To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Hybrid - hybridizers' lists
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 18:04:19 -0800
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.