News on the new veggies

A low-heat habanero pepper and a tomato without seeds are two of the more interesting new vegetable varieties for home gardens in 2009.

Here is a look at some of the promising new vegetables seen recently in mail-order catalogs.

Most habanero peppers are extremely hot, almost too hot to eat. Now you can grow Zavory, a mild red habanero offered by The Cook’s Garden, P. O. Box C5030, Warminster, PA 18974 (cooksgarden.com). While ordinary habanero peppers measure 30,000 on the Scoville scale, this new one is only 100. It is almost as mild as a bell pepper.

The world’s first seedless tomato, Sweet Seedless, is carried by Burpee Seeds, 300 Park Ave., Warminster, PA 18974 (burpee.com). According to the catalog, Sweet Seedless is sweeter because it has “no seeds to absorb the sugars.” It is a hybrid red tomato, which matures in 68 days, and it grows on a tall indeterminate vine. Although no fruit size is mentioned, the variety’s early maturity would indicate small tomatoes.

Another new hybrid tomato for 2009 is Bella Rosa, listed in the Tomato Growers Supply catalog from P. O. Box 60015, Ft. Myers, FL 33906 (tomatogrowers.com). This 12-ounce red tomato ripens early (75 days) and shows superior heat tolerance. It is said to be productive and delicious when grown as far south as Louisiana.

A new hybrid cherry tomato with the flavor and color of the widely popular Sungold is called Orange Sunshine. Its fruits weigh in at one-half ounce, and that is much larger than Sungold tomatoes. Seeds are available from Totally Tomatoes, 334 West Stroud St., Randolph, WI 53956 (totallytomato.com).

Finally, there is a mild red onion you can pick up and eat out of your hand. The new hybrid Red Candy Apple “is sweet as candy and can be eaten like an apple,” according to the catalog from Dixondale Farms, P. O. Box 129, Carrizo Springs, TX 78834 (dixondalefarms.com).

New vegetable varieties are grown and evaluated in test gardens nationwide each year by the nonprofit All America Selections (AAS), Inc. This outfit, funded by the seed business, bestows the AAS award on the best new vegetables. Thirty years ago, Sugar Snap pea was an AAS award winner. This year, there are three new vegetables recognized by AAS.

Honey Bear hybrid acorn squash, bred at the University of New Hampshire, has sweet flavor. It is compact for a winter squash, spreading out over a 5-foot area. Honey Bear is resistant to powdery mildew, a fungal disease quite common around here. Each vine should produce five squashes for storage in your basement and eating next winter.

Flavor is the most valuable characteristic of Lambkin melon. It is a hybrid Christmas melon, a gourmet melon with a thin greenish rind and aromatic white flesh. This melon keeps for long periods in a refrigerator and it was created in Taiwan.

The last of the 2009 AAS winners is a new hybrid eggplant called Gretel. Its fruits are white, and they grow in clusters. They are actually mini-fruits, about the size of stout fingers. According to AAS, this California-bred eggplant is compact enough to grow in a large container on your porch. Its flavor is said to be sweet.