Applestar’s 2018 Tomatoes (and peppers ...maybe eggplants)

[applestar]

Kitchen Garden Patio SIP#3 (KGP:SIP3), a.k.a. Bill’s Striped SIP



- 6 out of 8 plants bore striped fruits of various degrees and with variation in shape

- 2 out of 8 plants have fruits with no sign of stripes. Hopefully they will be like Giant Marconi — Bill’s Striped is believed to be a Giant Marconi sport, and Even without stripes, fruits have been described as thick walled, juicy and sweet.



- #8 plant had to be cut down to a stub after being attacked by a stalk borer. It bore a fruit with fortunately insignificant stripes.



Now that they have each shown what kind of fruits they can grow, I’m waiting for the next flush of flowerbuds to grow so I can bag the worthies with organza drawstring bags and keep the seeds pure. This part has been reported to be a challenge since Bill’s Striped is has been known to be difficult to set fruits when bagged.

[applestar]

It seems odd to me that all three of my Napa Rosé are blushing at the same time, regardless of the different microclimates they are planted in....

[applestar]

- Gochugaru yong Gochu g2 I believe? (My designation for 2nd generation from seeds saved from fruits grown on started plants of hybrid status=unknown) — harvested first 2 red ripe fruits today
- Shishito AG’17 (overwintered)

[applestar]

Zena’s Gift on the right — the first fruit is getting bigger — definitely biggest in the garden so far


(Gezahnt on the left)

[applestar]

2nd little one I’ve found so far.

...little hornworm...

[applestar]

Another grower reported that Napa Rosé splits under water stress — dry then wet.

Yep. It splits Just look at that evil sneer!
...I ate it. even split, it was quite flavorful and tasty


BOTTOM RIGHT ...now I’m having issues with my identification and wondering about possible mishandling during the seedlings stage. The non/low antho one, which I was sure it was one of the Napa Rosé because it was growing in community with the other two heavily antho’d ones, ripened to a different color ...possibly red/yellow epi though I haven’t verified yet.

(Napa Rosé is a pink with clear epi)

[applestar]

This is F3 or F4 of an accidental sweet yellow (Doux Long d’Antibes) x (an unknown hot pepper). I was given the seeds from an orange sweet segregate to try.... Hopefully this will also produce sweet orange fruits — my understanding is “sweet’ is a recessive trait.



I missed it with this fruit, but I need to bag future blossoms of this plant to prevent contamination cross by neighboring Fish, Shishito, and Hanoi Market peppers.

[applestar]

Sweet Aperitif —said to be very sweet and tasty. Can’t wait to try — giving them the customary 24 hrs in the house first.




I gave my BIL who adamantly refused any cherry varieties one plant anyway. He planted out his 1 week to 2 weeks earlier. I received this text from him today:

Ur cherrys are psychotic-they're everywhere. But good tasting

[applestar]

Allons-y, Dr.X F4



...this first one on this plant was kind of small. Hopefully the fruits will go back to the bigger slicers / beefsteak size like last year’s....

[applestar]

Yesterday and today —

[applestar]

Zena’s Gift

BIL sent a picture of their first Zena’s Gift (I labeled it )


— He texted “Zena is HUGE!”

Here’s my first one — still green... I think those are bird claw-marks.

[applestar]

Molten Sky F4 and Wild Rosa F4 in the Spiral Garden.



...for some reason, Wild Rosa in both VGD and SG beds are heavily infested by mites. Not too worried about size and shape since the fruits changed through the season last year.

This Molten Sky F4 in the Spiral Garden is showing early promise with hints of developing skin patterns and maybe more uniform shape/size. But the other ones in the VGD bed is more prolific so far.

[applestar]

Faelan’s First Snow

[applestar]

Micro-dwarf tomatoes are growing new floral trusses now that they have established in the strawberry jar


- Greek oregano in one of the side holes, and Purple Petra basil looking ready for a cutting

[applestar]

Bill’s Striped sweet peppers (believed to be Giant Marconi sport)

[applestar]

Giant Sweet Devil’s Horn pepper first harvest —




...should I have waited a couple more days? I don’t know if raccoons will eat sweet peppers — I didn’t want to find out.

- Dwarf Lemon Ice
- NOT FFS•Bear Creek
- Dwarf Chocolate Lightning

(Barker’s Hot — I discovered the rotten raccoons had bent the stems these green fruits were growing on when they rummaged in the potting mix they are planted in, so I cut them off — hope to harvest better samples later)

[applestar]

Responding to the call to initiate Operation Bag’em and Tag’em



— these Bill’s Striped pepper blossoms are said to be difficult to set fruit when bagged to prevent accidental cross pollination by insects. Sometimes, they even appear to have set, then drop blossoms. ...Keeping fingers crossed these will be successful!

