By Wayne McLaurin
Georgia Extension
Service
Volume XXVII
|
Six new vegetable garden cultivars have been awarded All
America Selections
for 2002. Based on their performance in test gardens all over
the country, these
new plants have been judged as superior in their class.
The AAS winners are selected based on how they have performed
in the garden
as well the greenhouse. Of course, no plant guarantees success
in your garden.
But the AAS winners have proven themselves worthy over a broad
range of growing
conditions.
Try these new selections alongside your old standbys so
you’ll have a way
to compare. AAS winners should be available through local
garden centers and
mail order catalogs in the spring of 2003.
All-american selections
“Diva” is a sweet cucumber with high yield
potential. It has only
female flowers and doesn’t require pollen to set fruit. The 4-
to 5-inch, slicing-type
cucumbers are supposed to be free of any bitter taste. They’re
normally seedless,
though a few seeds may develop if grown among other cultivars.
They should be
ready to harvest 58 days from sowing seed in warm soil. The
plants are reported
to resist scab and tolerate powdery and downy mildews.
“Chilly Chili” is a new, edible, ornamental pepper
for the current
pepper craze. It’s low-growing and loaded with 2-inch peppers
of all colors.
The great thing about this is that the peppers aren’t hot.
They’re very mild
and don’t pose a problem to children who might handle them.
They’re great, though,
for that splash of color in a salad.
“Magical Michael” is both an edible and ornamental
sweet basil. The
unusually uniform plants reach about 15 inches tall and 16 to
17 inches wide.
Harvesting can begin as early as a month after transplanting
to the garden.
Magical Michael has unusual flowers as well, with purple
sepals and white petals.
“Sorcerer” works its magic by producing a full-sized
pumpkin on a
compact plant. The dark orange pumpkins range from 15 to 22
pounds, yet the
plants only reach about 10 feet. Sorcerer pumpkins mature in
about 100 days
from sowing seed and can be used for either pies or jack-o’-
lanterns.
“Orange Smoothie” is exactly what you need if you’re
looking for a
smaller pumpkin along with a compact plant. Weighing in at 5
to 8 pounds with
a strong, long handle, this pumpkin is ideal for children. The
smooth skin is
a great surface, too, for painting Halloween decorations.
Orange Smoothie matures
a bit earlier — about 90 days from sowing seed.
“Cornell’s Bush Delicata” delivers a sweet, tender,
nonstringy winter
squash on a compact plant. You can expect to harvest the first
of these gems
about 100 days from sowing. They start out as bush-type
plants. But they will
send out short runners later in the season. The plants are
reported to have
good tolerance to powdery mildew.
For more information about these and other years’ winners,
point your Web browser
to www.all-
americaselections.org.
