Subject: [permaculture] De-evolution for fun and profit
Date: Sun, 06 Jul 2003 10:07:29 -0700
Good morning,
I had an idea yesterday that I don't recall seeing discussed here over the
past few years, or elsewhere for that matter.
Most of us are aware of the benefits of seed-saving from open-pollinated
species. And we're pretty much aware that hybrid plants don't breed true -
the seed they produce won't grow something that looks just like them.
Finally, there is the problem of loss of species diversity in many plants.
Is anybody working to "de-evolve" hybrid species back into their ancestors,
or "forward-evolve" them into new, stable cultivars?
Let's take a hybrid tomato that has qualities you like. Saving and sowing
seed from that tomato will give you a variety of plants in year two. Find
the plants that have qualities you'd like to preserve and save seed from
those for planting in year three. And so on, until you have reached a new
set of stable, "open-pollinated" tomato varieties that do well in your
chosen microclimates.
Is anybody doing this? It seems to be to be one possible way of reversing
the decline of species diversity for commercially-available plants, as well
as increasing our ability to save and perpetuate useful seed stocks outside
the infrastructure of the commercial ag industry.
I've played a little with this, in terms of enjoying the fruits of
volunteer plants coming up in my gardens from hybrid parents, but I haven't
done much with the seed from these - insufficient time and space so far.
Just a meme for y'all to play with,
Loren
Loren Davidson Earth steward, healer, singer/songwriter
loren@farwalker.com http://www.earthspring.org/loren/
AIM: loren334 ICQ: 65291610
Loren's album & music info: http://www.lorendavidson.com
"In gentleness there is great strength." - Sun Bear
[permaculture] De-evolution for fun and profit,
Loren Davidson, 07/06/2003