Ruppenthal - How to Grow Tomatoes, Peppers, and Eggplant: Planting and Growing Organic Heirloom Tomatoes, Sweet Bell Peppers, Chili Peppers, and Gourmet Eggplant

How to Grow Tomatoes, Peppers, and Eggplant: Planting and Growing Organic Heirloom Tomatoes, Sweet Bell Peppers, Chili Peppers, and Gourmet Eggplant

By R.J. Ruppenthal, Attorney/Professor/Garden Writer

The Worlds Most Popular Homegrown Vegetables

How to Plant Tomatoes, Peppers, and Eggplants

Getting the Best Results From Your Plants

Fresh Produce From Your Patio, Deck, Balcony, Rooftop, or Rafters

Preparing Your Organic Vegetable Garden

Stakes, Cages, or Trellises?

Giving Them the Nutrition They Need

Techniques to Limit Diseases and Automate the Process

Happy Plants Produce Lots of Fruit

And Where to Get Some Seeds!

All Rights Reserved 2012 R.J. Ruppenthal

Chapter 1: Growing Your Own Tomatoes, Peppers, and Eggplants: The Worlds Favorite Homegrown Vegetables

Homegrown tomatoes, homegrown tomatoes.

What would life be without homegrown tomatoes?

Only two things money cant buy.

Thats true love and homegrown tomatoes. John Denver

Homegrown tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants provide the true taste of summer. These three plants, which are closely related, thrive in warm summer weather and are simple to grow in most home gardens. Whether you have acres of land, just enough space for a few plants in the yard, or simply a container or two on your patio, balcony, deck, rooftop, or doorstep, then you can grow tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants.

This short book will show you how to grow organic tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. We will cover all the important things you need to know: how to prepare your garden space, plant your vegetables from seed or seedling, take good care of the plants (including proper feeding and watering), and harvest them for fresh use or storage. If you consider yourself a lazy gardener, then this is the perfect book for you, because I like to keep it simple. You will learn some simple techniques to cut down on your watering and weeding.

Tomatoes are the most popular homegrown food crop in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia, four countries which keep statistics on their hobby gardeners. In the U.S. and Canada, peppers are the second most popular homegrown vegetable, and they even make the Top 10 list in the cool climate of Britain. In China, eggplants and chili peppers are among the most popular foods to plant at home.

From Hungary to Pakistan, Argentina to Italy, and Kenya to Vietnam, the tomato family vegetables are planted and enjoyed by billions of people. In developing countries, where many people still grow large amounts of their own food, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants remain important crops. Nearly every country in the world has a national dish that features one or more of these vegetables.

You will never buy a tomato, pepper, or eggplant thats as tasty as one you can grow at home. Homegrown tomatoes are juicier, sweeter, and more flavorful than anything at the store. Commercial (plastic) tomatoes are grown from varieties selected for durability and uniformity rather than taste. These are picked unripe so that they can be shipped for many miles to your local store. In contrast, a fully ripe homegrown tomato from your garden may not even make it to the kitchen without splitting! Mortgage Lifter, Cherokee Purple, Yellow Pear, Sungold, Green Zebra, Amish Paste, and Brandywine are just a few notables you can grow at home.

If youve never tasted homegrown peppers, you are in for a treat. Your local grocery store might sell bell peppers and one or two kinds of hot peppers, but as a home gardener, you will be able to plant any one of hundreds of different peppers: orange and purple bell peppers, sweet paprika peppers, dark red cherry peppers, Thai birds eye peppers, Habanero and Ghost chilies with thermonuclear levels of heat, Poblano peppers, yellow pickling peppers, and many more. Even if you are growing a run-of-the-mill variety, you will find it has a deeper and fuller taste when grown by hand. Plus, your homegrown peppers will be completely organic.

Below is a picture of the naga bhut jolokia pepper from India (ghost chili). At 10,000 times spicier than Tabasco sauce, it is classified as one of the hottest peppers on the planet.

Eggplants are the third wheel in this trio of heat-loving summer vegetables. While theyre nowhere near as popular as tomatoes or peppers, eggplants are closely related and have much the same growing requirements. So if youre planting the other two, then why not pop in a couple of eggplants as well? Whether you try the giant, black-purple ovals we slice up in America, the slightly smaller and more refined Italian varieties, the slender Chinese and Japanese eggplants (some of which are bright purple), bright red African eggplants, or the tiny southeast Asian eggplants that can be white, green, purple, or striped, there are many choices. Again, I think you will find homegrown eggplants more flavorful and enjoyable than store-bought food. Ratatouille, grilled vegetables, kebabs, and eggplant parmesan are mouthwatering dishes that combine all three of these summer vegetables.

By the way, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants are fruits in a botanical sense, but most gardeners and cooks treat them as vegetables. In 1893, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that tomatoes are vegetables (and not fruits) for purposes of tariff regulations. I like thinking of them both ways, so I use both terms in this book.

Note : Since tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants and tomato family vegetables are long terms, I will abbreviate these vegetables from now on as TEPs. This will be easier for you to read, since you will be seeing that term again and again. Tomatoes + Eggplants + Peppers = TEPs!

Chapter 2: Starting with Seeds or Seedlings: How to Plant TEPs

Tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers (TEPs) are subtropical plants in the Solanaceae family. As their family name suggests, they love plenty of sunshine. Tomatoes and peppers originated in Central and South America, while eggplants were domesticated for the first time in India.

While all three plants can be grown in temperate climates (such as those in most of North America, Europe, Japan, Southern Australia and New Zealand), these cannot handle the frosty weather of early spring. In their native environments, TEP plants are perennials, meaning that each plant can live for many years. But most of us can grow them only as annuals in the warmer months of our calendar, because its just too cold for them during the other months.

When grown as perennials in frost-free climates, some plants in this family can get truly huge. The Sungold tomato, a candy-sweet variety of orange cherry tomato, holds the record for the tallest tomato plant. Grown in a greenhouse in the United Kingdom, the record-setter reached 65 feet in length. The tree tomato at EPCOT in Florida, as shown in the picture below, produced 32,000 tomatoes from a single plant.

When to Plant

Since TEPs are sensitive to the cold, this means you cannot grow them outside in temperate locations until all danger of spring frost has passed. And you are better off waiting until the air and soil warm up a bit. TEP plants grow best when daytime temperatures reach 65 F degrees and nighttime temperatures stay above 50 F degrees (preferably above 55 F). For most gardeners in temperate climates, this will be mid-Spring or so.

When springtime comes, most of us gardeners cannot wait to get our summer vegetables in the ground. But often, it is better to wait until you are sure the weather has warmed sufficiently. I usually keep an eye on the weather forecasts around planting time and make sure to choose a week that is trending warmer. If a cold snap is on the way, wait another week.