Harvest Monday - 18 August 2025

 A fairly quiet week here, but full-size sweet peppers made their first appearance, which is always a cause for celebration for us. 

For years I struggled to grow big blocky bells, until I tried "Ace," a hybrid bred for cooler climates. This year, only one plant came up and I was out of seeds, so I ran to the garden center and looked for a replacement. The only one I found was "California Wonder," a very old variety. Both gave me their first ripe fruits this week. Cal Wonder is doing very well, and the seeds are much cheaper!

California Wonder (OP) and Ace (F1)

I'm a big fan of the yellow bullhorn-style sweet pepper called "Escamillo," bred by Johnny's Selected Seeds in nearby Maine. It is very sweet and juicy. These were the first this year, and are somewhat smaller than usual.

Escamillo (F1)

Just like with Ace, only one Escamillo seed germinated and I was out. Wanting another bullhorn-style, I bought the old variety "Marconi," and I am pleased with it so far.

Marconi (OP)

 

I guess the upshot is while I prefer modern hybrids in most cases, the tried-and-true varieties can be equally good.

I had only two "general harvests" this week.

Monday harvest

Friday harvest

In [unwelcome] Wildlife Notes, I found the first hornworm of the season on one of my tomato plants. Though commonly called Tomato Hornworm, the vast majority found here are the closely related Tobacco Hornworm, which is odd in itself since this is not a tobacco-growing region. If you don't have them in your area, this caterpillar of a moth grows scarily big, and will decimate a tomato plant, fruit and all. Yet they can be very hard to detect; you just can see the damage done and the droppings left. Luckily, gardeners have a tiny friend...a parasitic wasp whose larvae stop the hornworm from eating and growing. In this picture, the one I found had already been parasitized, and the white egg-like things are the cocoons made by the larvae.

Parasitized Tobacco Hornworm

That's all for this week. Thanks for reading, and thanks as always to Dave at HappyAcres.blog for hosting Harvest Monday.