Re: Harold Eddleman help

pumpkins@mallorn.com wrote:
> 
> Harold,
> 
> I am trying to determine what is the best breeding technique.  I
> realize that there isn't enough data to make a conclusion
> on AG, but I hope that your experience can maybe give me a hint.

  As I have written, I may be talking too much because I have no
experience with AG. Selfing would be OK in lines that have no bad
alleles (genes), but I think sibbing is the safest way to try to
increase the number of superior alleles in a line. 
  You probably have now seen my post of today asking for some seed from
one superior fruit to begin a test.
  I am not sure I understood the remainder of your letter. Are you
saying there is already pretty good indications the seeds in a fruit
obtained by sibbing vary in their ability to produce huge fruit? 
  When different people plant the seeds from a fruit and get different
results, that is not definite proof of anything since the culture
conditions may vary in ways we probably do not realize.

> ... out  of most sibbed crosses there only appears to be a handful
> of good seed (say 10)that are capable of reach 700+ and then there
> maybe be a couple of "super seed" (silver bullets) these silver 
> bullets seem to do real well anywhere in adequate conditions. 

  In strawberry and raspberry, there are some cultivars which do well
nearly everywhere while sibbling cultivars did well only in limited
regions. An example is Heritage red raspberry which grows well in most,
but not all, countries of the world.
  
> Of course the desire of every grower is to duplicate that seed.  Can
> you shed any light on why there only seems to be a few super seed.
> And is there anyway one could duplicate their there greatness?

A Christmas tree grower once asked me the same question. He said, "There
is always a tree so perfect that you that like to go look at it
frequently and admire its greatness. That is the problem of all breeders
of racehorses, humans, and crops. We do not know the secret of how to
get the right mix of genes for greatness. It is to be expected that each
seed gets a different mix of the genes for greatness.

> Last year I tried only to grow from seed where both parents plants that
> were sibbed, had each produced a big one simultaneously in a patch.

Your grammar here was not perfect, I am not sure I understand what you
found. Are you saying two generations of sibbing resulted in every plant
producing a very large fruit?  If so, that that may show two things: 1)
you made a good choice of parents such that no runts were produced. 2)
it proves your hypothesis that sibbing is the best breeding system. 

> Also in your opinion would it be best for a grower rather than selfing 
> to cross a decent brother and sister? 
> ....Brock

Yes I think sibbing is the best breeding plan. Keep in mind that when
sibbing (or selfing) no two plants have the same genetics during the
early years. Therefore, we are seeking to discard the runts each year
and sib only the best plants. Blackberry and strawbery breeders keep
about 10% of the plants for further study. Fruit breeders have the
advantage that they can keep the same superior plant forever. Pumpkins
die at first frost and selecting the best plants for sibbing must be
done prior to seeing the fruit and effects of late season diseases. 
  In my corn patch. I usually pulled up smallest 1/2 of the plants
before pollination time. Corn breeders also grow fungus diseases on
toothpicks and push those into stalks and that kills some plants before
pollination time.  
  The big advance in AG would be to find a way to keep plants over
winter. Before frost, the breeder would select the superior plants and
place rooted tips from these in a warm lighted room or box as a pumpkin
Bonsai and move it to the field in spring after frost-free date and then
make his crosses. If such a plan is possible, the first summer would be
used to weed out plants and the main crossing would be done the second
year. If a breeder wants to try overwintering pumpkin in a lighted box,
he could run trial experiments during the summer to work out the culture
conditions. 
  Perhaps, a breeder could partner with an AG hobbyist in southern
Florida or Texas to get his rooted tips thru the winter.
-----
  Some have asked about viruses carried in pumpkin seeds. I do not know
whether any viruses are carried in pumpkin seeds. In general, I think in
other crops only 10% of known viruses are seed borne. That is one reason
new strawberry varieties do better than the old ones. A new cultivar is
virus-free because going thru the seed step gets rid of the viruses, but
as the new cultivar picks up viruses its yield and health decline. One
virus often has little effect in strawberry, but a plant carrying 2 or 3
viruses may be impossible to keep alive. I have experimently infected a
strawberry with 2 or 3 viruses and found the plant declined in size,
made few or no runners, and  eventually died.  Some cultivars survive
virus infections better than other cultivars.  

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



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