[applestar]

First time growing these — Aleppo, Syrian Strain. Supposed to be mild with heat at the end and is said to be great fresh and even better dehydrated and powdered.
...trying to find out why they are only turning red on the blossom end half....

[applestar]

Keeping track.....

[pepperhead212]

Apple, I grew the Aleppo last season, and the same thing happened with the "backwards ripening", as I called it. Must be in the genes, if it happened with yours, too. I dried almost all of mine, and let them get dead ripe and slightly shriveled, before putting them in the dehydator. I like to do this with thin fleshed varieties, as this improves the flavor. The flavor of these is very good, relatively mild (3-5k, maybe), and the crushed peppers made a delicious nam prik pao, when I tried it for a friend, who can't take heat of the 50k peppers I usually use. So it caramelizes very well.

[applestar]

Thanks, pepperhead212 — so leave them alone and let them ripen in their own time? If you thought they tasted good, I’m really looking forward to the harvest!

[applestar]

First Bill’s Striped to blush is #1 and the stripes are pretty striking, but I’m hoping for a better example fruit from this plant because this one seems stunted compared to the other fruits — maybe Incomplete pollination... and the premature blushing may be due to a damage at the top which may be insect — possibly Pepper fly. The plant itself also suddenly lost chlorophyll — I accidentally flooded the tub (immediately drained) so that might be the reason, but this is the only one.

[applestar]

I think this is the biggest/longest Giant Sweet Devil’s Horn so far. I harvested it on Tuesday, then kept its stem wrapped in moistened paper towel, and it has turned completely orange.

[applestar]

This is the biggest tomato so far — Zena’s Gift



...I had to pick it early, partly because of that spot and excessive rains + muggy warm nights we are having making it likely that it would have rapidly deteriorated if left outside, plus the raccoons have been raiding the garden, and although they haven’t picked more than a couple of green cherry tomatoes so far — nibbled and left on the ground (they have been concentrating on destroying the still immature corn and taking most of the green apples) — I didn’t want them to get their grubby paws on this prize.

[applestar]

Bill’s Striped is sure fun to grow. Look at these! I think #2 is currently the best looking.

[applestar]

Zena’s Gift — 15.3 oz

[applestar]

Just random Bill’s Striped pepper photos. Top-left and -right are #1 on the day it was harvested — I don’t think I showed full-ripe photo — the Stripes do become more difficult to see as was described. Top middle are the two unstriped fruits, but the plant stem has significant striping — not Sure if that matters. The pepper in white square container labeled “Scotch Bonnet” is actually Gochugaru Yong Gochu g2, which inherited the container after previous occupant winterkilled.



- ...Unfortunately each plant had just one fruit then we had weird temperatures that threw off any kind of blooming or fruit setting. (although I have to say this kind of just one (or two) fruit each then pause is not uncommon on peppers in my garden.)

- They are all starting to bloom again now and I have been trying to bag (2 trusses each). First bagged flowers on trusses have dropped on most of them, I missed bagging some others and the flowers opened, so those might have set... and am planning to bag another 2 trusses each to try again.

- Ate that #1 fruit in a quick pasta “sauce” — diced and sautéed rainbow chard stems and leaves, soaked dehydrated shiitake mushroom, completely red Bill’s Striped #1 and a 1/2 sized jalapeño ripened to orange color, yellow tomato (The Witz), leftover steamed broccoli and shrimp, beaten eggs, mushroom soaking water, Himalayan sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, whole almonds, a little white wine..... combined with cooked fettuccini, and finished with kefir poured over the plated pasta — Thicker, juicier wall than I had expected. Quite yummy in this combo with no discernible skin. Not as sweet as Giant Sweet Devil’s Horn, which I’m sure is expected.

[SQWIB]

You got some interesting stuff growing. Have you dealt with the raccoons?

[applestar]

Haven’t seen them since I put the motion-activated door chimes out there....

[applestar]

Here are some of the other container peppers —

[applestar]

Oxhorn of Carmagnola


...the fruit is bent for some reason, but the square rabbit guard wire fence opening is 4”x4” so it’s a pretty big fruit.

[applestar]

These are a little difficult to see due to all the background stuff and the glare on the wet leaves, but I thought I would take pictures and share the dark/purple-foliage peppers I have growing this year (actually all except this year’s newly started Rainforest Variagata were overwintered from previous years)

In order of darkness of stems and foliage IMHO
- Black Scorpion Tongue Ladybug
- Rainforest Variagata
- Maui Purple
- Bolivian Rainbow


...First three grow dark purple/black fruits that ripen to intense red/ Bolivian Rainbow fruits are multicolored as they mature - purple, lavender purple, white, yellow, orange, then red.

