Re: Hybrid Vigor
Toby;
Your defiantly have the correct idea in mind, basically. The problem in
actually doing this kind of breeding lies in the vast number of seeds each
plant produces. Who is actually going to grow all 300 and something seeds,
take time to watch and chart the very best plants and pollinate every plant,
them do the same thing for several seasons? This would require a commercial
sized growing plot, excessive amounts of time, and a lot of documented
research.
The best thing growers can do, realistically, is do more self crosses on
future genetics. Sure, there are tons of crosses that work out well to throw
larger fruits than their parents, but selfing helps to isolate a genetic.
Anyone who has never actually thought self pollinated plants are good seeds to
grow need to visit the AGGC and look at prodigy of self pollinated plants.
There also is a list of 2nd and 3rd generation self pollinated prodigy fruits.
Seeing how well the self crosses fared should show the value of breeding
plants in that manner.
If there were a group of growers willing to participate in a "controlled
experiment", enough to do a true breeding experiment, then we all might have
some answers. Until such an experiment is done, growers only can breed
according to what their gut feeling tells them to do. That has worked up until
now, so I guess "if it's not broke, don't fix it".
If there are any growers looking for a challenging side project in 2004, might
I suggest getting the 70 or 80 people together to all grow Gadberry's 834
Squash seed [895 Hester X self]. There were only around 80 seed's I think, and
since it probably has more stable genetics than today's orange counterparts,
that one would be a genetic best suited for such an experiment. After all, it
just has 575 Dill and 674 Waterman for its entire genetic makeup.
Just an idea...
Marc
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I am so new to this... please tell me if I am getting this right.
After reading marc's post with the corn example, it would seem to me that if
you were really trying to isolate the gene that produces a particular trait,
you wouldn't want to cross it with ANYTHING for several generations. In fact
you would do this:
1.Scoop the seeds our of your favorite pumpkin.
2.Plant ALL of them in one patch.
3.Self ALL of them. (SELF... not "open," not "sib")
4.select your favorite pumpkin from that patch.
5.start over at step one.
Do this until you have something consistently special. Then find somebody
else who has done the same thing, in the hope of generating additional
boosting of the desired trait. Cross pollinate your special plants with
theirs. Then begin again at step one.
Is this right?
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