North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Michael Dossett <phainopepla@yahoo.com>]

Richard,

I think you misunderstood the earlier post about wild vs. domesticated plums. 
 Technically, there is actually MORE genetic variation in wild plants than in 
domesticated ones.  Quite a bit more, actually.  In most crops, domestication 
has caused a severe bottleneck in the germplasm leading to a rather narrow 
genetic base.  The main reason why seedlings from wild plants will generally 
be more or less like their parents and those from named cultivars are less 
likely to be is that the domesticated plants are highly selected and many or 
most of the genes are in a state of linkage disequilibrium as a result of 
selection and selective mating whereas those of wild plants typically are not.

Still I think it is good advice.  Plant the seed, be selective, and see what 
you get.  You may be pleasantly surprised.  If not the only thing you've lost 
is a little space and a little time.

Michael



Michael Dossett
Corvallis, Oregon
www.Mdossettphoto.com
phainopepla@yahoo.com


--- On Thu, 7/31/08, MARIE ASHTON <bwoodtx@verizon.net> wrote:

> From: MARIE ASHTON <bwoodtx@verizon.net>
> Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Plum Question
> To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Date: Thursday, July 31, 2008, 7:15 PM
> 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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