Re: Pumpkin size - Seed size
>Steve, I still don't think that these plants are evolving as you say.
>Since evolution is a blind process that selects against undesirable jeans
>[You mean like anything from the "GAP FAT" line? [Sarcastic comment added
>by Steve. Steve couldn't help it. Steve apologizes. Don't send Steve the
>"Love Bug" because of it. Thank you.]]
>instead of picking desirable ones, it seems as if we are just taking better
>care of the plants and breading them better. We are picking desirable
>traits
>and masking undesirable traites by babing our plants from seed to pumpkin 5
>months later. We are keeping undesirable traits around. For one, the size
>of these pumpkins and leaves creates a huge surface area problem. This
>causes the plants to lose a ton of water. Also, we take such good care of
>these pumpkins that they may start producing fewer and fewer seeds. To
>some
>degree, plants make seeds in responce to stress. When a plant feels it
>needs
>to pass on more genes, it produces many seeds. In fact, the fitness of a
>plant is its ability to pass on genes to the next generation. Look at
>Larry
>Checkon's pumpkin. He had no viable seeds. It seems we may be producing
>plants that are less fit. This may end up being our limiting factor.
Well, you have a point in your last sentence. We are breeding them for
traits that we are picking, which could lead to a weakness somewhere else.
But...."breeding the plants better" as you said, IS what I mean by the
evolution of the plants. None of these are really left to breed in the wild,
we are taking care of that. The plants are evolving by our hand, meaning
that the prominant genetic traits in our A.G. "gene pool" are conforming to
what plants we allow to survive and breed.
Evolution doesn't really have anything to do with "babying" our plants. That
doesn't really affect the genes at all, but it can, as you say, mask some
undesirable traits, which we could be breeding in without knowing it. So
again, you have a point. I doubt that any A.G. cold really thrive in the
wild at all, since they have conformed to being "babied", with extra
fertilizers, insecticides, fungicides, etc. So any natural resistance traits
could have been bred out, since it was not one of the traits that we
selected for, and if it was, it was still reliant on some insecticides and
other chemicals.
As for amount of seeds, I don't think it has to do with "stress", really. It
probably is just that since we are breeding for fruit size alone, the traits
for seed viability is being ignored, whereas in nature it would be a primary
focus since only pumpkins with viable seeds would be growing year after
year, therefore passing on that trait strongly.
As for leaf surface, water loss, pumpkin size, etc. There shouldn't be any
problems with these situations, since, obviously, if these factors
negatively affect a plant maing it produce an inferior pumpkin (if any),
there will be no seeds to from them planted, (and hopefully no one will use
them as pollinators), therefore the traits that allow these situations will
not be passed on.
I think nature can handle all of that, as long as we just grow these things,
and pick the best ones for crossing, with "BEST" including not only fruit
size, but taking into consideration splits, and anything else that prevents
the fruit from getting to what we want. Also COLOR could be a good factor to
consider, since pretty soon, these things are going to just look like big
yellow squash (SHHHHHH! THEY ARE PUMPKINS!), and we don't want that either!
But it can get so complicated if you try to focus on too many factors. If
you just focus on the fruit, that is the only indicator we need to know how
"good" the plant is. Don't worry about leaf size/water loss, etc., let
nature sort that out. Plants that produce the fruit that is the best size,
shape and color, with no splits, etc., those are the genes we want to pass
on, whatever they might be. In other words, if it makes it to a weighoff and
you are near the top, you have good genes. Of course we should also focus on
seed production, too. But over time, this will take care of itself, since
obviously if there are not many seeds, the trait that causes this will stop
being passed on! But you are right, it couldn't hurt to give it a little
attention. Until we perfect cloning and genetic enginerring for
A.G.'s....but that's another story!
-Steve
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