Subject: Re: [NAFEX] fruit introduction/ project continuity
Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 19:28:47 +0000
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: