Sweet Eats & Treats

Chris Beytes, Bill Calkins & Jennifer Zurko

Tomato (Beefsteak) Wonder Star Pink (PanAmerican Seed)
New for determinate tomatoes is Wonderstar Pink, with  large pink heirloom-esque fruit and excellent flavor. It’s late-blight resistant and perfect for planting in the ground or very large patio pots.

Squash Green Lightening (PanAmerican Seed)
The AAS-winning new squash from PanAmerican is called Green Lightening, and as the name would suggest—it’s quick! High yields of small, light-green fruit come as early as 40 to 45 days and should be picked when they’re palm-sized, they told us. AAS judges said it’s got the taste, look, earliness and yield of a winner.

Pepper (Poblano) Corsario (Sakata)
This pepper can be harvested at its deep green stage or at its chocolate brown full maturity stage. Large, two-lobed fruits are perfect for stuffing and the plant is vigorous, so you get a heavy yield. An excellent choice for farmers’ markets. Matures 85 days from transplant.

Peppers (Sweet Bell) (Sakata)
According to Sakata, sweet bell peppers are one of their fastest growing classes for both commercial and home gardens. Big Stack has extra-large three- to four-lobed fruits that have high disease resistance and mature in 65 to 70 days. Shasta has large, thick-walled fruits that mature to a candy apple red and matures in 72 days. Turbo has high heat tolerance and high yield, maturing in 65 to 70 days.

Pak Choi King Choi (Sakata)
Reliable and easy to grow, this one grows into a very large (hence “King” Choi) 12- to 16-in. head with white stems and dark green leaves. Matures in 55 to 60 days from direct sowing, but can be harvested at the smaller baby leaf stage.

Broccoli Appalachian (Sakata)
Because Appalachian is semi-compact, it makes the ideal broccoli for small-space gardening. It’s an early maturing variety at 72 days from transplant and is well suited for the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.

Tomato (Grape) Diamond Crush (Sakata)
Strong disease resistance and early maturity (65 days from transplant)help Diamond Crush grow under difficult growing conditions. Determinate and heat tolerant, the plants set clusters of uniform, smooth, crack-resistant fruits that hold well after harvest.

Squash Thriller (Sakata)
An All-America Selections winner, this winter squash has variable orange and dark green stripes with a creamy background. It has dense and nutty flesh, which makes it ideal for roasting. Compared to other “dumpling” types of squash, Thriller is more compact and yields a high number of fruits.

Pepper (Sweet) Kickstart (PanAmerican Seed)
Everyone loves large bell peppers and new Kickstart from PanAmerican brings sweet flavor with high resistance to multiple strains of bacterial leaf spot. Fruit ages from green to red, and the perfectly-shaped block peppers mature in 70 to 75 days.

Cauliflower Amethyst (Sakata)
Early to mature, Amethyst is the first purple cauliflower from Sakata. It performs well in many growing regions for both spring and fall production. Matures in 70 days from transplant.

Tomato (Cherry) Plumbrella (Hem Genetics)
This taller (but still small for patio pots) series grows to about 16 in. and produces as many as 50 to 60 tomatoes per plant. There are four colors of fruit in the new series—Rosy Pink, Creamy Yellow, Red and Orange.

Tomato (Plum) Funnyplums (Hem Genetics)
The same four tomato colors in the Plumbrella series are also available on even shorter plants in Hem’s new Funnyplums series, which stays at a compact 10 in. tall.

New Intros From Syngenta
Syngenta’s Vegetalis collection of edibles for small-space gardens and patio pots expands its program with three new determinant tomatoes: Divinity (small slicer), Akoya (cherry that matures black to orange) and Summer Dew (cocktail type for hanging baskets). Also new for Vegetalis is Baby Jack mini eggplant (fruit in 60 to 65 days) and a sweet green to red bell pepper named Big Ben.

New Herbs From Hishtil
This year, Hishtil showed herbs in four different marketing categories—Grow Flow (creeping/spreading), Double Marvel (ornamental AND culinary), Durabello (climate-resilient) and XHishtil (disease-tolerant); you’ll find these designations in their new online catalog.

If you want to add a warm, woody, subtly floral hint of bay to your soups and stews, Hishtil offers sweet bay (Laurus nobilis).

New herbs with the XHishtil designation included Tolergon, a French tarragon with excellent disease resistance, and a powdery mildew-resistant salvia with unique foliage named Ovalvet. GP