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nafex - [NAFEX] tennessee mountain fig...

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  • From: Mauch1@aol.com
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [NAFEX] tennessee mountain fig...
  • Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2003 10:28:09 -0400

"an exact clone" Well, yes and no. Basically within a cutting you might have
genetic drift. You could call it a "sport" like they do in apple, but
sometimes the differences are more subtle than the descriptions usually used
for sport. I've read two studies, one about Concord grape and the other
about roses, where cuttings were selected from high productive (or floriforus
in roses) and low productive plants (or parts of plant) and then selected
again high and low cuttings from each respective plants. If memory serves
the difference in productivity for grapes became extremely large. The roses
did have an effect, but didn't seem to increase over reselection.
In the case they were all Concord grape plants but there was a difference. I
think selecting for hardiness would be much harder, as so many factors come
in to play. Is it hardy with snow cover?, no snow?, wet cold?, dry cold?,
dehydrating winds?, etc. I'm not saying that "TM Fig" isn't more hardy, I'm
just not certain you could reproduce it (easily) by taking "Celeste" and
trying to select for hardiness. Maybe you could select for better adaptation
to your particular site.

>I read somewhere (forgot to make of mental note of which >site) that
>Tennessee Mountain is a selection from Celeste that was >particularly
>fruitful & extra hardy. I guess my question is can you >select for
>these kinds of things by using cuttings, wont a cutting of a >cutting
>always be an exact clone?

>mIEKAL

Chris Mauchline
SE PA, zone 6
40° 5' N 75° 51'W
~650 ft elevation




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