2026 Variety Trials

About the 2026 trials

Take some time to review this digital catalog of our 2026 trials. This year, trial participants will receive all trials (we are not offering a selection of different trials). Please plant and report on whichever crops you choose.

Included in the trial is one crop geared towards gardening with children—yard long beans!  These are included in the trial packet and you are welcome to grow this trial even if you do not have children.

What you get

This year’s trial focuses on intensive gardening using the square‑foot gardening method. The garden layout is designed for a 4' x 4' bed (16 sq. ft.), which we estimate will produce enough fresh vegetables to feed one to two people throughout the season.

You may follow our recommended planting plan, adapt it to your own garden setup, or grow the plants in containers—whatever works best for you. In the design, tomatoes and beans are placed along the north side and the north end of the bed. This ensures that these taller, trellised or staked plants won’t shade the smaller crops in the rest of the garden.

• Tomatoes - seed for 1 plant per trial
• Yard-long beans - seed for 8 plants per trial
• Bush cucumber - seed for 2 plants per trial
• Pepper - seed for 1 plant per trial
• Squash - seed for 1 plant per trial
• Chives - seed for 6 plants per trial
• Marigolds - seed for 4 plants per trial

After reviewing the information below, head over to our registration site. There is a fee of $6 for the trial.

Registration link: Registration for the 2026 trials is now closed.

Seed is expected to be mailed from Blacksburg the last week of February.

Participation requirements

Please only enroll in a variety trial if you can commit to sowing and tending the plants. We are relying on your experience growing these plants to inform our recommendations for Virginia! If you aren't certain you can commit to sowing and growing the seeds, please do not enroll in the trial.

While we do understand that there may be germination or garden problems that lead to failure, it is still expected that each participant will submit a year-end evaluation.  Failure to submit an evaluation may limit participation in future evaulations.

An online survey link will be sent to participants on September 1 to collect data from participants.  You can print a hard copy of the data form to assist you throughout the growing season in collecting data, but all data must be submitted using the electronic survey.  The survey, while opening in September will remain open through October 31. 

Click here for data collection forms for the 2026 trails. 

Example trial narrative

Susan enrolls in the trial and receives the seeds for all the trials: tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, chives, squash, pepper and marigold. She receives a total of fourteen packets of seeds (two varieties for each trial).  She pays $6 total via the registration site.

Susan and her daughter start their tomatoes, peppers, and marigold indoors before their last frost date and direct sow their cucumbers, beans, chives, and squash. They care for the plants in their garden all summer, harvest and eat the produce, and keep notes on what they thought of each plant. Some varieties had more disease problems than others and they keep good records of this. At the end of the season, they submit their evaluation of their crops.

2026 Variety Trials

Abbreviations

This is the page for our 2026 Variety Trails, for complete information about the Home Vegetable Variety Trials, please visit this page.  

If this is a Vegetable Variety Trial, why do you have herbs and flowers?

While herbs and flowers are not the main focus of these trials, we felt that inclusion of an herb and a flower would be of interest to our home vegetable garden growers.