AG's & hybrids
This subject is to interesting not to put my 2 cents in.
In my way of thinking and what I know about biology in Atlantic Giants
we are all hybridizing.
We are doing it in two different ways, whether we know it or not. First
we are crossing two somewhat unrelated pumpkin lines, this is 'out
crossing'. And second we are crossing closely related pumpkins
(selfing, sibbing, inbreeding, etc.) often referred to as 'line breeding'.
One of the results of 'out crossing' pumpkins produce pumpkins like the
567.5 Mombert, 723 & 845 Bobier, 846 Calai, & etc. where you have a lot
of the seeds producing plants with hybrid vigor and heavy pumpkins. To
test the results of this type of breeding 'out-crossing' you should only
have to grow a few seeds (10 to 15) to see if you are going to get heavy
pumpkins. In 'out-crossing'
you will end up with mostly dominant genes or characteristics. This as
many of you have said is the Fi generation which are very similar to
each other.
The results of 'line breeding' will produce pumpkins whose seeds will
produce plants and pumpkins that are different from each other. This is
where the recessive genes or characteristics will show up. To see the
possible results of this type of breeding we will need to grow a large
number of the seeds from each pumpkin. This is the F2 generation which
are going to be different from each other.
So now what should we do, 'out crossing' or 'line breeding'? I believe
that we need to do both if we want to continue to improve the Atlantic
Giant pumpkins.
Are there problems with 'out crossing' and 'line breeding' pumpkins?
Yes, of course there are.
I have already noted that in 'line breeding' that a lot of seed from a
pumpkin needs to be grown
to see the best combinations of characteristics. Maybe we should only
'out cross' pumpkins and only need to grow a few seed to see if we get
good characteristics. That would be nice, but in reality with 'out
crossing' if we wanted another 723 Bobier we would have to grow many 935
Lloyd's and cross them with the 865 Mettler and produce hundreds or
even thousands of pumpkins in hopes of getting another pumpkin like the
723 Bobier. Oh yes, we would have to grow 10 to 15 seed from each of
them to see our results.
Kathy - To determine if characteristics are dominant, recessive,
co-dominant, or linked we will have to observe what happens to the
characteristics when we 'out cross' and 'line breed' our pumpkins. This
will take time and good record keeping. Mendel the monk who was the first
to see how the characteristics of the garden pea were determined was
lucky in that each of the pea's characteristics
were controlled by a dominant and a recessive gene. I do not think that
the Atlantic Giants are going to be this easy. I believe that this
complexity of the Atlantic Giants is what makes growing them so
challenging, frustrating, rewarding, and fun. Along with all the nice
people that you get to meet.
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