The big mystery

Al,

I agree, this has been a very interesting and enjoyable conversation.  
Enough said, hugh!

A miscellaneous thought came to me while reading your last message.  Do you
suppose that part of the reason why it seems like the larger fruit are all
coming from a narrow genetic base is because the elite group of major
growers that consistently grow the big ones are using similar seed?  I
realize it  would be feasible to understand them all choosing good
background seeds that have good size in there background,  and leads them
all to similar stock.   This may lead me to have hope that there is more
seeds out there with excellent potential, that have very different genetic
backgrounds that the "few major ones"   So is the seemingly narrow genetic
base an illusion, or should I continue being depressed thinking that we are
gentically stuck having all our potential derived from a few individuals?  

I like your idea of the big picture of all the growers creating one massive
and evolving gene pool.  It really makes sense and I think that it is what
has been happening for the last xxxxx years, and the progress shows it is
working.  Would you agree that this overall approach will lead us to
creating an open pollenated, fairly consistant group of individuals that
will kinda turn into a "variety" in and of itself?    Further, do you 
think there is a need, or do you think there would be an advantage to
having a true-to-type hybrid variety?

A good question:

	Does anyone have or know in particular about a line or certain cross of
AGs that has been fairly reliable in producing uniformly?  Not necessarily
huge fruit, but producing consistantly nice fruit.  This would be nice to
have so that someone, with a little spare time, could do some controlled
cultural studies and find out definitively what techniques work best.   

]

Rick

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