Participating in Citizen Science Benefits Gardeners Across the State
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – If you’re trying to decide which beans, cucumbers, tomatoes and other vegetables to plant in your garden this spring, take a look at the varieties that were successful in your neighbors’ gardens last year.
University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture researchers work with gardeners across Tennessee to test cultivars and varieties in their home gardens and report the results. In 2024, 182 participants representing 53 Tennessee counties planted 854 trials of bush and pole beans, cucumbers, okra, tomatoes, zucchini, squash and beets. Trials also included herbs, flowers and some fruits.
The results and recommendations are now available in the UT Extension publication Tennessee Home Garden Variety Trials 2024 Results, by Department of Plant Sciences associate professors Natalie Bumgarner and Virginia Sykes. Bumgarner serves as the statewide residential and consumer horticulture Extension specialist, and Sykes is an expert in variety testing and agroecology.
“By involving Tennessee home gardeners in a citizen science approach to variety evaluation, we are able to see how varieties perform across many different locations and gather important data on attributes that make varieties valuable in a home garden, such as germination, plant health, yield, attractiveness and flavor,” Bumgarner and Sykes said.
Gardeners collect data on variety performance, which is compiled to identify varieties with superior performance in Tennessee. The idea is that trying new varieties leads to more productive gardens and healthier diets.
Participants tested and compared two varieties of each vegetable, herb or flower. When evaluating trials, participants were asked to mark which of the two varieties performed better in terms of germination, plant health, first fruit, yield, appearance and flavor. They were also asked to give a performance rating on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 indicating poor performance and 10 indicating excellent performance. Participants were asked to select whether they would recommend either variety to other home gardeners.
Heat, drought and swings in weather made gardening difficult across Tennessee last year, so varieties that performed well despite these challenges received high marks from participants. Cultivars that received some of the highest scores, more than 90 percent recommending them, were:
- ‘Buff Valentine’ for bush beans
- ‘Benery Giant Mix’ and ‘Cactus Mix’ for cutting zinnia
- ‘Seychelles’ for pole beans
- ‘Gateway’ for vining and slicing cucumber
- ‘Emperor’s Jade’ for green zucchini
- ‘Golden Star’ for compact zucchini
- ‘Prospera Red’ for basil
- ‘Firecracker’ for dwarf sunflower
For a full list of the trial results and recommended varieties from previous years, find the publication on the UT Extension publications website: utextension.tennessee.edu/publications. Search for the title or the term “variety trials.”
For information about how to join the 2025 trials, visit mastergardener.tennessee.edu/home-garden-vegetable-trial.
The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture is comprised of the Herbert College of Agriculture, UT College of Veterinary Medicine, UT AgResearch and UT Extension. Through its land-grant mission of teaching, research and outreach, the Institute touches lives and provides Real. Life. Solutions. to Tennesseans and beyond. utia.tennessee.edu.