Alright, this is John Kohler with growingyourgreens.com.
Today I have another exciting episode for you coming from my backyard garden.
Still in the height of pepper and tomato season here.
I now many of you guys, your season might be a little bit over but its time to start
planning for next season and start figuring out what you're going to plant for next season.
So, the video today is 10 reasons why you should grow more peppers and less tomatoes.
You know, I love peppers and I'm biased.
I love peppers a lot more than I like tomatoes and in this video what we're going to do is
we're going to share with you 10 reasons why I think you should definitely grow more pepper
instead of tomatoes in your garden for next year.
So, the first reason why you should grow more peppers is to be different.
Dare to be different.
I like going against the grain myself, and the tomato is the number one grown vegetable
for home gardeners.
If you're going to grow something usually people grow tomatoes and not peppers.
I like to be being different, except when I'm going against the grain in traffic.
The last time I went like against traffic flow, not cool.
I was getting off an off-ramp, you know, off the freeway and then I kind of like misjudged
where I was supposed to go because there was no like lane markers and I was going against
the traffic and I'm like, 'oh crap, this is not good.'
So, go against the grain by growing peppers but don't go against the traffic.
Reason number 2 why you should grow more peppers instead of tomatoes is because you can fit
more plants in and have more babies to take care of.
Actually, yeah, we're talking about a four-foot circular bed here, and in a four foot circular
bed I can fit about 8 tomato plants and in the same area I fit abut 13 or 14 I believe
pepper plants and you can actually grow them closer together.
So, my tomato plants would be spaced maybe 18-24 inches apart and, you know, they branch
out and spread and get gnarly and these guys just pretty much grow straight and erect and
I have them all staked up here to grow them vertically and you can fit a lot more plants
in instead of less tomatoes.
Reason number 3 to grow more peppers instead of tomatoes very simply disease resistance.
Check this out.
Here's my tomato plant.
It got something.
It caught something.
I don't know exactly what, but I often times had, you now, tomato plants I've lost and
tomato plants that get disease, bug infestations and all this kind of stuff.
My pepper plants are more immune and they don't seem to be ass affected by pests and
disease as the tomatoes.
Reason number 4 to grow more peppers instead of tomatoes.
Check this out, man.
I got a raised bed on this side, a raised bed on this side, and this is supposed to
be the walkway right here but we got a land bridge of tomato vines.
The 4th reason is because the pepper plants stay more smaller and more controllable.
This is especially important if you don't want your yard looking like a jungle, like
this kind of looks junglish because tomatoes are just so out of control.
Of course you can trellis your tomatoes up high if you got like the Texas tomato cage,
but, you know, they just grow more like a vine and just sprawl all over the place, man.
So, it'd be a lot more messy unless you grow patio style or tomatoes that stay smaller,
but I've found in many cases those tomatoes don't necessarily taste that good.
I like peppers because they stay a lot smaller.
They're much more easier to manage and control.
Reason number 5 to growing more peppers instead of tomatoes is they're easier to dig up at
the end of the season to over winter it inside.
I've overwintered my peppers before in an unheated green house.
I've tried the same with the tomatoes.
Just doesn't quite work, man.
The tomatoes have a much softer stem and they're more damage and more fragile.
The peppers are more like a tree and they're more hardy.
So, definitely overwintered them in an unheated greenhouse and you could overwinter yours
actually inside, underneath some lights in the wintertime and then have a jump on the
next season.
Reason number 6 to grow more peppers instead of tomatoes is, in my opinion, there's much
more taste complexity and flavors with peppers than there ever was with tomatoes.
Think about it.
They got like hot peppers, they got sweet peppers, and then they got that smoky type
pepper.
I mean, all the peppers I've ever grown, they like taste so unique and different.
With tomatoes, yes, there're absolutely different tasting tomatoes but the flavor complexities
are much better, in my opinion, on the peppers.
Reason number 7 to grow more peppers instead of tomatoes is very simply they store fresh
longer.
I've actually harvested peppers and they stay much fresher longer, they don't, you know,
dry out, shrivel up, go moldy as fast as the tomatoes.
So, you'll be eating fresh peppers longer into the winter.
Reason number to grow more peppers instead of tomatoes is pretty much right here.
Check it out.
This guy is a ripe on the vine.
It's actually been sun drying on the vine.
So, peppers are much easier to dry and preserve and keep for the winter than the tomatoes.
Actually, depending on where you live, they might even dry on the vine just like this
and then this will totally keep for awhile.
Other varieties you could actually pick and hang dry, yet of course dome other ones you
may have to dehydrate, and they're going to dehydrate faster than the tomato, because
they have less water content.
Reason number 9 to grow more peppers instead of tomatoes is guess what?
They're more cold tolerant.
I'd have my peppers, certain varieties of course, overwinter and grow and produce in
an unheated greenhouse, even.
Now, of course, that's going to depend on where you live but some pepper varieties can
reliably still produce when it gets into the high 30's like the monzono or ricotto varieties.
So, reason number 10 to grow more peppers instead of tomatoes is because they're more
nutrient dense.
What does nutrient dense mean?
That means it has more nutrient per the calories when they're calculated out.
I want to encourage you guys to check out Dr. Joel Forman and his book Eat to Live.
He also talks about the ANDI scoring chart, where like leafy greens are like the highest
food on the chart like the watercress and kale and collard greens and on like a zero
is like soda and junk foods.
