On Wed, 14 Aug 2013 15:37:01 -0700 (PDT), Higgs Boson wrote:
Back when the USDA's tomato germplasm collection was held at the Ames PI station,
they would grow out some for increase every year. Most of the seed went back into
the germplasm collection, but they'd gather up a bunch of "perfect" tomatoes from the
plants and put them in a shed with long benches full of damp sand, and let them rot.
(yes, it stunk! such is the price of science! g) They'd note which ones rotted first,
second, last... and the lasts often went into the search for a long lived storage
tomato.

Fascinating! How long ago was this? Where can I read up about it?

Mid to late 80s -- I'd have to check my transcripts to see when I took Seed Production.
I wish I'd known about it when taking microbial ecology -- that sand would be fun to
analyze.

It's probably all recorded in the PI records for those accessions, but I don't know that
it's available online. Or you can try old reports of the North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station.

Kay