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Re: The 5$ question

> I've been listening attentively to these discussions about the Zehr's. 
> 
> You've infered the use of colchicine in doubling chromosome numbers.  Do
> you think anyone has had the resources to make a poly ploid pumpkin and be
> able to sucessfully get it out of tissue culture and into the ground?  

The technical know-how and resources to clone plants and otherwise affect
them in quintessential chromosomal reproduction and growth has been
understood and used for a great many years.  I can well remember attending
a somber symposium on that issue and other ethical issues in 1974!

If the Zehr's are in fact using the methods mentioned, then they ought to
be enetering their pumpkins in a different category.  Analagously, it's
like a bodybuilder on steroids contesting against a bodybuilder who
refuses to use steroids.

Frankly, although I can appreciate the quest of growing the biggest
pumpkin, it loses all joy and fun if there are those who are using
laboratory genetic methods.

I am an organic grower.  My goal is to produce the best (perhaps biggest)
nutritious pumpkin possible.  I grow plants basically for four reasons
	1.  For food
	2.  For beauty, and sometimes utilitarian reasons
	3.  For curiosity/scientific exploration
	4.  And just for the sake of it

I have developed some interesting organic methods in growing crops.
I'll share them sometime soon.

Richard
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