Re: HYB:stupid questions department
- To:
- Subject: Re: [iris-talk] HYB:stupid questions department
- From: J* G* C*
- Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 23:59:45 -0400
James -- I think you'll find that many, if not most, hybridizers use a
system of their own devising. Mine works like this:
Take, for example, seedling # 974A13.
97 is the year the seedling sprouted. Until I transplant them, the
seedlings resulting from the various crosses are growing in small aluminum
loaf pans, each pan labeled as to the cross. This is all that's needed
until they are set out in the seedling beds a couple of months after
sprouting.
The first lot (all or part of the seedlings from a cross) that I transplant
gets the letter "A". If I plant 13, they are numbered 1 through 13. Thus,
A13. The second lot gets the letter "B". If I have more than 26 lots to
plant, then I have to start through the alphabet again. So, instead of
writing AA, or AAA, or AAAA, I write 2A, 3A and 4A. This just saves space
on the label. Thus, seedling #974A13 is the 13th seedling in lot 4A
transplanted in 1997. As I plant them out in lines, I log each lot in a
book, such as "974A = Midnight Oil x Superstition -- 13". This is a rough
garden book, stained with dirt and sweat, and sometimes with ink blotted by
rain when I didn't get out of the garden quick enough. I also put a label
in the ground at the beginning of each lot, identifying the cross and the
number of seedlings. In addition, using the log and labels, I draw a map
of the plantings. I then enter the data from the rough log in another,
larger book in which several lines are devoted to each individual seedling.
Here, a description and history of each seedling can be maintained. This is
the system that works for me. It just depends on what you want to record
and what makes sense as a permanent record.
Griff
jgcrump@erols.com in Virginia
-----Original Message-----
From: James Brooks <comeback@usit.net>
To: iris-talk@egroups.com <iris-talk@egroups.com>
Date: Saturday, June 10, 2000 9:01 AM
Subject: [iris-talk] HYB:stupid questions department
>Newbies always begin perfectly logical questions that we have all asked
>at one time or another with something like, "I know this is a stupid
>question, but..."
>To demonstrate a truly stupid question, let me try with this:
>How do hybridizers come up with those combinations of meaningless number
>and letters that make seedling nomenclature so entirely unmemborable?
>You know, stuff like "The Premio Firenze for best seedling award went to
>SS487GQ."
>For years I thought they were showing just a leaf coming out of the
>soil, or at best a fan, not some new flower that may one day set the
>iris world on its ear. As a practicing wordsmith, I would be embarrassed
>to put a beautiful flower on the show bench with nothing more memorable
>than such a bunch of gobbledy-gook.
>My guess is that this is some kind of code tied to bed maps, number of
>attempts at hybridization or plants produced, the initials of a secret
>admirer, the magazine they happen to be reading at the time and the
>proportions for a perfect dry martini.
>If any hybridizer would care to present a Rosetta Stone to seedling
>nomenclature it would be greatly admired here in the hinterlands.
>James Brooks
>comeback@usit.net
>Jonesborough, TN
>
>
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