Order Your Seeds
In order to do any growing this season, you must have your seeds ready when it's time to start planting. Over the winter, it's a good idea to take stock on what seeds you already have and see if you need to replace any favorites or try some new varieties.
I order all my seeds from
Pepper Joe. I consistently get 100% germination from his seeds and he throws in free seeds with every order. Check out the catalog to start planning which varieties you will grow this year.
Also, if you are a salsa fan, nothing beats adding your own home grown tomatoes.
Pepper Joe has a sister site, called
Penny's Tomatoes, where you can get a large variety of tomato seeds. You won't find these varieties in a grocery store and Penny also throws in free seeds with every order.
Personally, I am a fan of growing the kinds of peppers that you can't buy in a grocery store. I've tried many different kinds over the years but there are a few that I grow every year. I guess you could call them my favorites.
Charleston Pepper (good producer, excellent taste)
Thai Sun Pepper (great for indoor growing or shallow containers outdoors)
Firecracker Chili (small, great for containers, big production, good for drying)
Then I'll look around the catalog and see what else looks good and worth trying. Once you have the staples selected (the ones I mention above) then part of the fun is to experiment with new ones. You may just find the next staple for your crop.
By the time the new year rolls around, it's time to place your order. After January 1st,
Pepper Joe adds new seeds for the year. I use this as an opportunity to impulse buy one of his new varieties and give that a shot. I shoot for a total of 6 varieties, 2 plants each, to grow during a given season. This is largely due to space limitations more than anything else.
This year, I'm growing a bit more and going to try out the
vertical upside down hot pepper growing bags. This way I'll be able to grow more varieties in less space. We'll see how well they work (I'm still sticking to containers for most of them).