November 17, 2024 – Many gardeners tend to plant the same gardening crops every year. Hopefully, they’re at least rotating crops to prevent problems caused by practicing monoculture, which puts gardens in decline. One of the fun aspects of gardening is the ability to experiment with new species? I experiment every year with something, and the results ranging from dismal to exceptional.
I stick with the basics of okra, cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes. For okra and peppers, I no longer experiment. Spineless okra and either beit alpha or Socrates cucumbers are my standards. They produce well, and the cucumbers produce 2-4 times the number of other cucumber species.
My produce goes to the battered women’s shelter, so I’m more interested in quantity rather than weight. I’ve tried jalapeno, cayenne, habanero and some other peppers, but this year I found some new standards. Jalapeno jedi plants produce very well and are both large & fat. Two new peppers, Thai hot and Thai mini, have proven very successful,
Thai hot (60-100K scoville) grow vertically, produce a crop, restart and produce a second crop. In a long season, a third crop is possible. Hai minis are another matter. The plants exceed 4’ tall, have extremely large foliage, and will produce an unbelievably large amount of produce, up to an exceeding 1,000 fruit ranging in size from little bigger than a pencil dot to ½”, and they also have the 60-100K scoveille heat rating.
A third 50-100K pepper is the xiêm rừng pepper, is also known as Vietnam Birds Eye Pepper. It’s a 3-4’ tall plant producing a heap of 1.5-2.5” fruit.
For tomatoes, I really like F1 Juliet. Yes, I have to buy seeds every year, but this is a heavy producer, and for whatever reason, violates the rule of not producing in the heat of summer.
