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 Purple Beauty Pepper is a productive pepper plant that produces attractive deep purple colored peppers! This pepper is an open-pollinated variety with a sweet tasting 3x3" block shaped peppers. Pick when the pepper is purple or wait for it to turn deep red when its mature, which happens later in the season. The Purple Beauty is a great pepper for container gardening and can add that extra kick to your salads or meals.

The Black Nebula carrot is a highly attractive open pollinated carrot variety that was bred especially for the home gardener. The dark purple roots can be eaten fresh, roasted, steamed or used for dye. After the carrots grow too large to eat leave them in the garden and use for cut flowers. The white umbels are tinged with lavender on the edges and flower stems. Bees love carrot flowers so they make great food for pollinators.

The Sub Arctic Plenty is the world's fastest growing heirloom tomato, in just 42 days from transplant you will have fresh vine ripe tomatoes! This variety is a great tomato to grow in Northern areas where the season is short. However, this is also great for Southern locations where you can harvest the crop before insects and disease start to take over. The Sub Arctic Plenty is a bush variety that needs no staking, as it is great for hanging in baskets.

Lutz Green Leaf Pink Stem beet seeds are prized for producing beets with distinctive characteristics and exceptional flavor. This variety features vibrant green leaves with a striking pink stem, which adds a splash of color to any garden. The beets themselves are known for their smooth, round shape and tender, sweet, deep red to purple flesh. Lutz Green Leaf Pink Stem beets are valued not only for their aesthetic appeal but also for their excellent taste, making them a popular choice for salads, roasting, and pickling. They are known for their adaptability, growing well in various soil conditions, and for their relatively long harvest window, allowing for a prolonged period of fresh, nutritious beets. Additionally, the green leaves are edible and nutritious, providing a dual-purpose crop that enhances both the visual and culinary appeal of your garden. This variety is a "winterkeeper" beet that has a long standing storage capability. The Lutz Green Leaf Pink Stem has 6 inches in diameter roots, make sure to thin them out to 4-6 inches.

Purple Sun produces Uniform roots with smooth shoulders. Dark purple carrots that grow up to 10" in length. A great production carrot for fields, bunching and mechanical harvest.

The Super Sugar Pea is an improved original tall snap pea that is bursting with a sugary sweet flavor! This plant variety has a very high yield potential and even better flavor than before being improved, making it a favorite to add to many dishes.

Daikon Radish has a crisp firm flesh is pure white. This Daikon radish, produces long tapered white radishes that are mostly used as winter radishes. The Minowase has a great, mild taste that is excellent in many Oriental dishes. This radish variety is great for spring or late summer planting.

The Yolo Wonder Pepper is a great new and improved tasty pepper for home gardens. This variety is a top quality very well shaped pepper with thicker walls and a very blocky shape with 4 lobes. The Yolo Wonder Pepper will give great high yields!

Costoluto Genovese tomatoes are a classic heirloom variety celebrated for their historical significance and distinctive characteristics. Hailing from Genoa, Italy, this variety has been cherished since the 19th century for its unique ribbed, fluted shape and rich flavor. The tomatoes are typically deep red, with a strikingly irregular, somewhat lobed appearance that makes them visually appealing. Known for their bold, tangy flavor with a hint of sweetness, Costoluto Genovese tomatoes are highly prized for making robust sauces, salsas, and fresh salads. They generally reach maturity in about 75 to 85 days and feature an indeterminate growth habit, meaning they continue to bear fruit throughout the growing season. The plants are vigorous and sprawling, requiring staking or caging to support their abundant fruit. With their rich heritage, distinctive appearance, and exceptional taste, Costoluto Genovese tomatoes are a favorite among gardeners and chefs seeking both culinary excellence and a touch of Italian tradition.

The 7 Pot Douglah is one of the hottest and rarest of the 7 pod strains available! This pepper variety is characterized by a dark brown flesh that has wrinkles all over the surface. 7 Pot Douglah starts out green and matures to the dark brown. When you slice a fresh Douglah open, you will immediately see pools of liquid capsaicin oils that give this chili so much heat and has an excellent flavor fresh or as a powder! Use with caution, extremely hot!

The Rondo Pea is a wrinkle-seeded variety that produces great yields of long, uniform pods that contain around 10 little plump peas per pod. This stocky, dark green pea is hardy and shows good resistance to Fusarium Wilt. This favorite has a delicious sweet flavor that can't be beat! The Rondo is perfect for freezing for soups and stews but is also amazing when eaten freshly picked!

The Whopper Pepper produces high yields of huge sweet bell peppers! This pepper plant produces huge yields of large 4" long by 4" wide bell peppers that will turn from green to red when ripe and ready to be picked. Whopper is one of the best bell peppers for home gardens and is excellent for salads, stuffing, sauteed, or fried. This tasty pepper also freezes well.

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 Jay's Ghost Scorpion pepper has an immediate burn that slowly lingers to the sinuses. This pepper ranked 900,000 Scoville heat units! This peachy colored pepper is lined with bumps and twists and can have a scorpion-like tail. The Jay's Ghost Scorpion's taste has a slightly sweet floral taste, with a punch!

The Early Cascade Tomato is an early maturing bright red saladette type of tomato that has a wonderful fresh taste in salads! This very productive variety produces little 4 ounce vibrant tomatoes in clusters of 5-8 fruits.

The Yellow Brandywine Tomato is a customer favorite heirloom tomato with an attractive bright yellow-orange skin and flesh. This Brandywine is a large, beefsteak-shaped tomato that grows upright on large leaved plants. This favorite tomato has a delicious sweet taste and meaty flesh with only a few seeds! This indeterminate tomato will ripen later than most, but will produces 10-20 ounce tomatoes until the first frost of fall.

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.