Best New Vegetables, Herbs, and Fruits of 2020
January 14th, 2020
We’re only about nine weeks away from traditional pea-planting time (St. Patrick’s Day) and the beginning of a new growing season.
‘Medium Rare’ is a meaty new tomato debuting in 2020.
(Credit: W. Atlee Burpee Co.)
It’s not too soon to think about what to buy, order, or make plans to plant while the selection is best. Especially with sought-after new varieties, supplies are often limited.
For your planning pleasure, I’ll take a look over the next four weeks at what growers, local garden centers, and other plant experts believe are some of the best new plants poised to hit the market in 2020.
Let’s start with best new edibles today, then continue with the best new annual flowers next Tuesday, Jan. 21, then best new perennial flowers on Jan. 28, and finally, best new trees and shrubs on Feb. 4.
Some of the following new edibles are available in seeds or plants online and in catalogs. Many also will show up in local garden centers – seeds already and plants in April and May.
The details:
Tomato ‘Medium Rare’
Bucks County’s W. Atlee Burpee Co. is always good for at least one new tomato, and this year’s catalog star looks to be ‘Medium Rare,’ a newcomer that Burpee senior product manager Venelin Dimitrov calls the “best-tasting pink beefsteak type.”
Dimitrov says ‘Medium Rare’ beat a farm-stand pink heirloom and the perennial flavor champ ‘Brandywine Pink’ to win a Burpee blind taste test.
The variety matures in 75 to 80 days and produces hefty 14- to 20-ounce fruits.
Tomato ‘Celano’ is a new AAS award-winning grape tomato.
(Credit: All America Selections)
Tomato ‘Celano’
This compact, hybrid, patio-type grape tomato was good enough to be one of three new tomatoes that earned 2020 All America Selections awards for its performance in independent national testing.
‘Celano’ has a sturdy, bushy habit and is a semi-determinate producer of grape-sized oblong fruits that ripen deep red.
AAS judges said ‘Celano’ is sweeter than competitors, has excellent resistance to late blight, and is an early and “phenomenal” yielder.
Tomato ‘Early Resilience’
This rounded hybrid Roma tomato is the second 2020 AAS national tomato winner.
Judges liked its deep red interior color, its uniform maturity, and its resistance to blossom end rot, which leads to improved yield and less fruit loss.
‘Early Resilience’ is a determinate variety (ripens mostly at once) that grows bushy enough that staking isn’t necessary.
Its healthy growth and good-tasting fruit could make the variety the new standard for Roma types, the AAS judges said.
Tomato ‘Apple Yellow’ ia another 2020 AAS award-winning tomato.
(Credit: All America Selections)
Tomato ‘Apple Yellow’
The third 2020 AAS national award-winning tomato is this cherry type that produces bright lemon-yellow fruits shaped like miniature apples.
AAS judges liked ‘Apple Yellow’s’ resistance to fruit-splitting, its good keeping ability, and its sweet, citrusy taste.
The vines grow five feet tall and produce fruits continuously until frost – up to 1,000 fruits per plant.
Tomato ‘Mountain Rouge’
Chris Wallen, a grower for the wholesale Quality Greenhouses near Dillsburg, picks this regional 2019 AAS-winning tomato as his favorite new vegetable of 2020.
Quality supplies many area garden centers with plants and will have ‘Mountain Rouge’ available in transplant form this spring.
Wallen says the variety “combines classic pink beefsteak looks and flavor with a modern disease-resistance package, including late-blight resistance. It’s a great variety for cooler, shorter-season areas.”
‘Mountain Rouge’ fruits average 12 to 14 ounces each with few seeds and start maturing 73 days from planting.
‘Buffalo Sun’ has heirloom flavor and a firm texture.
(Credit: All America Selections)
Tomato ‘Buffalosun’
And since this is apparently a jackpot year for new tomatoes, ‘Buffalosun’ is another new variety that won a regional AAS award for both the Northeast and Southeast.
