I’ve got a few more new vegetable varieties to share with you today. Of particular interest to many of you may be a new tomato with resistance to Early Blight and Septoria Leaf Spot. (Although if we continue in drought conditions, these diseases are much less concerning.)

 ‘BHN-871’ Tomato: This is a golden orange tomato. It isn’t necessarily “new,” but this is the first year I’ve seen the seed available in a smaller quantity. This variety did well in a K-State trial a couple of years ago, and I looked for the seed but could only find it if I wanted 2,000+ seeds. It has good disease resistance, 10-12 oz. fruit, and a mildly acid flavor.

‘Lunchbox’ Peppers: The snack pepper trend has been around for awhile, and we have tried the ‘Yummy’ series in the Demo Garden. They never seem to yield quite as well as I would like. I will be interested to see if this series produces any better. Orange, red, and yellow varieties are available.

‘Masquerade’ Potato: This is a potato with bicolor skin – purple and tan stripes. I’ve grown some heirloom potatoes with that characteristic before, but it is interesting to see it in Burpee rather than in the Seed Savers Exchange Seedbook.

‘Iron Lady’ Tomato: This tomato boasts “triple resistance,” meaning it is resistant to late blight (which we don’t worry about), early blight, and Septoria leaf spot. It sounds like it has good resistance to those diseases, but will be better planted away from susceptible varieties. The plants are determinate and yield 5 oz fruit. This will be a fun one to try, especially if we ever have a wet year again!

‘Esterina’ Tomato: Sungold is the standard for super-sweet, orange cherry tomatoes, and there has been a number of varieties released trying to find something comparable that resists cracking. This is another variety in that same vein. The claim is that it is sweeter, brighter yellow, and very crack and disease resistant.

‘Annelise’ Tomato: This is a 2 oz. truss tomato that can produce 10-12 tomatoes on one truss at about the same time.

‘Perseo’ Radicchio: This is a smaller headed radicchio that is also supposed to be extra early. I’m curious as to whether we could get a reliable crop with this variety.

‘Dragon’s Tongue’ Arugula: This is a type of arugula that has a red veins. I always like new shapes and colors of salad greens!

‘Noche’ Squash: This green zucchini has a plant with spineless stems and leaves. This make picking more enjoyable and also prevents the squash from getting damaged during harvest.

There are some interesting varieties this year, although not as many as last year. New shapes and colors are always the most exciting, but sometimes disease resistance and days to maturity advances is more important to success in the garden!

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