[applestar]

Bill’s Striped

I harvested #3 and #4. For size reference, the patio table slats are 2 inches on the center.



#6 and #2 will be next. Possibly #5 as well. #5’s shape is like #3’s, but larger.

...those of you who have grown Giant Marconi — do you see the resemblance?

[applestar]

This is a Doux Long d’Antibes Cross that is being grown out for fun. There are three lines — one Is a Serrano-looking hot pepper type, and the other is slender and long sweet orange or red segregate. I received seeds from a long sweet orange segregate and it is growing true to type —

...I think I will be harvesting it tomorrow...

— this one is showing signs of mite infestation stress... I don’t think the bagged floral truss made it. I’ll try again.

[pepperhead212]

These are a little difficult to see due to all the background stuff and the glare on the wet leaves, but I thought I would take pictures and share the dark/purple-foliage peppers I have growing this year (actually all except this year’s newly started Rainforest Variagata were overwintered from previous years).
In order of darkness of stems and foliage IMHO
- Black Scorpion Tongue Ladybug
- Rainforest Variagata
- Maui Purple
- Bolivian Rainbow


...First three grow dark purple/black fruits that ripen to intense red/ Bolivian Rainbow fruits are multicolored as they mature - purple, lavender purple, white, yellow, orange, then red.

I have a Black Pearl this season, the darkest foliage and fruits I have seen, other than the Maui Purples. Purple flowers, too, like the Mauis. I am going to isolate a branch and save some seeds this season, if you want some. Haven't tasted them yet - too early, these are still growing, it seems.

June 28:
DSCF0755 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Repotted July 4th:
DSCF0805 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Closeup, Aug 3rd:
DSCF0958 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[applestar]

DH an I ate #4 and #2.

Only way DH likes peppers is butter-simmered sweet peppers and onion mix to eat with sausage, so I gave him the can’t-get-any-riper #2 and #4 Bill’s Striped along with some green Oxhorn of Carmagnola and Giant Sweet Devil’s Horn. He cooked them with sweet Spanish onions.

I was delayed in joining him, and when I got the ketchup out of the fridge to use, I realized it was a new bottle and not yet opened. I asked DH if he used a different bottle of ketchup (did he finish up another bottle?) and he replied it was good without ketchup. —you have to understand he NEVER eats his onions and peppers without ketchup. The fact that he didn’t even think about using it goes a long way in making some assumptions about the aroma of the cooking peppers (and onions) making him forget even getting the ketchup, and initial tasting leaving him sated and not bothering.

I tasted small slivers of the raw peppers before they were cooked. I noted that #2 had a distinctively better flavor - richer, maybe fruitier - compared to #4 which seemed watered down. GWDH was also tastier as green peppers than OHOC, and Bill’s Striped peppers had twice as thick walls than either of the green peppers. All of these peppers had thin skin that were not at all intrusive. Only skin that got spat out were the sausage casing.

[applestar]

PEPPERS
Numex Lemon Spice — yellow jalapeño
Doux Long d’Antibes and the DLA cross
Sun Thai — which looked like it barely made it through the winter but is now chugging along....
Unstriped Bill’s Striped - shorter and smaller fruited so unremarkable unless the flavor is superior

TOMATOES
Blackberry
Faelan’s First Snow — considered a Cherokee Purple cross or a sport, the fruit often cracks but not the concentric shoulder cracking which is typical of Cherokee Purple
Dwarf Lemon Ice — has exctremely thin skin and does crack easily from increased rain or irrigation. It wasn’t fully ripe, but I ate it in a BNT (Bacon, Nasturtium-leaf, Tomato) sandwich. It has a strong middle flavor even not fully ripe, plus the citrusy tangy finish stands up well in a sandwich — it was lovely

[applestar]

More peppers —

- Bill’s Striped #5 (no stripes but huge)
- Bill’s Striped #6
- Sweet Choco Loco
- Chocolate Cake

[applestar]

Bill’s Striped #4



...they have not been growing well — mites, drought, too much rain...then started to see munched on leaves and flowers/fruits.,, then I was away from the garden for a bit.

...finally managed to spot this guy yesterday...

[applestar]

Bill’s Striped —



Patio Container Pepper Corner on top, plus other pepper plants scattered around the garden....

...Doesn’t the color of the Trinidad Scorpion Chocolate really make you think of chocolate?


Today’s Harvest with Oxhorn of Carmagnola, Aleppo Syrian Strain, Trinidad Scorpion Chocolate, and Peppadew peppers —