North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["tanis cuff" <tanistanis@hotmail.com>]

I don't have any illusions that any of "my" seedlings will make me rich.  Or 
anybody else.  Just hoping to share some evaluated & worth-while fruiting 
material with enough people so that these fruits can be kept going a while.  
At best, one person can only grow a selection so many years in so many 
places, but chances of continuity increase with distribution to more 
growers.  Would be a shame to lose a cultivar to one crumby storm.


----Original Message Follows----
From: "Lon J. Rombough" >
To: North American Fruit Explorers <>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] fruit introduction/ project continuity
Date: Fri, 26 Aug 2005 07:17:38 -0700

	Everyone who finds a new variety, either by breeding or by luck, thinks 
they will sell it and make a ton of money.  Sorry, but it doesn't happen 
that way.   First, there are patent fees, which run to a fair amount.  Then 
there is advertising to get the new variety known.  Then there is 
propagation, which means running a nursery.  All this has to come out of 
what you make on the variety.   And if you haven't sent the variety out to 
be tested in different areas, there's a good chance it may not perform well 
in many different environments, in which case it will fall by the wayside 
pretty fast.
	Almost all the time, the best you are likely to do is to sell the variety 
outright to a nursery and try to get something that way.  They have the 
advertising machine and the propagation, at least, and they can absorb costs 
by spreading them out over their whole operation.
	Of course they may also decide that it's too similar to something else they 
sell and don't want it competing, so they sit on it.
	In short, breeding and releasing new varieties is NOT a path to riches.  At 
least if you give the varieties away there is a chance your work will live 
on, in some form.

-Lon Rombough
Grapes, writing, consulting, my book, The Grape Grower, at 
http://www.bunchgrapes.com  Winner of the Garden Writers Association "Best 
Talent in Writing" award for 2003.
On Aug 26, 2005, at 6:25 AM, bluestem_farm@juno.com wrote: