The Best New Vegetables and Fruits of 2021

January 12th, 2021

   If even a fraction of the estimated 16 million new gardeners who tried growing their own food for the first time last year goes at it again this year, demand will remain high for vegetable seeds and young, spring-time transplants.

   The bottom line is that you’d better get your seed orders in early and your plans in place over winter, especially if you’re a gardener who seeks out specific, must-have varieties.

   Breeders and plant developers have another intriguing lineup of new plants ready to hit the market for 2021.

   For your planning pleasure, I’ll take a look today at some of the year’s best new edibles. Then in the next three weeks, we’ll explore what growers have coming as the best new annual flowers (Jan. 19), the best new perennial flowers (Jan. 26), and the best new trees and shrubs (Feb. 2).

   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 on best new edibles of 2021:

Kitchen Minis

   Some trend-watchers think the surge in edible-gardening will carry over into a demand for edibles that can be grown indoors – including in the winter… and without the need for costly lighting or hydroponics equipment.

   PanAmerican Seed is introducing a line of  “Kitchen Mini” plants that have been bred in Denmark just for that purpose. The plants are super-compact potted tomatoes and peppers (with other crops to follow) that produce indoors on a sunny windowsill.

   Kitchen Minis “ripen in pots as small as eight inches and in lower light conditions so you can have fresh flavors any time of year,” says Josh Kirschenbaum, PanAmerican’s vegetables account manager. “Our motto for Kitchen Minis is ‘No garden? No problem.’”

   The first introductions are small-fruited peppers – both sweet and hot ones – and a pair of cherry tomatoes – ‘Micro Tom,’ which grows 18 inches tall and produces red fruits in 50 days, and ‘Siam,’ which stays under a foot tall and produces red fruits in 70 to 84 days.

   Both of the tomatoes are determinate, meaning they ripen most of their fruits around the same time instead of producing on and on for months.

Blueberry ‘Midnight Cascade’

The Bushel and Berry Collection is a line of compact fruit bushes aimed at small-space gardens and container growing. They’re also designed to be good-looking plants as well.

New in the collection for 2021 is ‘Midnight Cascade,’ touted as the first hanging-basket blueberry.

   This variety produces the same white, bell-shaped spring flowers and early-summer blue fruits as traditional vase-shaped blueberry plants but has a loose, trailing habit that’s ideal for growing out of a hanging basket.

   “The foliage has hints of red that will darken in fall weather,” adds Katie Dubow, a spokeswoman for Star Roses and Plants, which produces Bushel and Berry plants for garden centers.

   Full sun to light shade is the recommended light setting.

Sweet potato Treasure Island

   Another new plant that’s both ornamental and edible is this new, five-variety line of sweet potatoes from breeders in Ireland and Louisiana State University.

   The leaves come in different shades that make them useful as colorful, trailing foliage plants in pots and baskets, while the roots underneath can be harvested and eaten in fall as the growing season ends.

   The taste and yield are reportedly equal to other commercial varieties grown strictly for eating and with plain green leaves.

   Each of the five Treasure Island varieties are named for a Polynesian Island.

   ‘Tahiti’ has bright-green leaves and purple-fleshed roots with purple skin; ‘Tatakoto’ has green leaves with purple veining and purple-skinned, orange-flesh roots; ‘Makatea’ has heart-shaped golden leaves and orange-skinned, creamy-white roots; ‘Kaukura’ has heart-shaped purple leaves and orange-skinned, orange-fleshed roots, and ‘Mahini’ has maple-leaf-shaped purple foliage and orange-skinned, orange-fleshed roots.

   The series, being introduced by Concept Plants, was good enough to win a 2020 Green Thumb Award from the Direct Gardening Association and first prize in the People’s Choice competition at Oregon’s 2020 Farwest trade show.

   Sweet potatoes grow best in full sun to light shade.

Kale Blue Ridge

   A third new good-looking edible is this ruffled, cold-tough, blue-green kale that’s the favorite new 2021 edible of Chris Wallen, a grower at the wholesale-only Quality Greenhouses near Dillsburg.

   Wallen says Blue Ridge’s leaves have a “triple curl” to them, and the foliage is dense, full, and an attractive shade of dark blue-green. He adds that Blue Ridge is also slow to bolt to seed, which means the leaves can be harvested over a long period.

   Similar to PanAmerican’s Kitchen Minis, Blue Ridge is part of Sakata Seed’s “Indoor Greens Baby Leaf” line, meaning the variety can be grown inside for winter greens as well as growing outside in a garden.

   Plants can grow up to four feet tall outside in full sun or part shade and are easy to start by directly seeding into the garden.

Squash ‘Goldilocks’

   This small-fruited new acorn squash was good enough to be the only new vegetable (so far) to earn a 2021 All-America Selections national award for its performance in independent national testing.

   AAS judges found ‘Goldilocks’ to be vigorous and mildew-resistant in growth and high in yield, producing an average of 10 or more four-inch fruits per plant.

   The fruits mature to orange 85 days after the seeds are direct-sown and, according to the judges, have a “rich, nutty taste.”

