AG Genetics Data Form

pumpkins@mallorn.com wrote:
> 
> I think its a good idea to track the lesser known traits because with
> enough data, we might find a correlation between some of these traits
> and pumpkin weight.  Here's an idea: why don't we make up some kind 
> of sheet for the weigh off sites to give to each entry to fill out. 
> Andy Wolf

  This might be very worthwhile, but before we pester everyone with
filling out a genetics form, we would want to be sure we were willing to
put in the long hours trying to figure out how to digest the data. One
of my friend's worked with mouse data forms which had been accumulating
for 20 years, but no one had the patience or knowledge to analyze them.
He began working with them about 1970 when computers became available. 
  I am a beginner at pumpkin genetics and also it can be difficult to
figure out the genetics from unplanned crosses. That is the reason
genetics was not understood before Mendel. Prior to Mendel, man had been
breeding animals and plants for improvement for 20,000 years, but Mendel
became the first to understand inheritance!! As you know Mendel's
results were so strange, everyone ignored him. 40 years later, 3 others
found the same results and folks begin to think there really were genes
(Mendel called them units).
  Mendel's genius was to inbreed his plants first to get lines which
bred true. The white line always had white flowers, the colored line
always had colored flowers. When he crossed them, all the offspring (F1)
had colored flowers (if I remember correctly). When he selfed or sibbed
these he got 3/4 colored and 1/4 white. 
  The above is prettly simple, but often many genes are required for a
trait and those can be difficult to understand even when you have pure
lines to cross. Mendel had some very puzzling lines and he laid those
aside and concentrated on the ones that bred true.
  I have already gotten some long detailed, very useful letters, about
seed color and other traits in AG. I appreciate all the help. This could
be very interesting. 
  I know many people have selfed AG. What happens when you self a few
generations? Do you still get any vigorous plants? I have done this many
times in corn beginning with nice heirloom corn having vigorous green
plants and in the S2 generation nearly every plant looks different than
the others. Since curcurbits have separate male and female flowers,
there is a good chance of cross-pollination and I would expect pretty
sickly plants after 2 or 3 summers of selfing. Surely, some of you have
tried that. What happened?
> 

-- 
Harold Eddleman Ph.D. Microbiologist.       i*@disknet.com 
Location: Palmyra IN USA; 36 kilometers west of Louisville, Kentucky
http://www.disknet.com/indiana_biolab/pk.htm



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