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!

The spicy flavor, attractive purple stems, and green leaves of the Hong Vit Radish makes it a favorite among many growers! This radish variety is also a very fast growing microgreen. The Hong Vit grows straight with hairless attractive purple stems. Micro Hong Vit's leaves add a spicy flavor, visual appeal, and bulk to mixes!

The Rio Grande Tomato produces a huge harvest of popular pear shaped, paste type of tomatoes that will thrive in hot climates! This tomato variety produces large, deep red 4 inch long blocky tomatoes that are favored for its versatility. The Rio Grande is a great tomato for sauce or juice.

'Yellow Wonder' is a very productive variety. It is a clumping type (few to no runners) that is day neutral which means that flowering is not dependent on day length. The fruit is a pale yellow at full ripe and soft. This variety is sweeter than the red alpine strawberry varieties. There is a strong wild aroma as well.

Wonder is a new artichoke variety that offers yields early and often! Plants are about 90-120cm tall, with most of the heads being pear-shaped and firm. Wonder F1 has excellent quality for both the fresh markets and for commercial use.

New Zealand spinach, known scientifically as Tetragonia tetragonioides, is a unique leafy green vegetable that thrives in warm climates, making it a popular choice in gardens. Unlike traditional spinach, which is a cool-season crop, New Zealand spinach is a perennial plant with succulent, triangular leaves that have a mild, slightly salty flavor. This hardy plant can tolerate heat and drought, making it ideal for summer gardens. It is often used in salads, stir-fries, and as a cooked green, providing a nutritious alternative to other leafy greens. With its ability to grow well in poor soil conditions and its attractive, sprawling growth habit, New Zealand spinach is not only a versatile culinary ingredient but also a valuable addition to edible landscapes.

The Minowase 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.

Black Spanish Round Radish is a unique black old heirloom that has a nutty and slightly spicy flavor! This black beauty radish is making a comeback! Its firm flesh holds up well in meals. The Black Spanish Round is best grown from late winter to early spring and is a healthy spring vegetable.

The Wisconsin Lakes Pepper is a beautiful heirloom bell pepper with a bright red flesh. This pepper variety is an early maturing bell pepper that turns from green to red. This pepper is a great choice for Northern gardeners. Wisconsin Lakes was bred by Wisconsin University in the1960s and it produce a good reliable harvest of early bell peppers.

The Italian Ice is a small white to cream-yellow tomato variety with a sugary sweet flavor that is bursting with flavor! This variety produces high yields of up to 1" sized fruits that ripen from green to white to cream-yellow color. The tomatoes are edible once they turn their famous yellow white. The ripened tomatoes are incredibly sweet, which makes this variety a double threat! This tomato plant is a heavy producer that will grow and produce tomatoes up until the first frost. This variety should be staked well as it will grow large and vine off! The Italian Ice will be one of the first tomato varieties to ripen in the garden.

The Sparkler Radish is a bright scarlet colored radish with a sweet, juicy flesh and snappy flavor. This variety's scarlet skin fades to white on lower 1/3 of its round, to round oval bulb. This radish's medium tops are perfect for both home and market gardens. Sparkler can grow up to 1.5" diameter.

The Chocolate Bell Pepper is a Chocolate colored bell pepper with a very sweet flavor. This early maturing bell pepper turns dark brown on the outside and a deep red on the inside when fully ripened. This Bell Pepper is beautiful raw in salads and roasted in other dishes. The Chocolate Bell is the perfect bell pepper for gardeners with short seasons.

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!

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 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 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 Taxi Tomato is an attractive, sweet flavored, vibrant lemony-yellow tomato that grows to be the size of a baseball! This popular variety produces smooth, blemish-free globes with a rich, meaty flesh that are perfect for market and home growers alike. The easy to grow tomatoes thrive anywhere throughout the United States. Taxi is a low acid tomato.

The Red Zebra is not only a beautifully striped hybrid tomato, but it also has a very juicy and flavorful taste as well! This variety was first grown in 2013 by Jeff Dawson and is a cross between Tom Wagner's 'Green Zebra' tomato and an unknown parent.

The Chocolate Scotch Bonnet pepper adds the perfect heat to any sauce or salsa! This really hot pepper has a sweet fruity slightly smoky flavor, but with a lot of heat! The spiciness is comparable to a chocolate habanero. The Chocolate Scotch Bonnet ripens from green to dark brown and can grow to be as big as 2 inches.