Why so many seeds?
amanda_m
9 years ago
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dowlinggram
9 years agobrandon7 TN_zone7
9 years agoRelated Discussions
Why so many?
Comments (49)We are getting it now and have already shovelled once, help came along which was nice, then it has started again and falling steadily, kind of quiet and pretty out there if it weren't for all the other. Am I fighting addiction, no no no. I'm fighting covetousness. Somebody posts a picture of a plant, and I just gotta have it. Or I see it on a website. Or another forum. Or a catalog. Or a botanical garden (their bougainvillea and a couple other things come to mind). Maybe it's ok, that commandment, can't remember which one says do not covet thy neighbor's house (have been guilty of that but not my neighbor's, a particular one that overlooks the river, just that one, not all of them, so I have an out), thy neighbor's wife (no, not an issue, well husband, let's not go there), thy neighbor's goods (oops, guilty of that and 'twould include plants). But wait. You people aren't my neighbors much as I might wish it otherwise. But I posted over on perennials on another thread a dwarf Asiatic lily, Crimson Pixie, almost a neighbor has one. Does down the block and across the street count? No, why lie to myself and the world. I've gone overboard on plants and seeds, no question. Then starts the rationalizing, but, but, maybe. I wonder if that company has any other seeds I might want, most of it is wildflowers. Anybody know of something else there? They don't have that gorgeous Sanguisorba menzii I saw paired with Patty's Plum Poppy over on the perennials forum, just a white one....See Moremetasequoia seeds collected from trees in u.s.-why so many duds?
Comments (5)My brother ordered a small packet containing 100 seeds from Schumacher (sp) and he had high germination rates. All he did was place them on the moist paper towel in the flat plastic container and cover it with the lid. They started germinating within 2 days....See MoreWhy are so many apple crosses mediocre?
Comments (12)"Would I have a better mean after 50 generations?" Yes. And may you live so long. This would be what is called recurrant selection. It is the most powerful breeding tool around. The mean of the population will shift some in every generation. The amount of the shift will depend on the ratio of the genetic variaton divided by the total variation. So if you can reduce non-genetic variation by growing the seedlings under the most nearly identical conditions possible, you will get best results. The mean is an average. There are at least 3 ways to leagally get something called an average. One is the exact middle between the extremes, called the median by mathematicions. A second average is the number that is most common in a group. Mathemticians call this the mode. The mean is found by adding up all the numbers and dividing by the number of numbers. This is most often called the average, but it is important to be specific about which average one means, because they can be quite different. What I said about peaches being closer to where they were usually grown from seeds, I now question some. Breeders who plan to rely opn grafting can make crosses with great variation in the offspring, knowing that any one excellent seedling can be grafted forever. But a farmer who is going to be growing from seeds will not usually make such wide crosses, because he wants the seedlings to be good uniform fruit of predictable quality. For example, a farmer near where I now live grew an orchard of Elberta seedlings a century ago. They were said to be as good as Elbertas. This is important if you aren't going tograft them. But apples have been grafted since the time of the Roman Empire, at least. Peaches grown at the same time were seedlings. So apples were not selected to come true from seeds. Peaches were. But the reason they were treated differently is that already in the wild, peaches were inbred and teneded to come true from seeds. Wild apples, like most domestic ones, are outcrossers. They would not come as true from seed from the beginning. Also, there are many speices of apples that intercross, so there is much variation. There are not many species that cross redily with peaches. Almonds do, but the fruit is not useful. As for trying to select for 10 generations, I am trying that too. Good luck to both of us. Starting from intercrossed antique apples may be an excellent way to start. You are avoiding inbreeding depression. That is the deteriation of the aveage due to inbreeding. In apples, it is not as bad as some fruits, but still it is a factor. One thing to think about is that precosious fruiting is something that yeilds to selection. And we have better chances of getting 10 generations if a generation is 5 years than if a generation is 8 years. And some varieties are even slower than that. I read that the time from grafting to fruit is related to the time from seeds to fruit in the next generation. So we want to start with varieties that bear young. Beyond that, it is a matter of taste and the climate we breed for. Wide vs. narrow crosses. The wider crosses will have more genetic diversity, so the the ratio genetic divided by total variation will be higher because the numerater (top number in a fraction) will be higher. The narrow cross will be more predictible, as there will be less genetic variation. And you might want to concider tree shape, etc. in your selection. Spur type vs. not spur type. Overall vigor is important. Disease resistance is nothing to sneer at. Have fun with this. Walter...See MoreSo many tops - so few pants WHY?
Comments (6)When my sons wore 5 to 7, it was nearly impossible to get shoes for them! Now two of them wear 14 and its impossible again. At least the one that wears an 11 is easy to shop for! I have to tell you a funny story from this weekend. I went shopping with a friend. I was so excited because I found a pair of pants tha fit perfect & was a size smaller than I normally wear. I was not wearing my glasses while shopping. I get home and unpack the bag while wearing my glasses. The pants weren't. Size smaller - they were a size bigger than I normally wear! I just couldn't make out the tag without my glasses! Moral of this story - wear glasses when you shop!...See Morenialialea
9 years agobeesneeds
9 years agobrandon7 TN_zone7
9 years agoloewenzahn
9 years agocarolb_w_fl_coastal_9b
9 years agoSouthCountryGuy Zone 4b-5 SE BC
9 years ago
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