Re: 300 pound stock
I think you take a huge leap in saying that you think we should use
seeds from a split pumpkin in general. This really makes no sence. Most
splits happen due to environment. Unless you get an experienced grower
telling you that pumpkins split on a certain seed with perfect care, then
your generalization is a bit off. Also, evolution is a blind process. If a
trait is bad for its environment it will most likely die off of be killed of
by competition. Our regulating of the plants from birth to death is not
evolution of the plant. In fact, if we left the AG alone it would most
likely not do well. That does not sound like evoltion of a plant to me. I
miswrote earlier. Evolution does not make things fit for their environments,
it simply selects against non fit genes. The genes that we force the plants
to have really are not helping its survival. We are. Not evolution of the
plant. And eventually there will be a problem with these plants.
--- Great Pumpkin <greatpumpkin99@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Steve, breading big pumpkins with other big pumpkins does not ensure
> >that these seeds will keep producing bigger offspring. Evolution works by
> >making things fit for their environments. Bigger pumpkins don't
> necasarily
> >mean they are more fit. Evolution may try to prohibit increasing sizes
> of
> >pumpkins since they do take up huge amounts of water, and the larger a
> >object
> >is, the more surface area it has and the more water it loses to it's
> >environment in relation to its volume. Just remember, survival of
> pumpkins
> >doesn't have to be and most likely isn't related to how big they get.
> > Greg
>
> Greg, the reason why plants evolve to adapt to their environments is
> actually a passive occurance usually, instead of plants "purposely"
> chenging, although it appears that way. It is all about what genetic traits
>
> are being allowed to be passed on, and which ones aren't. WE are
> artificially creating an "environment" where only the biggest fruited
> plants
> are allowed to survive, (well, more specifically, allowed to breed, which
> is
> equivelant of "survive" in nature). Now some might say that in this
> situation, the plants "know" that in order to survive, they must produce
> large fruit. In actuality, what is happening is that the genetic stuff
> which
> makes the fruit big becomes dominant in the gene pool, so that eventually
> fruits will get bigger. Every seed is a bit different, (and this is
> essential to plant evolution), and there are always mutations that occur.
> When one or more seeds has a mutation or the right genetic stuff to make it
>
> produce an even larger fruit, nature will (actually, WE will) allow this
> plant to flourish and reproduce, passing this trait on. If a plant produces
>
> small fruit, we usually will not allow this to breed.
> Eventually the genes which allow the plant to thrive in this envronment
> which we are partially creating by removing "small fruit" traits from the
> available gene pool, and only allowing the "large fruit" traits to prosper,
>
> will make plants that produce larger and larger fruits.
> This, to the plant, IS evolving to fit it's envionment.
> This also works the same with health and vigor in specific regions of the
> world, (like the plants which thrive on mouuntain tops), and almost
> everything else. This is one reason why I don't think plants (specific
> plants, not necessarily a whole line), whose fruit split should be used for
>
> pollinators, or the seeds from these fruits used for planting, in general.
> Since by doing this we are passing along bad traits. We should strive to
> remove these traits (or possibly lack of traits....or whatever combo might
> make a plant more likely to have split fruit), from the A.G. gene pool.
> As far as plants evolving to make better use of water, and the rest of what
>
> you said....sure they will, IF there is a lack of water in the envronment,
> because only the plants which can make use of the smaller amount of water
> will be allowed to survive and pass on their traits for this.
> As far as pumpkins not being able to get any bigger because of other
> limitations such as splitting, etc., I am confident that nature can find a
> way, as long as we stop breeding plants that DO split.
> So, pumpkin survival in NATURE, of course isn't related to how big the
> fruits they produce are, but in our hands....it is.
>
>
> -Steve
>
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