Its fruits look and taste like an heirloom, but judges noted they were firmer than the somewhat “mushy” texture that some heirlooms can have.
Fruits ripen yellow with flashes of red-orange, and the interior is marbled.
The variety also resists cracking, is a good yielder, and has good resistance to late blight.
‘Green Light’ is a cucumber that produces small but plentiful spineless fruits.
(Credit: All America Selections)
Cucumber ‘Green Light’
This new cucumber is one of just three other vegetables (besides tomatoes) to win 2020 AAS national honors.
‘Green Light’ is a mini cucumber with high yields (average of 40 fruits per plant), excellent mild flavor, and a quick maturity.
The spineless fruits are best picked when they’re three to four inches long. They’re tender enough then that they can be eaten skin and all.
Grow them up a trellis or stakes.
Watermelon ‘Mambo’
‘Mambo’ won a 2020 AAS national award for its healthy growth and ability to churn out mature fruits only 75 days after transplanting young plants into the garden.
Unlike most melons, this hybrid seems to grow well with good flavor even in less than full-sun settings or weather.
‘Mambo’ fruits are nine-inch-round and about 11 pounds when mature with a dark green rind and deep red flesh. Fruits hold well instead of quickly over-ripening if you don’t pick them at exactly the right time.
It’s not a seedless type, but the seed cavities are small.
Pumpkin ‘Blue Prince’ has interesting blue-tinted skin.
(Credit: All America Selections)
Pumpkin ‘Blue Prince’
The third “other” 2020 AAS vegetable winner is this new flattened, round pumpkin with the powdery blue skin.
Besides the different look, ‘Blue Prince’ is early to flower and ripen, a good yielder (seven to nine fruits per plant), and excellent sweet taste. The flesh is non-stringy and deep orange.
Vines spread about five feet, and fruits mature 110 days after planting seed.
Basil Everleaf Emerald Towers
This new basil in Pan American Seed’s Handpicked brand features two innovations: very late flowering and a columnar habit.
Basil flowers are usually considered a drawback since the point is to harvest the leaves. Pan Am’s Katie Rotella says Emerald Towers flowers up to 10 to 12 weeks later than most basils while maintaining a traditional Genovese flavor.
Basil Emerald Towers grows in a columnar form.
(Credit: Pan American Seed)
The plant grows in a dense, stocky column to two to three feet tall but only eight to 12 inches wide. It grows best in full sun and does as well in containers as in the ground.
Pepper ‘PeppiGrande Red’
Another new vegetable that Burpee’s Dimitrov likes is this sweet pepper that’s the first seedless roasting type.
“It has rich-red, delectably sweet fruits that are the largest of all seedless peppers,” he says. “You can roast them whole for a delicious treat with no worry about seeds.”
‘PeppiGrande Red’ produces elongated fruits that ripen red 80 to 90 days from transplanting.
Strawberry ‘Wasatch’
Dave Krause, a buyer at Stauffers of Kissel Hill garden centers, likes this new everbearing strawberry that SKH plans to carry for the first time this spring.
‘Wasatch’ was bred at Michigan State University, where field tests found it superior in vigor, yield, and appearance to the two main everbearing strawberries already on the market, ‘Seascape’ and ‘Albion.’
MSU said ‘Wasatch’ was smaller-fruited and less firm than ‘Albion’ (which SKH also is carrying this year) but the flavor was just as sweet.
Plants grow about eight inches tall and can produce up to one pound of berries per plant from June into October.
‘Royal Snap II’ peas have dark coats.
(Credit: Johnny’s Selected Seeds)
Pea Royal Snap II
Even if you’re not that fond of peas, this new snap pea from Johnny’s Selected Seeds produces such deep-purple pods that it’s almost worth growing as an ornamental.
Vines grow about two feet tall, and the pods are about three inches long each. Seeds can be planted as soon as you can get into the garden in March.