Selecting seed from different parts of a plant

[castanea]

Fascinating:

"ECIWO seed selection

How to Rejuvenate Worn-out and Inbred Crops Using Localized Seed Selection

You are about to be introduced to a new frontier of science, a new branch of biology that will forever change the way you think about seed production and genetics.

Biology professor Yingqing Zhang at Shandong University, in the People’s Republic of China, put forth the theory of ECIWO biology, which has applications in medicine, genetics, biochemistry, agriculture and other sciences. ECIWO (Embryo Containing the Information of the Whole Organism) biology applications for seed selection are revolutionary, simple, and any seed producer can quickly come to understand and master.

Many plants can be propagated asexually through cuttings and tissue culture. A somatic cell (nonembryonic cell) contains all the genetic information to be able to develop into a new complete organism. Plants are made of cells, and cells form into the various plant parts. These parts are called ECIWOs i.e. cells, branches, leaves, flowers etc.

Every ECIWO has its corresponding relationship to every other ECIWO of the same organism. This is called the bio-holographic law. In other words, a sprout on a branch is a new little plant on the bigger plant.

Let us take the shape of a leaf; if the leaf is long and narrow, the entire plant tends to grow long and narrow. If a leaf is wide at the bottom and narrow at the top, the plant will also, as a whole, be shaped similarly. Obovate leaves indicate that the leaves are on the ends of the branches.

Flower petals indicate where they are located on the plant. If the petals are wide at the top and narrow at the bottom they tend to be born at the top of the plant or at the end of the branches. If the petals are triangular (narrow at the top) the flowers tend to be borne at the bottom of the branches such as in eggplants.

Fruits also often indicate their position by their shape. Figs are narrow at the top and wide at the end are borne at the ends of the branches. Peaches are round and are borne more towards the middle of the branches.

Wheat seed has its greatest genetic potential for producing seed at the middle of the spike. Chinese agronomists have painstakingly taken the grains from each position on the spike from hundreds of wheat plants and planted the seed. The differences in yields are remarkable.

Yields are increased 13. 90% to16.95% over using the seed from the whole spike. Starting from the bottom, the 4th seed position up to about the 12th is where the greatest genetic potential exists for high grain yields. The awns on the spike are modified leaves or ECIWOs, which explains why seed is chosen from the middle instead of the top of the spike.

There is also a correlation between seed size and its genetic potential position on the wheat spike. The biggest seeds grow the most grain. Chinese researchers have developed a seed separator that separates the small wheat seed from the large seed. Yields using this seed are 11.3% higher than seed used from the whole spike.

Since there are more seed with medium or inferior genetic potential on a plant than that of superior quality, using all the seed will cause the variety to degenerate. Studies on 6 wheat varieties show that yields decrease 1.54% to 3.49% per year. In a few years the variety will be weak and worn out.

It can take 10 years to develop a new outstanding wheat variety. Much time and effort can be saved using localized seed selection to improve old varieties and develop new varieties, because it is now known where the superior seeds are located.

Sorghum and millet seed for grain production are chosen from the top of the seed head. The seed head is an ECIWO, like a small plant on the big plant, the top corresponds to seed production, the middle to forage production and the bottom for root production. Seed chosen from the top has 6.4% to 26.3% higher yield of grain than seed from the bottom of the ear.

An ear of corn grows on the middle of the corn stalk. Seed chosen from the middle of the ear has the greatest genetic potential for seed production. Studies have shown seed selected from the middle of the ear will yield from 5.9% to 19.9% higher than seed from the lower or upper thirds of the ear. Yields as high as 35% greater have been recorded.

In potatoes the lower part of the plant is what we want to develop. When selecting seed potatoes, the lower half or distal end of the potato is used and yields up to 20% more potatoes. The upper half may be used for consumption. Also the potatoes can be cut vertically and will give greater yields that when using mixed top and bottom halves.

Top halves yield the least. The distal bud on the deepest, largest potatoes have the greatest genetic potential for tuber production. Viruses don’t exist evenly in the tuber; this same distal bud has the least virus. Therefore, by growing plants from this distal bud we can get rid of viruses.