   The vining plants grow about 30 inches tall and five feet across, ideally in full sun.

Echalion Creme Brulee

   If you’re interested in something different, this new variety of an onion/shallot marriage won a 2021 AAS award for the Great Lakes, Southeast, and Northwest regions. It should also do well in Pennsylvania’s climate.

   An echalion is an onion-family plant also known as a “banana shallot” for its elongated shape. It more resembles a clove of garlic than an onion, and has a mild oniony flavor with a hint of citrus.

   Crème Brulee is a standout for several reasons: 1.) it’s easy to grow from seed, 2.) it’s a good-looking edible with a bright coppery-pink skin and rosy-purple flesh, and 3.) it has a caramelized sweet flavor when sauteed.

   The strappy-leafed plants grow two to three feet tall (ideally in full sun), and the oblong bulbs average four to five inches long. Plant the cloves or seedlings about two inches apart, and they hit maturity in just under 100 days.

   Crème Brulee is the first-ever shallot to win an AAS award. 

Sweet pepper Between the Lines

   Between the Lines is a new sweet pepper that ripens in a rainbow of colors and has variegated foliage to boot.

   The variety is “sweet and crunchy, early and abundant, and incredibly gorgeous in foliage, flower, and fruit,” says Petra Page-Mann, founder of Naples, N.Y.-based Fruition Seeds, which specializes in organic seeds for the Northeast. Fruition developed this open-pollinated variety, which means gardeners can grow the saved seeds of it.

   “It’s a ‘sport’ we saw among a larger breeding project at Cornell years ago and asked if we could save and play with the seed,” Page-Mann says. “And play we did!”

   Between the Lines’ slender, eight-inch fruits start green and ripen in assorted striped colors, ranging from mixes of orange, yellow, and burgundy to a nearly solid deep maroon-purple.

   Fruits are full-sized green in 65 days and fully colored mature in 85 days.

Hot pepper Armageddon

   Hot-pepper aficionados should like this new introduction that’s being touted as the “world’s first hybrid super-hot chili pepper.”

   Armageddon weighs in at an eye-watering 1.2 million units on the Scoville pepper-heat scale.

   “This variety is not for the faint of heart,” warns Katie Rotella, a spokeswoman for Burpee Home Gardens, which is debuting Armageddon in plant form in garden centers this spring.

   Plants grow a little bigger than two feet tall and churn out gnarly, golfball-sized, red ripe fruits about 95 to 100 days after planting.

   Give Armageddon full sun for best yield and hottest heat.

Strawberry Berried Treasure

   One other good-looking new fruit for 2021 is Proven Winners’ pair of compact, everbearing strawberries aimed at small-space gardeners – especially those growing edibles in pots or hanging baskets.

   Berried Treasure Red was the first in this series of strawberries that produce small red fruits continuously on plants that grow about 15 inches tall and two feet wide. Its flowers are rosy-red.

   New for 2021 is Berried Treasure White, a variety with attractive white flowers, and Berried Treasure Pink, a variety with – you guessed it – showy pink flowers. Even if the birds eat your fruits, at least you’ll get some nice flowers.

   Berried Treasure plants are being marketed as annuals, but they’re cold-hardy enough to survive our winters if planted in the ground. They’ll flower and fruit best in full sun.

Chinese cabbage ‘Merlot’

   Both Johnny’s Selected Seeds and Pinetree Garden Seeds are introducing a new Chinese (a.k.a. Napa-type) cabbage with beautiful deep-lavender and white leaves outside and throughout the head.

   ‘Merlot’ will add both color and crunch to the vegetable garden, producing foot-long, oblong heads about 60 days from direct-seeding in the garden.

   Chinese cabbage is a staple of Chinese and Korean cooking. It’s not quite as cold-hardy as more common ball-head cabbages, but it does tolerate some frost. Wait until mid to late April to plant seeds, or start transplants inside in mid to late March.

   Plant in full-sun to lightly shaded locations.

Eggplant Midnight Moon Hybrid

   This new dark-maroon-skinned eggplant is the favorite new 2021 seed-grown vegetable of Venelin Dimitrov, the W. Atlee Burpee Co.’s senior product manager.

   A Burpee exclusive, Midnight Moon is one of the earliest-maturing eggplants yet, producing three- to six-inch fruits about 60 days after planting.

   “They’re just the right size for your favorite ratatouille or eggplant parmesan recipes, or for simply slicing and tossing on the grill,” Dimitrov says.

   The flesh is creamy white and nearly seedless, and the three-foot-tall plants are heavy yielders, too.

   Eggplants perform best in full sun and grow well in containers as well as in the ground.

Broccoli Jacaranda

   New from Territorial Seed Co. and Fedco Seeds, Jacaranda is actually a cross between broccoli and cauliflower that produces purple crowns of broccoli.

   The crowns start out a mix of white and purple and mature to purple in about 50 days. They average five to eight inches wide.

   Plants are compact, have blue-green leaves, and grow best in full sun.