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What's New in 2001? Part 1: Tomato & Pepper Varieties

© Vic Ferri

What's New in Vegetable Varieties For 2001?

Part One - Tomatoes and Peppers

Plenty! When the new seed catalogs arrive(which seem to arrive earlier and earlier every year) it's seeing what's new that often brings out that gardening bug especially if you're a relatively new gardener. Personally, I always look forward to the new tomato and pepper varieties and I must say there are some very interesting ones out for 2001! But no matter what your favourite vegetable, there's probably a new variety of it out this year. In this first article, I'll tell you about a few of the more notable new tomato and pepper additions for 2001.

Tomatoes

Bush Celebrity This is an amazing sounding new bush variety of the famous staking Celebrity tomato which has become a favourite of many gardeners since it was introduced in the early 80's - it was an All America Selection winner in 1984. Celebrity is a variety that has become known for it's great disease resistance and consistency in producing high yields of flavourful deep red medium-large tomatoes on very strong vines. However, if you live in a short season area, you may have found that Celebrity didn't mature in time before the frost. It's a 72 day tomato. In that case, this new Bush Celebrity may be the answer! It's earlier - only 64 days - but with the same fruit size, flavour and colour of the original. It's also a more compact plant, taking up less space than the standard Celebrity.

Vita Gold This is a unique Viva Italia type plum tomato with an attractive orangey-gold color. The tomatoes are plump and pear shaped, and great for paste and sauces. It's also a great choice for small spaces - doesn't take up much room at all. It also matures early - 65 days average - and has excellent setting abilities and disease tolerance.

Jolly This is the All America Selection winner for cherry tomatoes for 2001. It's an easy to grow, unique cherry pink tomato that is larger than the average cherry tomato and very vigourous and highly productive. The fruit forms in clusters - it's not unusual to get 9 to 14 tomatoes per cluster! And the flavour is exceptional! It's highly recommended that you stake and prune this indeterminate variety to keep the plants manageable. Maturity date is 70 days.

Sweet Olive This is a new early Santa-type "grape tomato" that produces bright red, sweet, bite-sized, oval shaped fruit perfect for salads or snacking on. The plants are determinate and have shown great tolerance to heat, humidity, and cracking. Though pruning isn't necessary with Sweet Olive, you should stake them to make harvesting easier. The maturity date is 57 days.

The copyright of the article What's New in 2001? Part 1: Tomato & Pepper Varieties in Edible Gardens is owned by Jill Florio. Permission to republish What's New in 2001? Part 1: Tomato & Pepper Varieties in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.