Back before Christmas, I was browsing seeds (catalog? web site?) and I saw a pepper that was intriguing. Now I've decided to get it and grow it this year, but I can't remember where I saw it or even it's exact name.

It was a hot pepper, dark green/nearly black foliage, with shortish bright red peppers shaped like toothy fangs. . and it was called something like Dracula's Bite/Kiss. It was definitely Dracula's something!

Has anybody got a clue: what's its correct name, where/how to find it again, etc.

It's pretty, so it might even be a decorative/ornamental type hot pepper!

Posible. Count Dracula https://www.pepperscale.com/co... https://www.totallytomato.com/...

Pretty!

I started a few pepper seeds already. And a few tomato varieties. I might be a little earlier than usual but I'm ready!

Christine, with tomatoes and peppers, I don't think it's too early. When's you last frost date? We are in the same zone, it's probably much the same as mine, which is April 15. Now I've found over the years to start beans, melons and squash about 6 weeks before planting out date. They just get too leggy, despite being grown under lights.

Lynda, good planning. I think my plant out date is around April 2nd. I just looked and the planting app shows January 27th as the start date for tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. But I just go by my own time clock. I'm starting them indoors, with the tomatoes under lights so it doesn't matter too much. Once they sprout, I'll put them in the sun room until it's time to harden off and transplant.

I'm just ready to grow something! It gives me something to look forward to.

Good to have a sunroom to harden off in!

gardenfish said:Christine, with tomatoes and peppers, I don't think it's too early. When's you last frost date? We are in the same zone, it's probably much the same as mine, which is April 15. Now I've found over the years to start beans, melons and squash about 6 weeks before planting out date. They just get too leggy, despite being grown under lights.

That gives me hope for the new season - now if I was only ready to clean out the garden from last year. Can you spell L-A-Z-Y?
I am still learning the timing in this garden, this will be my third full growing season here, and it seems waaayyyy too early to be starting anything around here!

Technically I am in zone 9 or 9a which means last frost in late February and first frost around the first of December. The date of first frost seems pretty realistic but, whether because I am on a very exposed, flat exposure or something else, the last frost seems very variable.

My first year here I plotted veg starts to be ready to plant out around the 15 of March; that seemed safe with a last frost of end of February... I had tender plants frosted to the ground on the third of May! Yes, it was abnormal, but still...

So, last year I planned for later planting thinking that if I waited until the first week of May it would not delay my harvest by much...but then I had the awful virus hit the tomatoes so I will never know. What I do know - as this picture from May 03 shows - is that things were getting crowded with plants waiting to be set free.

I think this year I will start with a goal of the end of April/first of May yet start seeds a bit later so that they are a bit less crowded and require, perhaps, one less 'potting up'.

But - I welcome suggestions!

JB, I think your plan is good. I don't like a lot of potting up myself. This idea to count back from your last frost dare to start your seeds isn't written in stone..... I try to stay flexible. For instance, because summers here are so hot and humid, I like to plant out my tomatoes later, around the middle of May. Now if this sounds like a contradiction in terms, I've found that the later planted out they are the longer they last through the fall. I used to want to be the first on the block to pick my first ripe tomato; I would plant out in March and spend a fair amount of time covering them on cold nights. I now know that this stunts the plants, and leaves them much less resistant to the fungal diseases and insects they invariably succumb to.
I do such a poor job of raising tomatoes from seeds that I quit doing that, and now purchase plants.
Also when I took over my MG plant sale I don't really have the time to grow plants from seeds; I'm too busy directing other folks growing plants for the sale.
I really think that every gardener just has to work out what works best for them.... despite where they are. I'm sure a 9a growing zone in France is far different from a 9a growing zone in Florida or California. Gardening expertise is accumulated by doing, the successes and the mistakes. For myself, I'm much more likely to learn from my own mistakes than from anyone else's.

I start my seeds March 1st.

I also think my tomatoes suffered from going out too early in spring 2020. I'm back to early May, or late April the earliest. JB the plants look so nice.

We're having chili, with optional 'habanero paste' added for individual servings.

Someone from San Diego, which is south of here, has big green tomatoes on her Instagram, while mine are dying.

Zone 9 here, or 9a. My soil is at 58* and we have a Spring week of mid 60's with fog, drizzle and drip. I notice new grass is sprouting here, but we drop these warm temps next week. I am going with starting seeds on Jan 25th (the moon is right for aboveground fruits), and I will plant out within 4 weeks. I have to in order to have tomatoes before the heat sets in by June. I have pots to cover and protect young plants. I also dig down into the bed and plant the roots in a lowered hollow of the raised bed. I haven't been gung ho to get started, but I think the sign of growing things is kicking in lately as I have been out cleaning up the garden. Gonna go with instinct

My grass is greening up and one of my rosemaries is blooming, despite our lower temps this winter so far. This kind of growth pretty normal for here. My roses are budding out also. I still won't cut them back until my usual time, around Valentine's Day.

We need to start a 2021 Pepper thread, guys, I do not know how...

Ok, I will.😊 Going to do that right now. Just look for it in the vegetables and fruit forum.

We do not have to put a new thread and date it 2021 as this thread is not dated. But If Lynda
comes up with a new thread I will post to it!

I did! Check it out in the vegetable and fruit forum, it should be right at the top,. And yes, I did put the date on it. 😊

Hiii...Pepper Lovers...Warm greeting from Bali, Indonesia...

@BayuAriefianto

That pepper plant looks awesome!!

Please come join us at this year's thread (Pepper Reports 2021) as we are all THERE. . . this is last year's thread.

Pepper reports , hmmm, isn't that what comes out of the posterior after eating a lot chilli?