Re: 300 pound stock
>Chris-you raise a classic question and I sometimes wonder about that too.
>
>My view is that every case is different but the odds are that the 800
>pounder came from a sound plant but the 300 pounder could be a "dud".
>
>Under good conditions could the 300 pounder have been 400? 1000?.There is
>no
>way to know,therefore most people stay away from that question by growing
>the heavier ones.
>
>It is interesting to speculate but facts are facts and it so happens I just
>recently looked at 85 official pumpkins over 700 pounds from the last 2
>years here in Canada and grouped the mothers by weight.
>
>mother weight 1000+ average offspring weight=808 number of cases= 7
> 900+ 845 22
> 800+ 771 20
> 700+ 789 17
> 600+ 829 11
> 500+ 757 8
>
>These are facts but what do they say re mother weight vs offspring??
>
>Are the results random or is there a pattern?
>
>I don't know the answer but would like to invite others to comment??--AE
>
Al, GREAT comparison! Interesting that over 1000 mothers actually produce
lower than the 600 range! I think the problem is that there aren't enough
pumpkins that the data is drawn from. I think that if there were a few
thousand pumpkins all compared, it would show an increasing offspring weight
with increasing mother weight, in the obvious order. It is simple "plant
evolution". If only the plants that produce the biggest fruits are allowed
to survive (well, reproduce anyway), eventually the "big" genetic traits
will be dominant.
Just like certain plants that can survive on mountain tops where no other
plants can survive, they evolve that way, starting from a few plants that
had the genetic stuff to allow survival long enough to reproduce. The
genetic diversity paid off by allowing only the traits that will enable
survival to be present in the gene pool for that species in that area.
Therefore, over time, the plants will evolve to have these traits dominant.
It is all a matter of survival. We are basically doing the same things with
A.G.'s. If only the biggest fruited plants are crossed, they will just keep
getting bigger. But of course we know there are faster ways to do this, by
singling out and purifying some genetic traits, crossing, backcrossing to
pick up other traits, etc.
-Steve
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