The Best New Vegetables, Herbs, and Fruits of 2022

January 11th, 2022

   The COVID-fueled boom in vegetable gardening continued in 2021, and research is showing a high percentage of newbies say they plan to stick with this dirty (but healthy) habit again in 2022.

   Plant breeders and seed companies are riding the wave by rolling out lots of new edible-plant introductions this year.

   Let’s take a look today at some of the best of the new-for-2022 edibles. If any strike your fancy, don’t dawdle ordering seeds and plants because high demand and order-fulfilling issues have been widespread the past two winters.

   Next Tuesday (Jan. 18), I’ll tell you about some of the best new annual flowers debuting in 2022, then on Jan. 25 I’ll cover the year’s best new perennial flower introductions. I’ll finish off this year’s best-new-plants-of-2022 series Feb. 1 with a look at the year’s best new trees and shrubs.

   Some of the following new edibles are already available in seeds or plants online and in catalogs. Others will show up in local garden centers – seeds already and plants in April and May.

Fig Fignomenal

   Few Pennsylvania gardeners grow figs because they’re seen as not reliably cold-hardy, plus they can get big and wieldy.

   This new fig introduction from Bucks County’s Peace Tree Farm checks off both concerns by being hardy in cold climates and being exceptionally compact – under three feet tall and wide.

   Maria Zampini, president of the Ohio-based UpShoot plant introduction company, thinks Fignomenal is going to be a winner because of its “extremely dwarf and low-mounding habit, which is perfect for urban gardening, indoors as well as outdoors.”

   But she says Fignomenal is a heavy fruiter, too, producing sweet, medium-sized figs that are deep brown on the outside and pink-red on the inside.

   Peace Tree Farm owner Lloyd Traven posted an online video showing him counting 88 figs on a four-year-old Fignomenal plant.

   “It’s a truly dwarf fig that has fruit that ripens in the Northeast,” Traven says.

   The variety won a 2021 Retailer’s Choice Award from The Garden Center Group as one of the year’s most innovative new plants with the potential to become a new best-seller.

   Outside in the ground, Fignomenal plants will do best in warm, sunny, protected areas (such as along as a west-facing stone or brick wall), and for good measure, with a leaf-filled burlap wrap in winter.

   Or they can be grown in pots that are moved inside in winter and back out for the growing season.

Eggplant ‘Icicle’

   This eggplant with the elongated white fruits is one of five new vegetables good enough to earn 2022 All-America Selections awards based on their performance in national trials.

   ‘Icicle’ has four improvements going for it: 1.) fewer spines than most eggplants, meaning less painful harvesting; 2.) fewer seeds; 3.) good resistance to bugs, and 4.) white skins that don’t yellow like most other white-fruited eggplants.

   ‘Icicle’ grows about four feet tall, averages eight to nine seven-inch-long fruits per plant, and produces mature fruits about 55 days after setting plants out in the garden. It does best in full sun.

Hot pepper ‘Buffy’ 

   The second 2022 AAS vegetable winner is this medium-hot pepper (hotter if you eat the seeds) with thick-walled, red-maturing, inch-and-a-half fruits that are held high on the plant.

   ‘Buffy’ is also a prolific producer, capable of churning out 250 to 280 fruits per plant before frost ends its life.

   As with its namesake from the 1992 Vampire Slayer film, ‘Buffy’ the pepper can make good use of a stake – in this case to hold up the heavy, fruit-laden stems on this hefty, four-foot-tall plant.

   Give it full sun and 70 days from setting plants out to start getting ripe fruit.

Lettuce ‘Bauer’

   This compact, four-inch-tall, disease-resistant oakleaf lettuce is the third AAS-winning edible of 2002.

   ‘Bauer’s’ leaves are medium to dark-green in color, crunchy, and densely packed to form tight, eight-inch-wide clusters about a month after setting out transplants. Or you can snip leaves when they’re smaller and keep cutting until hot weather ends the mild, sweet flavor.

   Plants grow as well in pots as in the ground and can tolerate a range of light from full sun to part shade.

   Like most lettuces, ‘Bauer’ is easy to grow from seed and does best in the cooler seasons of spring and fall.

Pepper ‘Dragonfly’

   Pepper ‘Dragonfly’ is the fourth AAS vegetable winner and stands out most for the color of its fruits – purple on the outside and lime green on the inside.

   AAS judges also liked that the walls of ‘Dragonfly’ fruits are thicker than most bell peppers and that the fruits are held high on the plant, keeping them off the ground and making them easy to see and pick.

   ‘Dragonfly’ plants grow 24 to 36 inches tall and produce about 40 three- to-four inch, four-lobed fruits per plant.

   The variety does best in full sun and is suitable for containers as well as in-ground growing.

Tomato ‘Purple Zebra’

  This new cherry-tomato variety is the fifth 2022 AAS vegetable winner, and it’s also distinct for its fruit color.

   ‘Purple Zebra’ produces up to 200 three- to four-ounce, little, round tomatoes that are dark red with green stripes.

   AAS judges liked the fruits’ firm texture and complex flavor that’s described as “acid-leaning to sweet.”

   ‘Purple Zebra’ also has very good disease resistance – including resistance to the deadly late-blight disease – and begins producing ripe fruit about 80 to 85 days after setting out transplants.

   Plants are indeterminate (i.e. keep producing until frost) and grow best in full sun.

Pepper ‘Candy Cane Chocolate Cherry’

   Here’s a vegetable that’s almost too good-looking to eat.

