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Perfect going to be starting tomatoes and peppers in 10 days or so.
the 1st annual alexander limato jr memorial vegetable contest
- Thread starter majorcatfish
- Start date
- Thread starter
- #42
majorcatfish
Garden Master
well was going to print out a nice letter to everyone, but since we tore down the house our computer will not recognize our printer now.....
so here you go....
hey everyone thanks for getting together for the annual Alex lamato veggie contest. this year we will be growing Yankee bell peppers,our good friend Alex turned me onto these peppers a few years back and they have been a very interesting bell, blocky thick wall once red one of best flavorful vine ripened red bells we have ever eaten.
the nice thing about the Yankee bell pepper is that it is an open pollinated variety, so you can save the seeds and share them....
in your envelope you will find...
15 Yankee bell pepper seeds they do best to germinate between 75-80* and have a range of 60 day to green and 80 day to red.
they are a heavy producing bell so do recommend that you cage them and tie them, otherwise the branches will snap off, they are pretty much pest free, but they will get a little bloom rot especially in high humid areas,recommend calcium spray if your soil is low in magnesium.
do recommend to pick both green and red dice them up and freeze for the wintertime use...
also added...
5 highlander pepper seeds these are an Anaheim type. shame they are a f1 seed. they germinate best between 75-80* and have a range of 65 day to green and 85 day red.
found these years ago after trying to grow poblano/ancho peppers with couple times of total loss to rot.. they have a wonderful taste either green or red best picked once fire engine red for their sweetness with a hint of heat, yes you need to roast them to remove the skin. personally recommend them over palanos for chile rellenos plus they freeze very well...
the highlander is very disease and pest free once again a little rot spray is recommended with hi humidity, and yes they need to be caged they grow to 3-4'
and they are very very prolific. depending on your love of roasted peppers you might only do 2 plants.
they freeze very well once roasted and deseeded....
here is a recommendation for the above 2 seeds start a few seeds early and about a month later start the rest, by doing this you are not overwhelmed at one time and you can enjoy them throughout the growing season and atmost make sure you cage them and as they grow somehow tie their branches up.
and finally....
5 escorial melon seeds once again these are a f1 seed, they germinate best at 75-80* they are a basically a 72 dtm. these little babies are a french style melon.
you have had box store cantaloupes these are like apples to oranges to them.
they are slow to start but when it heats up they go nuts.
recommend watering every other day, best to either use soaker hose or digging a moat and hand watering. plus once they have run about 7' it's time to start turning the runners inward they love to run..
fyi for every 20 flowers only one is female so these pollinators need to be busy....
around 60 days you will notice that your melons are starting to loss their webbing, this is a good time you might think this sound crazy get on your knees and start smelling the melons, once they start smelling a wee bit of cantaloupe, they are ready to pick<of course this will very on your region>. you can let them go a bit longer to the point of super ripe they will taste like pure honey of course they don't store very well once super ripe at this point either freeze or dehydrate them ...
did forget to mention that the striped cucumber beetle loves them as well so use an organic/ bee safe pesticide..........if needed.......
also start a couple seeds early and then the rest a month later, why have 40 melons all at once.?
i wish you all the best and enjoy ..
mc
so here you go....
hey everyone thanks for getting together for the annual Alex lamato veggie contest. this year we will be growing Yankee bell peppers,our good friend Alex turned me onto these peppers a few years back and they have been a very interesting bell, blocky thick wall once red one of best flavorful vine ripened red bells we have ever eaten.
the nice thing about the Yankee bell pepper is that it is an open pollinated variety, so you can save the seeds and share them....
in your envelope you will find...
15 Yankee bell pepper seeds they do best to germinate between 75-80* and have a range of 60 day to green and 80 day to red.
they are a heavy producing bell so do recommend that you cage them and tie them, otherwise the branches will snap off, they are pretty much pest free, but they will get a little bloom rot especially in high humid areas,recommend calcium spray if your soil is low in magnesium.
do recommend to pick both green and red dice them up and freeze for the wintertime use...
also added...
5 highlander pepper seeds these are an Anaheim type. shame they are a f1 seed. they germinate best between 75-80* and have a range of 65 day to green and 85 day red.
found these years ago after trying to grow poblano/ancho peppers with couple times of total loss to rot.. they have a wonderful taste either green or red best picked once fire engine red for their sweetness with a hint of heat, yes you need to roast them to remove the skin. personally recommend them over palanos for chile rellenos plus they freeze very well...
the highlander is very disease and pest free once again a little rot spray is recommended with hi humidity, and yes they need to be caged they grow to 3-4'
and they are very very prolific. depending on your love of roasted peppers you might only do 2 plants.
they freeze very well once roasted and deseeded....
here is a recommendation for the above 2 seeds start a few seeds early and about a month later start the rest, by doing this you are not overwhelmed at one time and you can enjoy them throughout the growing season and atmost make sure you cage them and as they grow somehow tie their branches up.
and finally....
