Zone 7 - What to Plant in January

Zone 7 - What to Plant in January

January is go time for zone 7 gardeners. January is your first window to start your indoor sowings and order your seeds for the spring season. The next two months are the most important for starting your vegetables on time. Start your tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables to be ready for spring transplant!

Green Ice is a crispy loose-leaf lettuce that does well in hot weather! This variety produces an abundance of crunchy loose leaves. Green Ice's leaves are curled with deep green color. This lettuce is ready in just 45 days, it is among the earliest, yet will last well into summer thanks to its superior heat tolerance. Green Ice is one loose-leaf that just won't bolt!

The Cayenne Long Red Thick Pepper is the biggest cayenne pepper you can grow! This variety's pepper grows to 5" long and 1/2" thick and are often curled and twisted. This pepper is great enjoyed fresh or dried for later use! The Cayenne Long Red Thick is a middle of the road hot pepper.

The classic Burpee's Bush Big Boy Tomato is the same large, juicy favorite but has been made even better, especially for small-space gardeners. With this variety, you get the same number of tasty, big red tomatoes (10 to 11 oz. each), with the same sweet, aromatic, melt-in-your-mouth juiciness as the original, but the compact plants are only half the size!

This refined, open-pollinated cabbage produces round, green heads wrapped around crisp, tender white hearts and has been a trusted favorite since at least the 1920s. Known for its very early maturity and compact growth habit, it is ideal for dense plantings and tight spacing while still delivering strong yields of uniform, marketable heads. The dense, solid heads are spherical, typically measuring 5–7 inches across and weighing about 3–5 pounds, with plants remaining relatively small compared to head size. Fresh, the flavor is delicately crunchy with a pleasant bite, while cooking mellows it to a rich, buttery taste. Well suited for coleslaw, stir-fries, and other fresh kitchen uses, this variety shines as an early fresh-market cabbage rather than a long-term storage type. Maturing in about 65 days, it is an excellent choice for serious cabbage growers seeking high quality and reliability.

The Tom Thumb Lettuce is a tennis ball sized Bibb type with a great flavor! This slightly savory, bright green lettuce produces small compact heads that have slightly crumpled leaves with a sweet, delicate flavor. One head will make a salad for two! Tom Thumb will grow beautifully in small pots, window boxes, hanging baskets and planted under trees. This variety is the oldest American lettuce still grown, dating back to 1830's! This rare find is a good one!

Bibb is a crisp, clean, and easy to grow butterhead lettuce that has light green leaves with the occasional red spots. The crispy heads often self blanch in the center. This lettuce variety is perfect for farmers markets and for the home gardener. This Bibb does well in the heat, yet still grows quickly in our cool weather. Lt. John B. Bibb served in the War of 1812, represented Logan County in the Kentucky House of Representatives and the state Senate from 1827 to 1834. Lt. Bibb was also an amateur horticulturist and developed the Bibb lettuce we know and love today. However, it wasn't offered commercially until 1935.

The Outredegeous Lettuce is a deep, dark purple red romaine that will maintain its dark color even under low-light conditions! This mesmerizing variety is a wonderful baby leaf type and large loose leaf type, making it the perfect lettuce for salad growers. You can start using its leaves after 28 days. Outredegeous seeds are a natural mix of black and white.

The Red Sails Lettuce is a full rosette type that produces radiant bronze-red, ruffled and deeply lobed leaves that have a mild bitter-free flavor that pairs very well in salads. This slow-bolting lettuce is ready to cut early and holds its quality very well. Red Sails has six times the vitamin A and three times the vitamin C as other supermarket lettuces. This variety thrives in cool weather, but can also grow well in the spring, summer or fall.

