Unique New Garden Vegetables for 2001 - Indiana Yard and Garden - Purdue Consumer Horticulture

Unique New Garden Vegetables for 2001

There’s no better time of year to browse the new gardening catalogs than during these winter doldrums. A quick glance at the first few pages of most catalogs will clue you in as to what’s new for this gardening season.

With all the talk about “nutraceuticals” (foods that promote good health or even prevent disease), there are some new cultivars that offer enhanced nutritional value.

Carrot ‘Nutri-Red,’ a red carrot high in lycopene (an anti-oxidant), is about as much as a tomato by weight. The 9-inch roots are supposed to get darker red and sweeter when cooked. (76 days)

Tomato ‘Health Kick’ is a medium-sized tomato that has 50 percent higher lycopene than ordinary tomatoes. (75 days)

Tomatoes are the most popular of garden vegetables and grape-type tomatoes have been all the rage at the produce market in the last year or so. Grape tomatoes are a bit larger and more oblong than most cherry tomatoes, and they pack an extra load of flavor and sugar. Now there are a number of cultivars that you can grow in your home garden.

Tomato ‘Juliet’ came on board last year as an All-America Winner (AAS) but is much more widely available this year. Juliet looks like a miniature Italian plum type. (60 days)

Tomato ‘Summer Sweet’ is an early “grape” type&emdash;really sweet and juicy. (58 days)

Tomato ‘Sweet Olive’ is a sweet, bite-sized “grape” type. (57 days)

Tomato ‘Jolly’ (2001 AAS Winner) has large clusters of teardrop-shaped cherry tomatoes. (73 days)

Cluster tomatoes ripened on the vine have also been popular at the market. Much of the supply was imported from Holland, but several gardening catalogs now offer the following cultivars.

Tomato ‘Burpee Bunch’ has mid-sized fruit in clusters of five to seven that ripen together. (65 days)

Tomato ‘Sweet Cluster,’ though not brand new, is more widely available this year. Clusters of six to eight mid-sized fruit ripen together. (67 days)

Other new tomatoes this year include ‘Burpee’s Burger,’ an early, large beefsteak type. (72 days)

‘Striped Stuffer’ is a large red tomato with orange stripes. The walls of the fruit are somewhat ruffled and the inside nearly hollow, perfect for stuffing. (90 days)

Some new tomato relatives include Eggplant ‘Zebra,’ a purple-and-white striped Italian type. (70 days)

Yet another relative of tomato is the pepper.

Pepper ‘Tennesee Cheese’ is an early-maturing pimiento type with a ruffled-tomato shape, great for stuffing. (82 days)

Pepper ‘Serrano Del Sol,’ an early large serrano type, sets well in cool weather. (67 days)

Pepper ‘Giant Marconi’ (2001 AAS Winner) is a large tapered Italian pepper, great for roasting, grilling or frying. (72 days)

Pepper ‘Fooled You’ offers the distinct flavor and appearance of a jalapeño without the flame. (65 days)

Nothing beats homegrown sweet corn. New this year is ‘Honey Select’ (2001 AAS Winner), a yellow “TripleSweet TM” type of corn that combines both the sugar-enhanced and the supersweet-type kernels in the same ear. No isolation needed from other cultivars. (79 days)

Baby Corn ‘Bonus’ will produce as many as four mini ears per stalk. (85 days)

Another baby vegetable, Carrot ‘Parmex’ yields tender, bite-sized carrots, perfect for containers and heavy garden soil. 65 days.

Among the onions and their relatives, we now have Leek ‘King Richard,’ a fast-growing baby leek. (75 days from transplants)

Green Onion ‘Red Baron’ is a bright red, scallion-type onion: the red color extends from the base of the bulb to the lower portion of the leaf blades. (65 days)

Onion ‘Superstar’ (2001 AAS Winner) is early for a white onion with mild flavor. (100 days)

If leafy greens are in your garden plans, consider Lettuce ‘Giant Caesar,’ a romaine type with tender leaves. (70 days)

Cabbage ‘Colorosa’ is a unique red savoy type (crinkled leaves). (100 days)

Spinach ‘Razzle Dazzle’ is an early spinach with unique arrowhead-shaped leaves. (30 days)

Among the new melons this year, we have ‘Orange Sorbet,’ a honeydew melon with orange flesh. (82 days)

‘Vanilla Ice’ is a specialty melon, about 5-inches round with a green-and-yellow speckled rind, sweet white flesh and a pinkish seed cavity. (80 days)

Watermelon ‘Everglade’ is seedless with dark green, nearly black, rind contrasted with bright red flesh. (11-14 pound fruit; 80 days)

After I’ve spent years teaching gardeners that melons and cucumbers don’t cross-pollinate, Park’s Seed Co. has successfully crossed a specialty melon (Cucumis hystrix) with a cucumber (Cucumis sativus) to produce a unique garden addition. ‘Gold Bar’ produces large yields of oblong sweet fruits that are 7-8 inches long and 5-6 inches in diameter. (68 days)

Try some of these new cultivars along with your old standbys so you’ll be able to give them a fair comparison. Transplants of many of them will be available at your local garden center later this spring. Seed is available through many of the popular mail-order catalogs, as well as local garden shops.

 


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