In message
"Mike Lyle" wrote:

Stewart Robert Hinsley wrote:
[...]

A question may want to ask is whether the seed size is controlled by
the maternal genotype (and environmental influences) or the embryo
genotype. If the former then you should be looking for the trees with
the largest average seed size, rather than the largest seeds
independent of source.
But your sieving process should preferentially select seeds from trees
producing a higher average size of seed, so this may not matter. You
still have to worry that the higher average size of seed is caused by
the environment and not by the genotype.

On a search like this, I cannot take such factors into account. I am
looking for "the biggest" no matter how it came to be the biggest. It
came to be big in field conditions and that is enough for me. Really,
I am looking for a "freak", well outside the usual bell-shaped curve,
and searching through such numbers, I have a fair chance of finding
one.

A very interesting project, though perhaps in danger of being overtaken
by genetic modification. Two further questions occur to me. One is, are
you selecting not only for seed size, but also for practical harvesting
characteristics? We need our grain crops, whether cereal, pulse, or
whatever, to stay on the plant when ripe, rather than scattering. The
other is, does alder seed /taste/ all right?


Uncooked, it tastes of nothing in particular. I think the same is true
of wheat and rice.

I am satisfied that mechanised harvesting is in reach - in fact it is
the least of the problems.

Michael Bell



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