Sowing While It's Snowing!

Today I decided to sow my pepper, eggplant, ground cherries and dwarf tomatoes inside. I definitely have the gardening blues and I can't wait till all this snow goes away. While I am sowing my seeds I look out my kitchen window to a winter wonderland. Here in PA we are getting another 1-3 inches of snow today to add to the foot of snow we got on Thursday. Yuck! Enough about the snow, I am excited about getting my indoor seeds started. I normally wait until the last week in February to start my pepper and eggplant seeds, but I got impatient and started them a week early. I am also trying ground cherries again this year, which I learned last year take awhile to get going. I did not have luck germinating my seeds last year, but I am going to give them another try with new seeds.  As for my tomatoes I usually start them the middle of March, but I am trying some dwarf varieties and I read they take longer to grow. Here is some information about all the seed varieties I planted today.

Peppers:

Corno di Toro (Islero & Giallo)
Corno di Toro or "Bull's Horn" sweet peppers are a traditional Italian pepper. They are tall, branching plants that bear heavy sets of 8-12 inch long, curved, tapered and pointed shiny peppers. The peppers have thick, sweet flesh in bright yellow (Giallo) and vivid red (Islero).

Purple Beauty
This variety produces loads of beautiful dark purple bells on compact, bushy plants. Crisp texture and mild, sweet flavor makes this one popular with everyone.

Feher Ozon Paprika
Originated in Hungary. Productive dwarf plants produce 5" long fruits that ripen from creamy white to orange to red. Exceptionally sweet flesh. Dried fruits can be ground to make paprika powder.

Cubanelle
Thin-walled, long, tapered peppers have more flavor and a lower water content than bell peppers and are the perfect pepper for roasting and frying. Best when picked while they are light green but can also be left to mature until they turn orange-red.6 in. long, 2 1/2 in. in diameter.75 DAYS.

Chinese Giant
Sweet Chinese Giant is twice as big as the largest bell pepper. Plants are a compact 24" tall. Fruits are usually 4 by 4".

Romanian Rainbow
This pepper makes a colorful display as it ripens from ivory through orange to red. The bell-type fruits are 4-5 inches long and have a delicious, lightly sweet flavor with no bitterness.
Romanian Rainbow peppers are produced continuously and in abundance, starting early in the season. 60 days.

Hungarian Pumpkin (Paradicsom Alaku Szentes Pepper)
One of the truly great Hungarian peppers. Yellow, flat, ribbed, pumpkin-shaped fruit have the tremendous flavor that peppers from Hungary are famous for. The flesh is very thick, crisp and juicy. 80 days.

Sweet Heat
Mild, spicy flavor - like a pepperoncini, but with smoky undertones. Early and prolific, with loads of sweet bells that average 3 to 4" long by 1 to 1-1/2" wide. A perfect choice for grilling and salsa. Can be eaten at the green or red stage. Plants are compact and bushy.

Anaheim Chili
Anaheim Chilies are prolific bearers, of long thin fruits about 6" long. Mildly hot, people use them in roasting, stuffing, stews, sauces or raw.  Plants grow 20-30" and bear late in the season.

Pasilla Bajio
The popular "chile negro" pepper. While classified as a hot pepper, Pasilla ("little raisin") has almost no heat. Fruits have a berry, almost herbal, flavor, and strong, upright plants produce heavy yields of uniform, 8 to 10" peppers, thin walled, slender, very dark blackish-green maturing to a dark brown. Very easy to grow, with good resistance to Tobacco Mosaic Virus.

Eggplant:

Prosperosa
Prosperosa is a wonderful eggplant. Baseball to softball sized purple fruits with white shoulders. It is good just sauteed in olive oil, but makes for excellent eggplant parmesan or curry as well. Petite plants that are very prolific and do well even in cooler climates. This is an excellent multi-purpose eggplant. 70-78 days.

Lavendar Touch
Lavender Touch F1 Hybrid produces eggplants with a unique color, white with a lavender blush. 63 days.

Beatrice
Similar in shape, flavor and texture to Rosa Bianca. Earlier maturity, darker fruit color, and just slightly smaller (4-6" long by 4-5" diameter). Purple calyx. High yields of round, bright violet, Italian-type fruits.

Listada de Gandia
Stunning 8" oval fruits are white with lavender stripes. Small 14" plants produce heavy yields of high quality thin-skinned fruits with mild white flesh. Thrives in very hot weather. 80-90 days from transplant.

This is my view from my kitchen window while sowing my seeds today!