Re: 10 years ago

In a message dated 11/18/2001 5:04:50 PM Pacific Standard Time, vbrock@mcn.org writes:


I often wonder about the growers going back and using one of the  "classics"
perhaps an honor roll participant.  In their cross my guess is that by doing
so your missing out on the years of a selection process that has brought us
to todays seeds


When dealling with squash mike, my opinion is the selection process just hasn't been there. Its not like pumpkins (yet) where  so many grow a seed there's an opportunity to see what it can or cant do. The 502.5 clone i have is on Al's list...I selected it based upon its qualities in my garden and before that I chose to grow it because it was a source of some qualities we see in todays fruits and plants....like the 616corkum,697ciliberto and 1006greer.
 If its good enough to be one in 10 on Al's list that has survived, then why wouldn't it be great today? Its already a proven  genetic asset......perhaps not all of todays gains are selection related? (Im not saying its not....completely). Perhaps if a guy like Brett or Geneva or Al (or you) took one of these and grew it today it would be a biggie? Cultural advances and info sharing are a big part of the story........in the past few years we've seen Brett take a 1994 seed and pop 862....895....986....from it when for 5-6 years before that no-one was growing anything too big from it. You would think the Hoult 1010 would have inspired a bunch of big guns to get something big...but noone did after that...and its been  widely grown. (900lyons). Take todays cultural knoweledge and yesterdays seed and you might be surprised.............................................G
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