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Jim,
I'm in my third year growing
seedlings but have already found that fertility and germination rates
change
from year to year. Christmas
Tree Gala was a good example; no seeds on some plants -lots on
others----
poor germination one year-great this
year.
I am lucky to have lots of
space so I saved all seedlings (1000) last summer. I'm very anxious to see
the second year plants for just the
reasons that you have suggested. I don't know which ones to
cull.
I know I need to keep improving my
record keeping;I think this year I'm going to take pics with my digital
camera so I know what the 2001
seedling looked
like in comparison to the plant that
shows up in 2002. All I need is more time!!!
Hope you get some answers; I"m
interested in the responsed you get.
Butch Graves
Sylvania, Ohio
Are there any conclusions
that can be drawn for future expectations of
a particular variety simply
from fertility or germination rate? My extremes
are 5% to best rate of
82%. One batch of Christmas Tree Gala gave me exactly
one seedling. An
incredible little Princess. If there were 100+ in that batch
I think I
would have picked her. Beautiful leaf form, nice substance,
beautifully
balanced Periclinal chimera. Can I deduce anything simply because
it was
the only one to germinate, not considering any other factors?
Some batches are extremely slow growing
others want jump out of the
flats and run to the garden. I am not trying
to be simplistic here. Those of
you that have produced hundreds of
thousands (or even 1 thousand) of
seedlings in the overall scheme of
things how much weight is placed on this
one consideration of growth rate
and vigor?
Survivability, hardiness, Some
batches had a high mortality rate,
lethal factor with white leaves,
generally weak spindly appearance, seemed
more susceptible to wilting or
damping off, slow growing, appears to have an
inherent weaknesses in the
cross. Do I trash a batch like this or keep the
best and cross in some
strength in the future? Some incredible genes here.
The batch with all the
white leaves I wouldn't take a gift of BUT inherent
gene potential is
undetermined without future crosses. There could be
something magic in the
future. I don't expect for a minute to have anyone
make my decisions for
me BUT how do you good people make these hard choices?
How much does "pretty" count? In one batch
there are seven golds (out
of 103) that have the cutest perfect round
leaves (as if formed with a
compass), nothing else of striking merit,
well, for golds they are growing as
fast or faster than the greens in the
batch.
I asked some of these questions a
while back and I received a few great
responses (Thankyou Joe and Mary and
others), I was hoping some more of you
"sowers of seed" (thanks Narda)
would care to comment. I learn from almost
every posting and I am
especially hungry tonight. It's 12:01 am and I just
came upstairs from
playing with all the green and yellow and gold and blue
and lots of
variegation under the lights (still 6-8 inches of snow to melt
here) and
was hoping someone else was having as much fun as I was and would
care to
post it.
Jim
Towle......
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