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"Lee Hall" wrote in message... I think I would be pushing my luck trying to grow seeds acclimated to Maine here in the Tennessee heat and humidity. Thanks in advance, Lee I really can't see how this would be a problem. Seeds don't get acclimatized. Certain types of tomatoes will grow better in hot or cool climates, but the same type of tomato will favour the same growing conditions. Jo |
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While it is true that the seeds themselves do not get acclimatized, a
certain amount of genetic drift in a variety is inevitable in spite of the best efforts at maintainance of varietal purity. If Lee gets seed that was produced more locally rather than in Maine, it is possible that the strain will have adapted to the southern climate to some degree. I do not know for this variety in particular whether there is a common source of foundation seed used by the commercial growers. If there is, even if the seed sold at retail is grown out locally from foundation or registered seed, it is unlikely that much varietal drift could have occured in two generations. In that case, seed from any source will be largely the same. If there are several sources of unrelated foundation seed, which is possible with an older variety such as this, then each strain may have adapted to the local conditions where it is maintained. But since tomato seed is not necessarily grown in the regions where it is sold, there is no guarantee that seed bought in Tennesee will have been grown closer by than seed bought from Maine. -- Sam "Jo" wrote in message . cable.rogers.com... "Lee Hall" wrote in message... I think I would be pushing my luck trying to grow seeds acclimated to Maine here in the Tennessee heat and humidity. Thanks in advance, Lee I really can't see how this would be a problem. Seeds don't get acclimatized. Certain types of tomatoes will grow better in hot or cool climates, but the same type of tomato will favour the same growing conditions. Jo |
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On Fri, 24 Jan 2003 23:55:24 GMT, "Jo"
wrote: "Lee Hall" wrote in message... I think I would be pushing my luck trying to grow seeds acclimated to Maine here in the Tennessee heat and humidity. Thanks in advance, Lee I really can't see how this would be a problem. Seeds don't get acclimatized. They can and do. Pretend you are a seedsman. You grow 20 [of the same variety] tomato plants. The ones that prosper in your particular climate make more tomatoes and therefore more seeds. You sell some of those seeds and plant others for your next year's crop. Next year: repeat. And so on. This will operate in the same manner as natural selection, except it's aided by man. Certain types of tomatoes will grow better in hot or cool climates, but the same type of tomato will favour the same growing conditions. (Non-hybrid) plants will have some genetic drift and the seedsman's selection will - over time - produce a strain of seeds which will produce plants more suited to his climate, soil, and other growing conditions. Pat -- Pat Meadows CLICK DAILY TO FEED THE HUNGRY United States: http://www.stopthehunger.com/ International: http://www.thehungersite.com/ |
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"Mahasamatman" wrote in message thlink.net...
While it is true that the seeds themselves do not get acclimatized, a certain amount of genetic drift in a variety is inevitable in spite of the best efforts at maintainance of varietal purity. If Lee gets seed that was produced more locally rather than in Maine, it is possible that the strain will have adapted to the southern climate to some degree. I do not know for this variety in particular whether there is a common source of foundation seed used by the commercial growers. If there is, even if the seed sold at retail is grown out locally from foundation or registered seed, it is unlikely that much varietal drift could have occured in two generations. In that case, seed from any source will be largely the same. If there are several sources of unrelated foundation seed, which is possible with an older variety such as this, then each strain may have adapted to the local conditions where it is maintained. But since tomato seed is not necessarily grown in the regions where it is sold, there is no guarantee that seed bought in Tennesee will have been grown closer by than seed bought from Maine. -- Sam "Jo" wrote in message . cable.rogers.com... "Lee Hall" wrote in message... I think I would be pushing my luck trying to grow seeds acclimated to Maine here in the Tennessee heat and humidity. Thanks in advance, Lee I really can't see how this would be a problem. Seeds don't get acclimatized. Certain types of tomatoes will grow better in hot or cool climates, but the same type of tomato will favour the same growing conditions. Jo I suppose the difference would be whether the supplier in Maine merely orders their seed from some other commercial suppliers or whether they harvest seeds from their own field trials. If the latter is the case, I think it would matter. Anyway, I would rather take my chances ordering from somewhere the climate isn't so radically different from here. Being a road construction inspector rather than a botanist, I can't speak with any scientific authority but I do know that I have had great success with seeds obtained locally from non-commercial sources. I am sure that the part about different varieties thriving in different areas is correct. I have grown pink, red and black brandywines which are definitely a northern variety. Here in Tennessee they are disease prone and not very productive. They do have a fantastic taste, though, which is why I will still be growing the black variety. Unfortunately, I still haven't found any strain of tomato that is resistant to the stifling heat here that also has a good taste. Jetstar and Heatwave grow okay here but have all of the taste of cardboard. That is why I am trying Tropic this year. |
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I suppose the difference would be whether the supplier in Maine merely
orders their seed from some other commercial suppliers or whether they harvest seeds from their own field trials. If the latter is the case, I think it would matter. You may not realize that there is a hierarchy of seed for commercial distribution. While the details vary somewhat from state to state and crop to crop, in general there are three categories of seed: Foundation Registered Certified Certified is what is ordinarily used for growing a crop, and is the least pure of the grades. Registered is more pure, foundation is still more pure. Foundation seed and registered seed can only be produced from foundation seed (leaving aside for a moment the process of creating and releasing a new variety), and certified seed can only be produced from foundation or registered seed. Because of the very high cost of producing foundation seed (due to the isolation requirements and manual labor involved in roguing out off type plants, and the testing costs, and the risk that the resulting crop may not meet purity standards for foundation and have to be sold as registered anyway), it is ordinarily produced only rarely. Foundation seed is stored in a controlled environment and used to produce registered seed for many years to come. Because of its value, foundation seed continues to be used even when its germination has declined to as low as 20% or 30%. So you see, the certified seed you buy is at most two generations removed from the foundation seed. That does not provide much chance for genetic drift, particularly since off-type plants are still rogued out by hand in registered and certified plantings. Typically the small-scale seed grower obtains registered seed from a company that specializes in a particular crop, and then grows it out to produce certified seed. So, more often, there is only one generation of localization that occurs. -- Sam |
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"Pat Meadows" wrote , "Jo" wrote: "Lee Hall" wrote in message... I think I would be pushing my luck trying to grow seeds acclimated to Maine here in the Tennessee heata and humidity. I really can't see how this would be a problem. Seeds don't get acclimatized. They can and do. Pretend you are a seedsman. You grow 20 [of the same variety] tomato plants. The ones that prosper in your particular climate make more tomatoes and therefore more seeds. You sell some of those seeds and plant others for your next year's crop. Next year: repeat. And so on. This will operate in the same manner as natural selection, except it's aided by man. Certain types of tomatoes will grow better in hot or cool climates, but the same type of tomato will favour the same growing conditions. (Non-hybrid) plants will have some genetic drift and the seedsman's selection will - over time - produce a strain of seeds which will produce plants more suited to his climate, soil, and other growing conditions. Pat -- Pat Meadows That's not the way seed companies work. See the above post. It would take many generations for enough "genetic drift" to take place to change a warm to a cold weather variety or vice-versa (unless the plant is being intentionally bred for a trait) and other traits would also appear making it different enough not to be considered a different tomato. |
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