New Edibles for Your Customers’ Harvests

Chris Beytes, Bill Calkins & Jennifer Zurko

Pepper Soundwave, Sargento, Arica (Sakata)    
Soundwave Jalapeño is not only resistant to Phytophthora, but at 7,000 to 8,000 Scovilles, it’s also the hottest jalapeño in Sakata’s lineup.

Not hot, but promising to be tasty is Sargento (say “sar-hento”), a poblano that delivers fruit in 80 to 85 days. For cooking ease, it’s two-lobed, meaning flat on the sides, so it won’t roll off the pan or plate when you’re making chili rellenos.

Arica is a sweet red bell that matures in 70 to 75 days and produces lots of fruit. This isn’t one of those annoying bell peppers that produces just a couple of fruits and leaves you wanting more.

Rosemary Green Ginger (Hishtil)           
A unique herb, which lives up to its name as a culinary rosemary with—you guessed it—a gingery aroma and taste.

Tomato Sunny Drops Red, Orange (PRUDAC)          
PRUDAC stands for “Production & Research for Urban Decoration & Consumption.” We just call them a compact veggie company—they specialize in tabletop, window and patio veggies. They’ve got several new cherry tomatoes in their lineup, including Sunny Drops, which is a teardrop-shaped tomato with sweet fruit in red and orange.

Squash Ceres (Sakata)      
Ceres is a butternut squash that’s also earlier than others (90 to 95 days) while keeping a traditional butternut shape. As a bonus, it has good powdery mildew resistance.

Pepper Halloween Red, Gold (PRUDAC)     
Halloween Red and Gold peppers are named because they are lobed, like little pumpkins. They can be grown in medium-sized patio pots. Red starts green and turns to a cream color before ripening red. Gold begins as a purple-black color and matures to bright orange. Both have upright habits and do not require staking.

Season Me! Fusions (Benary)       
Benary has a good range of vegetative herbs from Volmary, their partner in Benary +. Season Me! Fusions are what they call an herb combo pot concept designed to inspire growers and retailers to get more creative with their herb offerings. The recipes, including “Little Italy,” “Grill Master,” “Stew on This” and “Oh, Crepe” are easy for consumers to relate to. Note: it’s not an ordering program, just an inspirational concept. We did like the barrel-look pots for it!

Tomato Beefsteak Brightstar, Love Sunrise, Love Red (Burpee)  
Three new indeterminate beefsteaks: Brightstar (said to offer heirloom flavor), Love Red (with heart-shaped red fruit) and Love Sunrise (pictured, with heart-shaped bicolor yellow fruit).

Pepper Prism (Handpicked Vegetables/PanAmerican Seed)   
A new midi-sized bell pepper from PanAmerican Seed’s Handpicked Vegetables program produces multiple colors of fruit (green, orange and red) on one plant (60 days to green, 80 days to red). When grown in a patio pot (ideally with a cage), these peppers are perfect to stuff, chop, or eat out-of-hand. An added bonus is high resistance to bacterial leaf spot.

Cucumber Quick Snack (Kitchen Minis/PanAmerican Seed)   
PanAmerican’s Kitchen Minis program is a collection of herbs and veggies that can be grown indoors on a windowsill and harvested to eat fresh from the plant. New for next year is Quick Snack Cucumber, which sets fruit without insect pollination. This little cuke is ready to eat in just four to five weeks from one seed. (Pro tip: When you grow it, use a trellis and give it one pinch once it reaches the top of the trellis.).

Santolina Lemon Fizz (Hishtil)      
Santolina vividis Lemon Fizz is a chartreuse Mediterranean herb with a distinct olive-like flavor.

Tomato Heartbreakers Dora, Vallery (PRUDAC)
Heartbreaker Dora has heart-shaped fruit that are a bit less sweet and more acidic; Heartbreaker Vallery is good for hanging baskets or tubs. 

Broccoli Purplelicious (PRUDAC)     
The experts at PRUDAC say to eat Tenderstem Brocolli Purplelicious fresh from the plant or cook it very lightly, because it’s so sweet. This type of broccoli is actually a hybrid of Chinese kale and broccoli—very popular with foodies.

Salvia Snowflake (Hishtil)      
Salvia Snowflake definitely fits the description of dual-use, with attractive silvery foliage and a delicate sage flavor.

Tomato Tiny Temptations (PRUDAC)     
For the sweetest fruit, try Tiny Temptations, which gets loaded with very small fruit with very big, sweet flavor—the sweetest of all their offerings, they say.

One interesting note about PRUDAC’s tomatoes: They're breeding to produce fruit that, as it develops, is lighter green that usual. Why? So customers can see them against the foliage and know they're buying a bearing tomato. We’ve never heard of another breeder doing that.

Pepper Turnpike (Burpee)  
The Burpee plant program is known for veggies and herbs that are ideal for home gardeners of all skill levels. One way to help ensure their success is choosing varieties with strong disease resistance. Pepper Turnpike sweet bell pepper is a great example, with built-in resistance to Bacterial Leaf Spot 0-5 and 7-9, Phytophthora and Tobamovirus. GP