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Hot weather tomatoes & bell peppers ?
It only went down to 37 degrees last night here in NW Austin (183 & 620).
The tomato they grow commercially down in the Fredericksburg area that will continue to set and produce fruit in the heat of an Austin summer is Sun Master -- my favorite for heartiness, production and flavor, produce abundantly, about 4" fruits, smooth, round red -- it is a refinement of Heat Wave. I use to buy them at the Wolfe's Nursery on north 183 a few miles south of Cedar Park but that store closed. I have found them sporadically at Hill Country Landscape And Garden Center (13561 Pond Springs Road, 258-0093), and Red Barn Garden Center (12881 Pond Springs Road, 335-8093), both are here in far Northwest Austin just off of 183, both carry the popular hybrids and some heirlooms. I think Hill Country Landscape is much cheaper that Red Barn but haven't done price comparisons for awhile. Home Depot and Lowe's (which is owned by Wal-Mart) are sporadic about what varieties they get in but mostly traditional hybrids (hybrids' advantages are that they are usually more disease resistant and hardy and usually produce more heavily, the advantages of some heirlooms are that they may come back next year as "volunteer" plants (hybrids do not produce viable seeds) and heirlooms win on flavor). Determinate tomatoes produce well for a short period then essentially quit (will still get an occasional tomato or two if you don't pull the plant), Indeterminate plants (usually) will grow much taller sprawling and will continue to produce until frost. Typical varieties found at the three places you named: Celebrity (Determinate) Porter (Indeterminate) Mercer (?) Sweet 100 ("Cherry", Indeterminate) Patio (Indeterminate) Early Girl (Indeterminate) Better Boy (Indeterminate) Beefsteak (Indeterminate) Roma ("paste" - good for eating and making sauces, Determinate) The two nurseries on Pond Springs Road (Pond Springs runs off of 183 just south of Lakecreek Blvd intersection dumping back into 183 just before McNeil intersection) will have those plus several other varieties including some of the more popular heirlooms like Brandywine (Indeterminate). I have tried both Porter and Mercer and did not have good luck with either, but taste is a personal preference and differences in soil do make very marked differences in the flavors of tomatoes. This year I've got a couple of heirlooms I started indoors from seed - then from Wal-Mart one each of: "Celebrity" & "Patio", and from Hill Country Landscape And Garden Center ($.79 for a 2" pot): "Ultra Sweet Beefsteak" (Determinate), "Carnival" (Determinate), "Navidad Grape" (this is a very sweet cherry style, Indeterminate), I haven't found any Sun Master yet, and also want an Early Girl because they are always reliable. On Bell peppers -- about everything does well -- last year I got one from Hill Country that produced like mad even after the first freeze (I did cover it). They had six or seven different varieties of Bell peppers to choose from and I don't remember which that one happened to be. -- Marta (if you email me directly you need to remove the X ) |
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