The Golden Jubilee Tomato has a meaty, thick, golden-orange skin with a mild flavor and is an All American Selection winning tomato! This medium sized beefsteak has low acidity and high Vitamin C content, making it a great choice for fresh eating and perfect for home gardens! This tomato variety's fruits are produced in a heavy yield from upright and uniform indeterminate vines, which makes this variety easy to manage. The Golden Jubilee was first introduced in 1943 by the Maule Seed Company of Philadelphia and has a flavor that is not too strong and pairs well with other ingredients.

The prolific Florida Market High Bush eggplant is a standard market variety that was bred in Florida in the early 1900s for the commercial use. This eggplant's plant is a vigorous upright well-branched plant that produces large purple egg-shaped fruits that are held high off the ground. The Florida Market High Bush is slightly tapered near the blossom end and broadens out. This variety is disease and drought resistant, hardy and everbearing.

The Floradade Tomato is a delicious, bright red variety that has a great ability to withstand heat and produce high yields! This variety was introduced by the University of Florida in 1976. This tomato plant produces smooth, 5-7 ounces sized tomatoes with slightly deep globes that have red with green shoulders.

One of our favorite peppers! If you like sweet peppers with a slight spicy kick, then the Cajun Belle is for you! This variety is a great small bell pepper that is an All American Selection winner. Cajun Belle matures early and is a very heavy yielder that bears 2 by 3 inch, 3-4 lobed fruit. This pepper's flavor really sets it apart from the pack with a sweet start that ends in a burst of spice that's not too hot. We found this charmer to be superb for both fresh eating and making salsa at either the green stage, or when ripened to red!

The Little Finger eggplants are slender, petite eggplants that are excellent for grilling and cooking. This eggplant has a dark purple skin is thin and tender with a silky flesh. This variety produces few seeds and a mildly sweet flavor. Harvest when the eggplant is young and glossy. Little Finger is a great variety for container growing and requires very little cooking time since it is so tender.

The Red Bhut Jolokia (Ghost Pepper) is among the world's hottest pepper! In 2006, the Guinness Book of Records confirmed that New Mexico State University had discovered the world's hottest chile pepper, the wrinkled, scarlet Bhut Jolokia. At 1,001,304 Scoville Heat Units (SHU), the Red Bhut Jolokia is nearly twice as hot as Red Savina, the Chile pepper variety it replaced as the world's hottest. In comparison, a New Mexico Green chile contains about 1,500 SHUs and an average jalapeno measures at about 10,000 SHUs. Use with caution.

Lakeside smooth leaf spinach with dark green leaves. It has a round to oval leaf shape with an upright plant habit that makes it easy to harvest. It is a very versatile variety it can be used for baby leaf, bunch or clip.

The Patio Tomato is a hybrid tomato that produces delicious, approximately 4 oz. fruits with attractive dark green rugose foliage. The easy to grow Patio Tomato thrives in pots, patio containers and small gardens, truly good things can grow in small spaces! Also does great as a hanging tomato plant.

The Little Caesar Lettuce is a very attractive tall romaine type with crisp, bright green outer leaves and golden-blanched inner leaves. This lettuce has a sweet, crunchy flavor that is delicious on any sandwich or salad. This variety is easy to grow and is perfect for smaller gardens. Little Caesar is best picked right before eating.

Hillbilly tomatoes are a vibrant heirloom variety renowned for their eye-catching appearance and rich flavor. These large, beefsteak-type tomatoes feature a striking color pattern of yellow and orange with red marbling, creating a visually stunning fruit that stands out in any garden. When fully ripe, Hillbilly tomatoes develop a sweet, fruity flavor with subtle tangy notes, making them an excellent choice for fresh eating, sandwiches, and salads. They typically take about 80 to 90 days to reach maturity, and the plants exhibit a sprawling, indeterminate growth habit, producing a steady yield of fruit throughout the growing season. The vigorous vines benefit from staking or cage support to manage the heavy fruit and ensure a bountiful harvest. With their unique coloration and exceptional taste, Hillbilly tomatoes offer both visual and culinary appeal, making them a favorite among gardeners and chefs alike.