Nov 26, 2017

First commercial tomato variety released by Penn State

The first commercially released variety resulting from Majid Foolad’s tomato breeding program at Penn State University is being released by Johnny’s Selected Seeds.  It has been chosen as an All-American Selection winner for 2018. 

Pennsylvania Vegetable Growers Association and the Pennsylvania Vegetable Marketing and Research Program have been supporting Foolad’s work since the beginning and are grateful to see the release of this variety, a news release stated.

Foolad discovered the high-lycopene trait contained in this tomato. His work also contributed to the early blight resistance in Valentine.

Both of these traits and other tomato improvements are contained in the parent lines that Foolad has worked on developing and that will be useful in the creation of many additional new varieties, including slicing and processing varieties.