North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["MARIE ASHTON" <bwoodtx@verizon.net>]

The likelihood of a plum seedling being exactly the same as the parent is 
nearly nil but some do come very close to being the same. As Lon says Green 
Gage/Reine Claude plums were propagated for centuries in Europe by seed.

Plant breeders have selection methods that help sort out the seedlings. Most 
breeders do not want small fruited cultivars. You can generally tell the 
smaller fruited seedlings by the first year leaf size. So, the small leaved 
seedlings are eliminated the first year. The second year any defective or 
disease prone seedlings are sorted out. And finally the remaining trees are 
allowed to fruit and only a few selected trees will remain. Out of 1000 
seedlings a breeder may wind up with 2 or 3 trees that have merit.

Wild plums can be propagated by seed with nearly identical results, as 
someone said. There is less genetic variation in most wild plums. The 
original Wild Goose plum was propagated by a hunter that found a plum seed 
in a Goose and planted it. The result was a new plum species that has very 
good traits.

Regards,
Richard Ashton
Oak Creek Orchard
www.oakcreekorchard.com
bwoodtx@verizon.net

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert C. Mullins" <mullins@gaelicmysts.com>
To: <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2008 6:14 PM
Subject: [NAFEX] Plum Question


> Tasted a plum, it was delicious, saved the seed.  And now the big
> question, if I plant it, will it grow true?
>
>
> --
> Robert C. Mullins M.S. IT
> GaelicMysts Farms and Permaculture, Owner
> Clarksville, Ar
> Zone 8a
> http://wildcraft.gaelicmysts.com
>
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