MANHATTAN, Kan. -- The vegetable winners in this year’s All-America Selections nationwide test trials include a sugar-enhanced sweet corn, a bred-for-grilling pepper, a peachy-looking tomato, and the first hybrid onion ever to win the AAS award.

"I suspect these four are going to win a lot of fans among Kansas gardeners," said Ward Upham, Kansas State University horticulturist.

The sweet corn winner, which goes by the name Honey Select, has a honey flavor and tender kernels, he said.

"The breeder combined two endosperm types and managed to get a vigorous plant with the best characteristics of each parent. Honey Select has kernels that are 75 percent sugar-enchanced and 25 percent supersweet," Upham added. "Unlike most supersweet types, however, the plant doesn’t need isolation from other corns, and its kernels are tender. At the same time, those supersweet kernels keep the ears on the plant in edible condition for longer than usual."

Honey Select is a yellow corn that matures with 6-inch long ears in about 79 days.

Giant Marconi is a 5- to 6-inch long Italian pepper, bred so it can go directly on the grill.

"If you’ve ever tried to grill green bell peppers, you know they tend to taste quite bitter. But Giant Marconi has a sweet, smoky flavor that’s good alone or mixed with other vegetables," the horticulturist said. "You can grill or bake this pepper or eat it raw."

The pepper has other improved traits: high yield, disease resistance and adaptability to stressful growing conditions.

"Mulching the plant will be important, though," Upham said. "Giant Marconi fruit that touch the soil tend to rot."

Jolly is a tomato plant that produces pink, 1.5-ounce fruit in clusters of nine to 14. The tomatoes are meaty, sweet and almost crackless.

"Their shape is unique, too. They have a point on the blossom end, so resemble a peach," he said. "Jolly doesn’t have one of the new patio-type determinate vines, though. As with more traditional varieties, you may have to stake and prune Jolly, to enhance its fruit quality and keep the plant within bounds."

Super Star is the first onion to win the AAS award in 53 years. It’s the only hybrid onion ever to make the list.

"Evidently, it takes a GREAT onion to impress AAS judges," Upham said. "And this one does have splendid flavor that’s mild and sweet and rates as superior to that of the classic White Sweet Spanish onion. What puts Super Start into a class of its own, however, is its adaptability.

"Super Star is the first white onion ever considered to be day-length neutral. That means it can grow under any conditions typically found in North America during spring."

Other onions generally require either short or long days to form bulbs, he said.

Super Star onions mature in about 100 days. Each weighs a pound or more.

Upham, who maintains K-State Research and Extension’s Web site, has posted color photos of this year’s AAS vegetable winners at www.oznet.ksu.edu/dp_hfrr/extensn/horticul.htm (click to scan the article titles in the 2001 Horticulture Newsletter).