My brother needs advice on cold weather tomatoes and peppers.

[hedgehog]

He's moving to Eureka, California and expects to see wet and cool weather most of the summer. He's always raised tomatoes and peppers for his own salsa. Can anyone suggest some likely varieties?

[Ecumenist]

1. Is he moving to Eureka proper or an outlying area?

This makes a difference because if he were to move to some of the areas in the hills to the east or even to Fortuna, it would make a huge difference in the sun and warmth that he would recieve to grow tomatoes and peppers. He's going to have to ALWAYS plant his tomatoes and peppers against the south wall of a building and/or use a hothouse or greenhouse. He should also look into cool weather cultivars. The conditions can be drastically different depending on where he actually ends up.

[hedgehog]

2. He's still looking, but he's moving from the Chesapeake Bay area so it's

going to be a big change regardless of where he ends up.

[JetCityLiberal]

3. Can't really help with tomatoes

but I grow peppers all year round, jalapenos, cayenne, ancho. I am north of Seattle and get most of my seeds from this site:
http://www.territorial-seed.com/stores/1/index.cfm

Their seeds are for those of us west of the Cascades, might be helpful to him even in Eureka.

Johnny's in Maine is a very reliable site for cold weather gardening too:
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/



I overwinter my peppers inside in a south facing window, I grow most of my peppers in big planters with great success so I can bring them in for wintertime. But in April they get their wean out back to the garden.

Hope this helps some!!! Good luck and happy gardening to your brother!

Paul

[Gormy Cuss]

5. I second both recommendations.

Territorial has varieties chosen for the western climate zones and sells starts of most tomato and pepper varieties. Johnny's has great short season tomatoes because they're in Maine, and Johnny's has a very detailed and informative seed catalog.

[Kolesar]

4. I planted my peppers in black plastic "mulch" to make the soil as hot as possible

I salvaged the bags from composted manure. The bags had black linings, so I turned that side up and punched triangular holes for each of the plants I bought. If he is buying plant starts, the nursery ought to have good varieties and good advice.

I yielded eight pounds of pepperoncini from six plants. Two of the plants were grown from seeds. You have to start seeds under lights in about March to get decent results.

I like the idea of buying seeds from a regional seed catalog as mentioned upthread :thumbsup:

[hedgehog]

6. Any comments on the red plastic mulch for tomatoes?

He's getting the Territorial Seed catalog with his Christmas presents.

[Kolesar]

7. For every "notion", someone develops a product

I put notion in quotes because it might just be an effective product. I don't want to be dismissive. I saw the red plastic in a seed catalog for the first time last month.

Now you got me thinking: Red mulch may be the best of both worlds: (1) reflects the color of light that plants need, especially during fruiting, and (2) absorbs the other colors of light and heats the plastic and heats the soil for those plants who like it hot.

Does it have holes to pass water?

[mitchtv]

8. There is a variety of tomato"SF Fog"

best bet. Peppers will not be hot there. I used to garden in Sonoma Valley