   Joshua Julian, a grower at the wholesale Quality Greenhouses near Dillsburg, picks ‘Candy Cane Chocolate Cherry’ bell pepper as his favorite new edible plant of 2022.

   “This is an extraordinarily eye-catching plant,” he says. “It’s a miniature bell-pepper plant that’s boldly splashed variegated with white, while the brown-and-red peppers are also striped with white.”

   Sinclair Adam, director of Penn State’s Trial Gardens in Lancaster County, also picks ‘Candy Cane Chocolate Cherry’ as his favorite new edible of 2022 after seeing it in action in last year’s trials.

   He says it’s a standout not only for its variegated leaves and fruits but for its sweet flavor and suitability for growing in pots.

   Plants grow two feet tall and do best in full sun.

Pepper ‘Pot a Peno’

   Julian also likes this new variety of jalapeno pepper that has a mounding, trailing growth habit.

   “It’s ideal for large pots or hanging baskets,” he says. “The peppers hang downwards, which adds to the overall ornamental appeal.”

   Pot a Peno has traditional jalapeno flavor and heat and grows a foot tall, ideally in full sun.

   It won a 2021 regional AAS award in the U.S. Great Lakes and Western/Northwestern regions.

Tomato ‘SuperSauce’

   W. Atlee Burpee Co., the iconic Bucks County seed house, is legendary for its many tomato introductions over the years.

   ‘SuperSauce’ is a new one for 2022 that Burpee is calling “the new tomato superhero” – and deeming it good enough to earn the front-cover photo of Burpee’s 2022 catalog.

   Burpee product manager Venelin Dimitrov says the fruits of this Roma-type tomato are huge – up to two pounds each.

   “’SuperSauce’ produces gallons of luscious sauce from a single plant harvest,” he says, adding that it also makes an excellent fresh-eating salad tomato.

   Plants are indeterminate and start producing ripe fruit about 70 days after transplanting. Best in full sun.

Tomato Marzito

   Another interesting new tomato is this one with the little elongated fruits.

   Debuting in PanAmerican Seed’s HandPicked Vegetables collection, Marzito produces clusters of fruits that look like miniature, elongated Roma tomatoes… or long, skinny grape tomatoes, depending on your tomato point of view.

   The fruits are firm in texture and sweet in flavor, and plants are disease-resistant and indeterminate producers.

   Plants grow about seven feet tall (with staking) and are early to produce ripe fruit (at about 55 days after setting out plants).

Basil Everleaf Thai Towers

   This attractive Thai basil is another new-for-2022 introduction in PanAmerican’s HandPicked Vegetables collection.

   PanAmerican marketing manager Claire Josephson says Everleaf Thai Towers has a columnar habit that makes it a good choice as a “thriller” centerpiece in a mixed floral combination.

   Plants grow two to three feet tall but only eight to 12 inches across.

   The green leaves emerge with dark purple-burgundy tinges and are licorice-flavored. The stems are soft purple.

   “Best of all,” says Josephson, “’Everleaf Thai Towers’ flowers up to 10 to 12 weeks later than standard Thai basil, giving you plenty to use and enjoy even through warmer summer days.”

Basil Pesto Besto

   Excellent disease resistance is the calling card of this new Italian sweet basil that’s one of two 2022 introductions in Proven Winners’ Proven Harvest line.

   Most Italian basil varieties have one big vulnerability – they’re prone to a fungal disease called downy mildew that can kill plants in their summertime prime.

   Proven Winners says Pesto Besto has a high degree of mildew-resistance, meaning you should be able to harvest it to the end of the season without spraying.

   It’s also slow to flower, especially if you keep pinching the stem tips as the plant grows to its mature height of two-and-a-half to three feet.

   As with other basils, this one is a frost-tender annual. Wait until temperatures are regularly well above freezing at night to set out plants.

Garlic chives AlliYUM

   The other new Proven Harvest 2022 introduction is this flat-leafed, onion-family plant with a mild garlic flavor.

   AlliYUM is a cold-hardy perennial, which means it’ll come back year after year. Plants grow about 16 inches tall, produce lavender pompom flowers for about a month in early summer, and are heat- and humidity-tolerant. Deer don’t like them.

   Leaves can be harvested throughout the growing season.

   AlliYUM made the grade because of high scores in Proven Winners taste-test trials.

Kitchen Mini tomatoes Red Velvet and Cocoa

   Kitchen Minis is a line of compact edible plants bred specifically for tabletop growing indoors – including over the winter. The concept was good enough to earn Greenhouse Grower magazine’s Medal of Excellence for the best new plant program of 2021.

   PanAmerican Seed this year is adding two new Kitchen-Mini plants – both tomatoes.

   Tomato Red Velvet is a variety that produces small, red, cherry-size fruits.

   Tomato Cocoa also produces cherry-type fruits, but they ripen burgundy.

   Plants are determinate, meaning they produce all of their ripe fruits over a period of a few weeks.

   All of the plants in the line are super-compact potted tomatoes and peppers that have the ability to produce indoors on a sunny windowsill or under lights.

   Other companies also are getting into this act now, such as the Heartbreakers line of sweet-flavored, heart-shaped cherry tomatoes being sold in seed form by Totally Tomatoes and Territorial Seed and the Fresh Bites Yellow pepper, also being sold as seed by Territorial Seed.

Read George’s post on Best New Vegetables and Fruits of 2021