Frank Morton (plant breeder)

Frank H. Morton (born 1955 in Fayette County, West Virginia) is an organic farmer, gardener, plant breeder and seedsman known for creating dozens of varieties of lettuce.

With his wife Karen, he founded the company Wild Garden Seed in 1994, and he was a founding member of the Open Source Seed Initiative in 2012.

Biography

Morton's first foray into gardening was brought about by his father, a coal miner who grew prizewinning delphiniums as a hobby, and his mother, who inspired the 5-year-old Frank to try planting the seeds from the watermelons he ate in an (ultimately unsuccessful) attempt to get more watermelon.{{cite news |last1=Bock |first1=Paula |title=The Seed Saver: In plant propagation, our past and future are preserved |url=https://www.seattletimes.com/pacific-nw-magazine/the-seed-saver-in-plant-propagation-our-past-and-future-are-preserved/ |access-date=1 January 2022 |work=The Seattle Times |date=April 17, 2005}} Growing up in West Virginia, he moved to Oregon in the 1970s to attend Lewis & Clark College, graduating with a BS in Child Psychology in 1978.{{cite news |last1=Charles |first1=Dan |title=A Tale Of Two Seed Farmers: Organic Vs. Engineered |url=https://www.npr.org/2011/01/25/133178893/a-tale-of-two-seed-farmers-organic-vs-engineered |access-date=1 January 2022 |work=NPR |date=January 24, 2011}}

Morton began growing lettuce commercially in the early 1980s, letting some of the crop go to seed and planting those seeds the next year. Cross-pollination between two varieties led to formation of a novel hybrid with a combination of characteristics from the parent plants. Planting the seeds from that lettuce resulted in a number of different plants with a wide variety of features, from which 23 new varieties of lettuce were eventually selected.{{cite news |last1=Greenwood |first1=Veronique |title=The man growing lettuce for space station salads |url=https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210810-the-man-growing-lettuce-for-space-station-salads |access-date=1 January 2022 |work=BBC Future |date=August 13, 2021}} More recently, Morton has been selecting lettuce varieties for resistance to common diseases such as downy mildew.{{cite news |last1=Idlebrook |first1=Craig |title=Better Heirloom Vegetables |url=https://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/heirloom-varieties-zm0z11zsto/ |access-date=1 January 2022 |work=Mother Earth News |date=Aug 21, 2020}}

Famous cultivars

Morton has bred at least 99 types of lettuce,{{cite book |last1=Goldman |first1=Irwin |title=Plant Breeding Reviews, Volume 44 |date=Nov 10, 2020 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=9781119716952 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rt4IEAAAQBAJ |access-date=1 January 2022 |page=141 |quote="99 of the 104 lettuce varieties were bred by Frank Morton, for whom leafy greens, especially lettuce, is his major focus."}} and his company, Wild Garden Seed, offered seed for 114 lettuce varieties in 2016.{{cite web |last1=Cernansky |first1=Rachel |title=How "open source" seed producers from the U.S. to India are changing global food production |url=https://ensia.com/features/open-source-seeds/ |website=Ensia |publisher=University of Minnesota |access-date=1 January 2022 |date=December 12, 2016}}

On August 10, 2015, 'Outredgeous', a red romaine lettuce bred by Morton in the 1990s,{{cite web |last1=Boyle |first1=Alan |title=Space station crew chows down on fresh Outredgeous lettuce … and so can you |url=https://www.geekwire.com/2015/space-station-crew-chows-down-on-fresh-outredgeous-lettuce-and-so-can-you/ |website=GeekWire |access-date=1 January 2022 |date=August 10, 2015}} became the first plant variety to be planted, harvested and eaten entirely in space, as a part of Expedition 44 to the International Space Station.{{cite news|last1=Brownlee|first1=Lisa|title=International Space Station Astronauts Look Forward To Today's First Taste Of Space Harvest|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisabrownlee/2015/08/10/international-space-station-astronauts-look-forward-to-todays-first-taste-of-space-harvest/#20b0f0d01172|accessdate=26 February 2016|work=Forbes|date=1 January 2022}}

In addition to lettuce, Morton has also grown and bred other types of vegetables, including beets, peppers,{{cite web |last1=Levin |first1=Rachel |title=The Outsize Importance of the Tiny Organic Seed |url=https://modernfarmer.com/2015/12/clif-bar-seed-matters-dinner/ |website=Modern Farmer |access-date=1 January 2022 |date=Dec 15, 2015}} kale, and quinoa.{{cite news |last1=Bland |first1=Alastair |title=Quinoa Craze Inspires North America To Start Growing Its Own |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2012/11/29/166155875/quinoa-craze-inspires-north-america-to-start-growing-its-own |access-date=1 January 2022 |work=NPR |date=November 29, 2012}}

Frank Morton (plant breeder)

Biography

Famous cultivars

References

Further reading