Selfing {REAL selfing}
Just thought I'd throw in my 2 & 1/2 ce
Date: Thu, 6 Feb 2003 07:36:28 -0500
From: "Smithhisler, Paul" <Paul.Smithhisler@dnr.state.oh.us>
Subject: RE: Selfing
Well, this is why I didn't immediately respond when I read Cliff's
intro...Andrew already presented my idea.
What little I know about genetics, he is right. We are merely scratching
the surface when planting one or two seeds. We really need to be planting
at least a percentage of the seeds and growing them.
But there is another problem...you would have to do this for two
generations, grow seeds from all your crosses, in order to select the next
batch of seeds to grow. Remember, we don't know which traits the pumpkin
picked up from the male pollinator until those seeds are grown. (So if we
are working with ten seeds, we would have to grow the original ten plants,
then grow 100 plants [ten seeds from each offspring] the following year in
order to select the ones with the best traits.) I believe that what we are
doing, as individuals, is playing the odds on genetics.
Growers who really want to purify the same genetic traits of a particular
genetic from a plant that exhibited better than average characteristics have
other options these days! There are several growers out there now beside
myself who seem to be getting the method of pumpkin cloning [propagation]
down pretty good. Those who are REALLY serious about isolating genetics
of a silver bullet plant and seed should consider using this technique as
well.
By keeping a silver bullet genetic plant alive for breeding purposes, growers
can really get the isolation of a specific characteristic they are desiring.
What
makes cloning so interesting here, is because growers who keep the desired
clone plant alive, and grow a selfed off spring seed, can then pollinate the
female with it's "mother"... thus really breeding the original genetics
together.
I am interested to know about anyone who decides to do this... I myself have
planned to do this in the 2004 season. Has anyone already thought about this
or got this plan already rolling yet?
Marc
yet
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Pumpkin-growing archives: http://www.hort.net/lists/pumpkins/
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE PUMPKINS
