ALL-AMERICA SELECTIONS TRIALS
Richard G. Snyder and Peter Hudson
Truck Crops Branch Experiment Station, Crystal Springs, MS
ABSTRACT: All-America Selections is a non-profit organization founded in 1932 to evaluate and promote new varieties of flowers and vegetables. I have been a Vegetable Judge with All-America Selections, a voluntary position, since 1989, and trial plots for the All-America Selections Program have been at the Truck Crops Station since then. In these plots, some of the newest vegetable varieties are evaluated to determine if they are superior to varieties already on the market. Test varieties are submitted by plant breeders and seed companies in the U.S. as well as other countries to the All-America Selections Committee for testing. The Committee then chooses existing varieties (two to four) that are most similar to the test variety, and ships seeds to judges around the country for evaluation each spring. Winning varieties need to be noteworthy for their superior performance over a wide range of environmental conditions. This may include yield, but may also include uniqueness (novelty value), flavor, texture, disease and/or insect tolerance, stress tolerance to weather conditions, fruit or leaf color, plant habit or architecture, space efficiency, earliness, duration of harvest period, etc. Scores from all of the judges are tabulated by an impartial firm, and those varieties with the highest ratings are eligible for the All-America Selections award, which includes the red, white, and blue shield emblem on seed packets and in catalog descriptions. In addition, substantial advertising and promotion of winners helps to get the best varieties into circulation. Press releases reach over 85 million people in North America each year. There are only 26 Vegetable Judges in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The Truck Crops Station is the only test site for vegetables in the southern U.S. other than one in South Carolina.