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Livonia Michigan

is it possible to improve your plants genetics without crossing with another variety? & if so how?

9/21/2005 1:12:08 AM

Syracuse, NY

i think the only way, and i am NOOOOO expert, is to plant several hundred at a time of all one variety or specific crossing and select the fruits and plants at the end of the season that exhibit the characteristic(s) you want (biggest fruit, strongest stems, Powdery Mildew Resistance, etc.)and then plant (and i THINK self-pollinate, remember i am nooooo expert, lol, okay, perhaps they need to be cross-pollinated as well, to....) those seeds the following year and do the same thing and so on and so on, until most every time you plant your super seeds they produce the results you want virtually every time. the only problem is the TIME involved.
i believe this is what Howard Dill did in the first place and got the seed patented. thank goodness, huh?
eric gotta go....

9/22/2005 6:51:50 PM

That State Up North

Yes, the answer is selection, but there must be a source of genetic variation within your set of plants.

Nic Welty

9/23/2005 12:47:14 PM