Kelly Jackson
Christian County Extension Office
New 2020 All-American Selections
The All-American Selections (AAS) is a non-profit organization that helps take the guesswork out of the hundreds of vegetable varieties released each year. AAS growing tests are conducted across North America and judges score each entry. Only the highest-ranking varieties are given the stamp of approval. Most local garden centers carry the AAS Winners. For 2020 you should look for eleven new vegetables.
So many tomatoes! Smaller-sized tomatoes were a hot pick this year with 4 new ones to consider. The cherry tomato Crokini is a very sweet, small, firm tomato with 10-12 fruits per cluster. It has built in late blight resistance helping it yield into September. Celano, a new grape tomato, is a sweet, high yielder with a strong bushy habit. Plants grow to 40” in height and have excellent late blight tolerance. Looking for something different? Try the new Apple Yellow tomato. It is a lemon-yellow tomato with a unique dimple shape reminiscent of very small apple. The flavor is sweet and citrusy. Early Resilience is a rounded Roma tomato great for canning and cooking. It doesn’t require staking and is very resistant to Blossom End Rot and a high yielder.
Moving up in size, Galahad, is a 12-ounce tomato with great flavor and crack resistance. Chef’s Choice is the first bicolor tomato winner of the trial. This beefsteak type has yellow flesh with pinkish internal stripes. Each plant produces about thirty 8-ounce fruits.
Heirloom tomato growers should take notice of Buffalosun. It did great in the trials, outperforming old standards like Striped German. The coloring on this tomato is yellow with red/orange flames and a marbled interior. As an indeterminate tomato it should be staked for best performance.
Up next is Mambo, a variety of watermelon that the judges claimed is the easiest watermelon they have ever grown. Mambo has perfectly round melons each weighing 11 pounds with a dark green rind and deep red flesh.
Blue Prince is a unique blue flattened pumpkin with non-stringy, deep orange flesh. It is early maturing and scored high in yield, taste and texture. Use for fall decorating then bake for a delicious pie.
Our last two AAS vegetable selections are Green Light cucumber and Snak Hero peas. Green Light is a mini cucumber, producing 40 or more 3-4” long fruits per plant. Pick when young and pick often for great snacking cucumbers even without peeling. And speaking of snacking, Snak Hero is a super sweet pea great for fresh eating or stir-fry. The smaller sized vines mean Snak Hero can be grown in patio containers or hanging baskets. Peas are a great early season crop for Kentucky.
AAS has been selecting proven winners since 1933 and a complete list of those winners can be found on their website
(www.all-americaselections.org). AAS winners are selected from many new cultivars, based on garden performance as well as performance in the greenhouse. Although no plant offers a guarantee of success in an individual garden, 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 means of comparison. AAS winners are available through local garden centers and mail order catalogs this spring.
