Zone 9 - What to Plant in December

Zone 9 - What to Plant in December

Now is when the main planting is happening in zone 9. The hot and humid days of summer are behind us and we can start growing the garden. With a last frost date in early February you should start growing your tomatoes, peppers and other plants indoors so they are ready to transplant in February.

The Anna Russian Tomato is a delicious and beautiful heirloom oxheart-shaped tomato that was brought over from a Russian immigrant in the 1980's. This large tomato variety is early maturing for an oxheart variety. The beautiful pink-red fleshed Anna Russian can weigh up to 1 pound. This superb old-fashioned tomato gives off rich tomatoey flavors with lots of juice.

The Jack Be Little is a small pumpkin that is popular in many floral arrangements! This new miniature pumpkin is ideal for small Jack'O Lanterns and other decorations. These easy to grow plants bear several small pumpkins per plant. The Jack Be Little pumpkins are edible, but are more highly valued for their decorative value and will last for months if properly cured!

The Black from Tula is a delicious Russian tomato that makes for a great slicer. This old Russian heirloom produces tomatoes with an unique deep purple color with a rich sweet flavor. The Black from Tula is widely known as one of the best flavored dark tomatoes and when mature, this variety grows up to 14 ounces.

The Amish Paste Tomato is an excellent tomato with a wonderful, juicy taste for making tangy sauces or sliced for fresh eating! This tomato produces bright red 8-12 ounce fruits that vary greatly in shape from an oxheart variety to a rounded plum-shape.

The Heinz 2274 Tomato is a customer favorite for being the perfect variety for making delicious, juicy, homemade ketchup! This 6 ounce tomato is smooth and slightly flattened with a juicy and tangy flesh. The Heinz 2274 is a great tomato for making purees, sauces and of course, ketchup!

The Yellow Scotch Bonnet, aka the Jamaican, produces an abundance of little yellow peppers with an extremely hot flavor! Some say that this pepper's flavorful taste is rivaling that of many Habanero's. This hot variety has an excellent flavor making them popular for hot sauces. The Yellow Scotch Bonnet produces well-yielding, compact plants.

The Devil's Tongue Pepper has an intense heat with a delicious citrus flavor! This unique variety bears long 3" wrinkly textured fruits that ripen to a fiery red! The Scovilles on this pepper range from 125,000 to 325,000, so handle with care! Devil's Tongue is a high yielder, so you can enjoy an abundance of hot sweet peppers.

The Aunt Ginnys Purple Tomato is a highly productive, beautiful oxheart shaped, heirloom with German origins that has a delicious flavor. This tomato variety produces large, indeterminate, potato-leaf tomato plants with high yields. This tomato can reach to be 1 pound with a deep pink-purple flesh that is crack resistant. The Aunt Ginnys Purple Tomato is one of our favorite heirloom tomatoes.

The Green Sprouting Calabrese produces large dark green heads bursting with flavor. This broccoli with is a favorite, that now is available as organic seed! Good in short season areas with cool nights. It will produce many lateral or side shoots over a long season. It is slow bolting with a flavor that can't be beat.

Among the world's hottest peppers! Use with caution, wrinkled  brown pepper. 125 times hotter than a Jalapeno pepper! Bhut Jolokia Chocolate is a rare, natural variant of Red Bhut Jolokia. Ghost pepper can reach over 1,000,000 Scoville Heat Units (SHU).

The Purple Bhut Jolokia is a purple Ghost Pepper! This purple wrinkled pepper is 125 times hotter than a standard Jalapeno pepper! The Bhut Jolokia Purple is a rare, natural variant of Red Bhut Jolokia. Ghost peppers can reach over 1,000,000 Scoville Heat Units (SHU). Use with caution!

The White Bhut Jolokia Pepper is a white Ghost Pepper! The Ghost Pepper is among the World's Hottest Pepper! This long, hot and wrinkled white pepper is 125 times hotter than a Jalapeno pepper! The White Bhut Jolokia is a rare, natural variant of the Red Bhut Jolokia Ghost Pepper. This pepper can reach over 1,000,000 Scoville Heat Units (SHU). Use with caution.

The Early Scarlet Globe is an early forcing radish that is perfect for home and market growers! This variety is a great bunching radish that produces 1" globes with bright red skin and a white flesh. The Early Scarlet Globe is great for both spring and fall planting!

The German Giant Tomato is a giant potato leaf heirloom type of tomato with a rich, sweet flavor! This variety is a deep pink hue that grows to be 30+ ounces. The German Giant tomato is favored for being very juicy.

The super-hot Dragon's Breath pepper might be tiny, but it is out of this world! Ranking 2.48 million Scoville heat units, this 1/2 inch pepper is the second world's hottest pepper after Pepper X! The Dragon's Breath 7-24 times hotter than a habanero and 2-3 times hotter than the spicy ghost pepper. These small crazy hot peppers mature to a fiery red color matching its flavor!

The Orange Banana Tomato is one of our favorite paste tomato varieties for home and market growers to dry, can and make pastes. This tomato variety is an orange colored, banana-shaped paste tomatoes that have a wonderful fruity sweetness. The Orange Banana Tomato is delicious and fresh, making it great for specialty markets.

The Mushroom Red Pepper gets its name as it is a bell-shaped hot pepper that will ripen from a lime green to a bright red. This variety is great for pickling or drying and will add a nice hot kick to any dish. This pepper is great for a small garden as it does well in containers. These productive little peppers thrive in tropical regions, but will grow just about anywhere.

The Dixie Red Tomato is a delicious hybrid that consistently produces high yields of vibrant red tomatoes with excellent disease resistance. This tomato plant variety produces large, firm, deep oblate-shaped fruits that are great for both market and home gardens. The Dixie Red thrives in the Southern heat, but does well in other places.