North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Diane Whitehead <voltaire@islandnet.com>]

Yahoo groups has one called amateur plant breeders with 33 members, 
but only one message since last spring.

I used to belong to a different Yahoo one called Hybrid which has 
disappeared.  I have saved a number of the messages.  One long one in 
2002 was by Andrew L Reed who began hybridizing brassicas about 1998 
- he mentions all the variations he got from  kohlrabi x kale  and 
also red mustard x Chinese cabbage.

Someone else was developing perennial sunflowers.

I was writing about hybrids of the giant lobelias that grow on 
mountains in Tanzania and Chile.

As you can see, once we had all introduced ourselves, there wasn't 
much in common, so the groups failed.

Hybridizing groups are more long-lasting if the members are 
hybridizing the same kind of plants. As an example, I have seen 
frequent messages about hellebore hybridizing on the Garden Web 
Hellebore forum.

The Garden Web hybridizing forum includes fruit breeding messages by 
some familiar NAFEX names.  This online forum works better than an 
emailed list, because the messages stay there and are easily read and 
answered.

Before the internet, there were mail "Round Robins".  One member of 
one on hybridizing irises, kept track of all the data and published a 
book - quite a large one, that I frequently borrowed from our public 
library.

                Diane Whitehead