So, we want to eat high on the nutrient density list to get all the nutrient we need without
all the calories that may, you know, make you fat and overweight.
So, the peppers are actually much higher than the tomatoes and I want you guys to remember
these numbers, OS, for example, the tomatoes are 164 on the nutrient density list, and
guess what the peppers are?
One of your guyses favorite numbers, check it out, 420.
Yes, the peppers are 420.
So, you remember 420 and you'll remember and you'll think about peppers and eating and
growing more peppers.
Alright, so I just named off 10 reasons why you should grow more peppers than tomatoes.
Lastly, I want to give you a con of peppers.
Peppers may require more heat, and this is especially important with the variety you're
growing.
Some peppers do better in cool temperatures like the monzonos, they'll produce fine, but
some need pretty warm temperatures that many of you guys may not have.
So, to rectify this you want to get the right variety and what I've learned also is that
it's very important to try to grow the smaller peppers instead of the big, large, honking
ones, man.
I grow the small varieties.
Actually, you saw the red cherries, and they were a hot red cherry but they also have a
sweet one also that's actually grown quite well in my garden.
So, to conclude this video, actually I want to open up a gift for you guys that I got
in the mail just the other day really relative and pertinent to this video today.
It's right here.
This little box and it's actually from chileplants.com out of New Jersey.
Let's go ahead and open up this box.
Check it out.
In this box we got a little catalog and we'll talk about that in a second, but check it
out inside the box here.
We got all these beautiful peppers and it's really cool.
It has a little legend here for like what's in each one.
So, check it out.
These are called Biou Jolokias and I bet many of you guys wish I would put this to my mouth
right now and eat it.
I'd be in pain, man.
You can look up Biou Jolokia videos on YouTube for people that are curled over after eating
just a little bit of this one.
Super hot.
This is probably one of the most hot peppers in the world right there.
Biou Jolokia.
We got this one called fatali.
That doesn't sound good either.
Fatali, it's like fatal, and then we got habanero red savannah.
I mean, look.
These guys are totally beautiful.
I mean, honestly tell me that tomatoes look this cool.
I mean, all the different shapes and sizes of the peppers amazing.
Over here we got the Grenada seasoning peppers, definitely looks really cool.
Next right here we got the ahi dolce number 1s.
Look at this, man.
These look like little UFOs, and then finally we got this one, man.
This is called the maraga scorpion yellow, and I like how this one looks, man.
It looks like part of the body that has some extra skin on there unless you're circumcised.
This guy is probably also real hot.
So, what I'm going to do with these guys, because they are super hot, I'm probably going
to dry these guys and I'm going to take out these seeds so now I can have the seeds to
grow the peppers next year.
I guess the chiliplants.com they sell actually chili plants and ships them to you, and I
think they actually sell whole peppers so that you can eat them and then use the seeds
to grow them next season and they'll also sell you the seeds so that you can grow the
different peppers.
I think the next thing I want to do is try one of these guys see if it lights my mouth
up on fire.
I'm going to try the ahi dolce number one and I'm just going to try a little but 'cause
I'm a freaking chicken, man.
It's not hot at all actually.
Man, the flavor complexities peppers are awesome.
I mean, it has like I can't explain like it's just so good.
Little bit of heat, of course.
If you don't want the heat, don't eat the seeds, and the seeds are very valuable for
me to not eat but to save.
It's mildly very mildly hot with the really rich intense flavor that I've never gotten
out of tomato, man.
I love this one.
So good.
So, next I want to share with you guys the catalog.
Check it out.
Cross Country Nurseries.
Chiliplants.com.
Catalog it says, 'the worlds largest selection of chili and sweet pepper plants 2013.'
Mean, this is insane.
Like they have all the listed varieties of peppers listed in here like over 50 different
varieties.
I bet you guys didn't know that.
I mean, if you go try to buy pepper plants at your local nursery, they might have green
peppers and red peppers and one of the tips is the green peppers will turn into a color,
you know.
The green peppers are unripe and I encourage you to always eat your peppers as ripe as
possible.
Like the ones in the box there.
Nice full vivid colors that make you want to eat them.
Don't eat the green ones, man.
They're not optimally and they have a funny flavor in your mouth.
Full flavor develops when the plants are optimally ripe, they've been hanging on the plants longer
to absorb more of the nutrients from the soil, but, yea, all these cool different kinds and
some varieties may grow better in cooler weather, some, you know, have a different growth structure,
some are super hot, some are sweet, and, you know, if you order peppers you can get the
exact ones you like.
Maybe you like kickass hot peppers, and you can order those seeds from chiliplants.com.
Maybe you like them really mild, maybe you just want small ones that are nice and sweet
like that dolce one that I just tasted.
So, you want to check out the chiliplants.com, their website, maybe request their catalog,
start selecting your seeds now for next year, 'cause it's coming up real quick.
So, hopefully you guys enjoyed this episode, learning 10 reasons why to grow more peppers
instead of tomatoes, and hopefully you guys will grow at leas tone more peppers plants
because of watching this video.
Once again, my name is John Kohler and I love my peppers.
We'll see you next time, and remember; keep on growing.
Alright, this is John Kohler with growingyourgreens.com.
Today I have another exciting episode for you, and I just got a new toy in the mail.
Its right here, check it out.
This is actually called the...