5 escorial melon seeds once again these are a f1 seed, they germinate best at 75-80* they are a basically a 72 dtm. these little babies are a french style melon.
you have had box store cantaloupes these are like apples to oranges to them.
they are slow to start but when it heats up they go nuts.
recommend watering every other day, best to either use soaker hose or digging a moat and hand watering. plus once they have run about 7' it's time to start turning the runners inward they love to run..
fyi for every 20 flowers only one is female so these pollinators need to be busy....
around 60 days you will notice that your melons are starting to loss their webbing, this is a good time you might think this sound crazy get on your knees and start smelling the melons, once they start smelling a wee bit of cantaloupe, they are ready to pick<of course this will very on your region>. you can let them go a bit longer to the point of super ripe they will taste like pure honey of course they don't store very well once super ripe at this point either freeze or dehydrate them ...
did forget to mention that the striped cucumber beetle loves them as well so use an organic/ bee safe pesticide..........if needed.......
also start a couple seeds early and then the rest a month later, why have 40 melons all at once.?
i wish you all the best and enjoy ..
mc
Last edited:
thistlebloom
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Wow Major! That's very generous, I'm so excited about the Yankees and all the extras too.
Thanks for doing this and your thoughtful inclusions of their culture, I saved the letter to documents so I can review it.
Thanks for doing this and your thoughtful inclusions of their culture, I saved the letter to documents so I can review it.
catjac1975
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Wow Thanks major. Boy would be pleased with your generosity.
Carol Dee
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Thanks @majorcatfish 
Collector
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Sounds like some good seeds are coming my way. Thank you Major
canesisters
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Rhodie Ranch
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How much fun and distraction will this be! I've already "procured" some very large planting pots from HD and Lowes for my temp garden. Thank you!!!!!
baymule
Garden Master
This is going to be fun! The extra seeds sound like everyone is going to be eating really good!
The extra seeds sound like everyone is going to be eating really good!- Thread starter
- #50
majorcatfish
Garden Master
the escorial is my favorite melon now.. diplomat melon comes in second, 2 different types of melons but boy what a wonderful taste they have....
as for the escorial melon....here's a couple photos to help..
one day your going to walk out into the garden and your going to small a cantilope smell, yup you have ripe melons
right are melons about a week away from ripening
left is a melon that's perfect you can see that it's lost it's green tint and most of the webbing is gone...pick it now
thought about this late in the season is to use some type of stake/stick to mark where the melons are the canopy can hide them...
bring them inside and chill them...
once chilled slice one open scoop out the seeds...it will be like a spoonful of honey to just popped in your mouth... oh yes your face is going to get sticky with that wonderful honey cantaloupe taste. bet you can't eat just one....
out of 5 plants ended up with 40 melons, dw froze a ton for smoothies, gave away quite a few people asked for more...
that's why i recommended to start a couple and then start and plant the rest in a different area of the garden so you can enjoy them longer....
as for the highlander peppers...
first year that i grew them think i planted 6 of them..holy cow was giving away 5 gallon buckets of them every week... have trimmed it back too 2-3 plants
they will grow to about 7-9" long and around 3-4" in diameter.
you want to pick them fire engine red for the sweetness. if you like canning/freezing you can pick the green ones for green chile for your recipe.
in this photo is around late in the season and they are still producing and a 5 gal bucket still went to work..
lost most of everything we froze due to we needed room in the chest freezer when the fridge died...
do love in my breakfast scramble...
as for the escorial melon....here's a couple photos to help..
one day your going to walk out into the garden and your going to small a cantilope smell, yup you have ripe melons
right are melons about a week away from ripening
left is a melon that's perfect you can see that it's lost it's green tint and most of the webbing is gone...pick it now
thought about this late in the season is to use some type of stake/stick to mark where the melons are the canopy can hide them...
bring them inside and chill them...
once chilled slice one open scoop out the seeds...it will be like a spoonful of honey to just popped in your mouth... oh yes your face is going to get sticky with that wonderful honey cantaloupe taste. bet you can't eat just one....
out of 5 plants ended up with 40 melons, dw froze a ton for smoothies, gave away quite a few people asked for more...
that's why i recommended to start a couple and then start and plant the rest in a different area of the garden so you can enjoy them longer....
as for the highlander peppers...
first year that i grew them think i planted 6 of them..holy cow was giving away 5 gallon buckets of them every week... have trimmed it back too 2-3 plants
they will grow to about 7-9" long and around 3-4" in diameter.
you want to pick them fire engine red for the sweetness. if you like canning/freezing you can pick the green ones for green chile for your recipe.
in this photo is around late in the season and they are still producing and a 5 gal bucket still went to work..
lost most of everything we froze due to we needed room in the chest freezer when the fridge died...
do love in my breakfast scramble...
Last edited:
