WVU professor emetrius and creator of "people's tomato" unveils final variety for home gardeners
MORGANTOWN, W. Va. (KDKA) -- A West Virginia University professor emeritus who created the "people's tomato" has unveiled his final variety, which is resistant to one of the major diseases that home gardeners deal with.
Plant pathology professor emeritus Mannon Gallegly, who is 101 and 30 years into retirement, has created his fourth and final tomato: the West Virginia '23, or "Mannon's Majesty."
"With so many tomato growers in this state, I wanted to help them continue to grow their food," Mannon Gallegly said in a news release from WVU. "I am, after all, an employee of the people of West Virginia. That's why I developed it — for the people of West Virginia."
Gallegly began his tomato creating journey in 1950. The university said his research on vegetable disease and tomato blight led him on a quest to develop the West Virginia '63, known as the "people's tomato." He created two more new varieties in 2017.
His newest variety is resistant to Septoria lycopersici or Septoria leaf spot, which WVU says is one of the big diseases home gardeners battle. It's also resistant to the fungal diseases fusarium wilt and verticillium wilt as well as late blight, which can cause a total crop failure.
"Gallegly inoculated his research plants with these diseases before putting them in a moisture chamber for three days. The survivors are those that are resistant. From those, he picked out tomatoes based on preferable size, color, shape and taste. He bred them in the field to eventually have a tomato that is delicious, resistant to disease and with a good size, shape and color," WVU explained.
A limited amount of seeds are currently available to growers for free. Gardeners interested can submit requests to Whitney Dudding, the WVU Evansdale Greenhouse manager, at wldudding@mail.wvu.edu. Requests should include a full name, desired variety, number of seeds and shipping address.
Gallegly plans to plant more "Mannon's Majesty" next summer to increase the seed amount available to the public, the university says.