All America Selections Vegetable Winners for 2001

Four new vegetables have been named All America Selections winners for 2001. These award-winners will be available this spring and summer at local garden centers as already-started transplants, or you can order by seed through major mail-order seed companies, such as George W. Park in South Carolina (1-800-845-3369). Seed packets may also be found at major retail nurseries.

These new vegetables include a sweet corn, pink tomato, Italian grilling pepper and a white sweet onion. All were deemed best after being trialed at test gardens across North America by garden professionals. All America Selections is a non-profit organization for evaluating new seed-grown flowers and vegetables. More detailed information is also available at their web site at: www.all-americaselections.org.

"Honey Select" sweet corn. This corn offers the best of both worlds: delicious sweet honey flavor and tender eating quality. "Honey Select" is made up of 75-percent sugary enhanced (se) kernels and 25-percent supersweet (sh2) kernels. Unlike other supersweet types, it does not require isolation from other corn pollen, so you can grow it right along with any other corn varieties you might choose. It matures in 75 days, with ears about eight inches long.

"Jolly" tomato. This pink tomato produces small to medium-sized, peach-shaped fruit that is a pinkish-red color. Like cherry and other small-sized tomatoes, fruit grows in clusters. You can expect to harvest nine to 14 tomatoes per cluster in about 75 days. The plant is a vigorous indeterminate type. Highest quality tomatoes will require some pruning of vines and vertical support.

"Giant Marconi" pepper. This is an improved Italian grilling pepper, growing about six to eight inches long. The tapered green pepper will mature to red on dwarf, 30-inch plants. Fruit tastes fine if eaten raw, but is best when grilled. "Giant Marconi" has a memorable sweet, smoky flavor. Growing time is 72 days from transplanting.

"Super Star" white sweet onion. This is an improved white sweet onion. The good news here is that it is day length neutral. Most onions require long days (over 12 hours of sunlight) or short days in order to "bulb." "Super Star" does not have this requirement, so it is widely adaptable to different growing areas. It's great when eaten raw, in salads or sandwiches.

Look for these AAS award-winning vegetables, as well as the five AAS flower winners. The latter are: "Ring of Fire" sunflower, "Avalon Bright Pink" nicotiana, "Margarita Rosita" portulaca, "Forever Blue" eustoma and "Profusion White" zinnia.

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