pickled. The plants are compact — 1 1/2 feet tall — and are very productive. They mature in 78 days.
Peppers that turn on the heat
At one time, the only hot peppers you'd see people eating were the dried flakes sprinkled on pasta in Italian restaurants. How times have changed! With the growing interest in cuisine from around the world — such as Mexican, Korean, Thai, and Indian — hot peppers are enjoying widespread popularity.
Speaking generally about hot peppers is difficult, because the flavor and level of hotness varies with each type of pepper. But, here's one general fact to keep in mind: Hot pepper plants usually are easier to grow and produce more peppers than sweet pepper plants. And because some varieties are so hot that they could strip paint, you won't need to add very many to your cuisine. In the following sections, I discuss the factors behind the fire, provide a chart for measuring a pepper's heat, and list some popular varieties.
Understanding the fire of the hot pepper
Before getting into hot peppers, you need to understand the heat in hot peppers.The active ingredient that causes all the fire is called capsaicin (the tiny, blisterlike sacs on the inner wall of the fruit, as shown in Figure 5-1), which is located on the pepper's placental wall. You find fewer sacs at the tips of hot peppers, so you could bite off the tip of a hot pepper and be fooled into thinking it's not that hot. If you cut into the pepper or handle it roughly, however, you break the inner-wall lining, releasing capsaicin throughout the fruit — even to the tip.
To counteract the hotness of hot peppers, try eating dairy products such as yogurt, ice cream, or milk with your hot dishes.
Some pepper varieties, such a habañero, are so hot that you can get serious burns in your mouth. If you get the capsaicin in your eyes or in a wound, you can get burns there also. Check out the new, less hot habañero in the later section "Picking some hot peppers to grow."
Figure 5-1: The capsaicin is located inside a pepper fruit in theplacental wall.
Measuring heat with the Scoville scale
To help you decide how hot you want to go with hot peppers, the Scoville Heat Scale was developed in 1912. The scale ranges from 0 to 350,000 and measures pepper hotness in multiples of 100. Table 5-1 shows some of the most popular hot pepper types and their hotness ratings. The chart gives a range for each rating because weather, growing conditions, and pepper variety can all affect how hot a pepper is. This chart can help you decide how hot you want your peppers.
Picking some hot peppers to grow
Here are some hot pepper varieties that you can grow:
‘Anaheim TMR 23': These moderately pungent, open-pollinated, smooth-skinned, 7-inch-long-by-2-inch-wide peppers are produced on 3-foot-tall, leafy, tobacco mosaic virus resistant (TMR) plants. They mature in 75 days. You can use the dried pods to make the ristras (wreaths of dried peppers) popular in the Southwest.
‘Ancho 211' (Poblano): These open-pollinated, red, mildly hot, 4-inch-long, wrinkled, heart-shaped peppers often are stuffed and served as chile rellenos. You also can dry them and make them into wreaths or powder. They take 80 days to mature.
‘Big Chili II': This hybrid Anaheim-type roasting pepper is 8 to 10 inches long and mildy pungent. Yields are high and early at 68 days.
‘Cherry Bomb': These mildly hot, 2-inch-round, thick-walled hybrid fruits mature in 65 days to a bright red.
‘Habañero' (Capsicum chinense): These are some of the hottest peppers known to mankind! These 1-inch-by-1-inch, lantern-shaped fruits mature to orange on 3-foot-tall open-pollinated plants. They thrive in the hot weather and take a long season to mature — 100 days. The hottest variety of this type is a red variety called ‘Caribbean Red,' which tops 445,000 on the Scoville scale.
These hot peppers
can be dangerous, so take care when handling and eating them.
‘Hungarian Hot Wax': These medium-hot, 7- to 8-inch-long, tapered open-pollinated peppers mature from yellow to red and are great for pickling. They take 70 days to mature.
‘Jalapeño M': The classic salsa, nacho, and pizza hot peppers. These moderately hot, 3-inch-long, round-tipped open-pollinated fruits taste great when eaten green or red. ‘Jalapa' is a more productive hybrid version, and ‘Tam Jalapeño' is a milder variety. These peppers take 75 days to mature.
‘Mariachi': This AAS-winning hybrid hot pepper features high yields of 4-inch-long and 2-inch-wide mild fruits that are very attractive. The peppers start yellow and mature to red in 66 days.
‘NuMex Joe E. Parker': A very productive open-pollinated variety of a popular breeding line from New Mexico State University. The 6- to 7-inch-long fruits have a mild to medium spice. They mature in 65 days.
‘Serrano del Sol': These candle-flame-shaped, 3 1/2-inch-long, hot peppers are born abundantly on 3-foot-tall plants. This new hybrid version matures 2 weeks earlier and is more productive than the original ‘Serrano'. With the same heat as jalapeños, they're great in salsa and often are used in sauces. They mature in 64 days.
‘Super Cayenne III': These 3- to 4-inch-long, fiery hot hybrid fruits taste great when eaten green or at mature red. The attractive plants are 2 feet tall and look good in containers. These peppers take 75 days to mature. A similar yellow-fruited variety called ‘Yellow Cayenne' is also available.
‘Super Chili': These AAS winners produce an abundance of 2-inch-long, cone-shaped, hybrid hot fruits that you can dry or eat fresh. These peppers take 75 days to mature.
‘Thai Hot': These 1-inch-long, fiery hot peppers from Thailand mature in 80 days. Compact 1 ½-foot-tall open-pollinated plants bear tons of fruit, making them attractive ornamentals as well. You also can try other varieties of this pepper, including ‘Giant Thai Hot', which produces larger-sized fruit.