Rice grain is born on the top of the plant and seed is selected from the upper 1/3 of the panicles. Yield increases up to 17% higher than when the whole panicle is used for seed. For even greater efficiency the lower grains can be cut off while developing, putting all the plant’s energy into the upper 1/3 forming seeds.

For Chinese cabbage, seed is selected from the lower middle near the main stem. Yields increase 11-18.5%.

Seed for turnips are collected from the lower middle region of the first lateral branches. Yields increase 14-23%.

Cucumber seed is harvested from the second or third fruit near the middle lower section of the plant. Yield increase is 10%.

Pole bean seed is selected in the lower regions and bush beans are chosen at the middle region. General yield increase: 5- 10%.

Choose the lower sprouts of sweet potatoes for transplanting, studies show yield increases of 13.2% to over 30%.

By choosing flower seeds for floral culture from only the top, flowers will have a greater uniformity in flowering time and a larger percentage of marketable flowers. If seeds were saved only from the second from the top flowers, blooming time will be 5 to 7 days later. Seed from the 3rd flowers will be even later to bloom and will have smaller inferior flowers.

Choosing seed from only from the side branches can increase the sugar content of beets. Sugar content increases 6% to 6.9% by using cuttings from the side buds of the root. However, the plants grow slower with smaller roots. The most vigorous plants come from seed produced from the lower seeds from the middle of the seed stalk. Plant breeders can cross high sugar cultivars with vigorous growing beets to produce improved varieties.

ECIWO theory explains why carrots can inbreed or degenerate in just 2 generations. I have been frustrated growing carrot seed; after 2 generations the carrots grow as big as my thumb and have a greater tendency to bolt. Naturally, I have been selecting seed from the big beautiful umbel on top, thus I was selecting for top growth instead of large roots.

These principles may have been known long ago, ECIWO theory can easily explain how Beta vulgaris could be developed into garden and sugar beets, mangels and Swiss chard; or how Brassica oleracea could have been developed into cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, Brussels sprouts or collards.

Localized selected seed is now used in China on many thousands of hectares providing increased yields and economic returns.

ECIWO theory explains why varieties degenerate and the genetic variation at the different seed production locations on plants. Thus, through a simple technique that any backyard gardener can understand, old worn-out varieties can be rejuvenated using localized seed selection.

This is a new field of study that is wide open for new discoveries, and there is much research that is needed for many different crops, ranging from field and vegetable crops to pomology and viticulture. I also believe that even new crops can be developed from wild plants using these principles.

References:

Zhang Yingqing, ECIWO biology and medicine, Neimengga People’s Press. 1987

Zhang, Yingqing,. The 1985 Publication of an Outline of ECIWO biology, 1990 English translation by Y. Wang and Z.Y. Hu, from Holographic Biology Research 1985, Shandong University Press, Pp, 1-21.

Progress in ECIWO Biology and its Applications to Medicine and Agronomy: Proceedings of the First International Congress of ECIWO Biology (Singapore), edited by T.T. Ang and Y.G. Shi. Beijing: Higher Education Press, Pp. 52-81.

Fu Zhaolin, A study of Wheat ECIWO Localized Seed Selection, Proceedings of the 3rd International Congress of ECIWO Biology. 1996

Bi Yihua, A Summary of the Tests of Wheat ECIWO Localized Seed Selection, Ibid.

Shi Zhenyun, Researches into ECIWO Localized Seed Selection (LSS) in Increasing Stem Tuber Yield, Ibid.

Xing Zuofu, Li Jingyang, Mao Guiying, Shen Cuizhen, Shen Lizhi, Zhang Yuguang, Cui Xuemei, Achievements in the Application Research of ECIWO Localized Seed Selection, Ibid.

Shixian Zhang, A Summary of the Test on Rice ECIWO Localized Seed Selection, Ibid.

Wang Ruiku, Liu Xidong, Du Jingsheng, ECIWO Biological Researches into Potatoes Multi-Level and Multi-Orientation ECIWO Localized Seed Selection, Ibid.

Lu Shide, Guo Shucai, Sun Honglai, Sun Wenjun, Liu Juntian and Cheng Xiatiang, A Summary of the Bio-Holographic Localized Seed Selection Experiment on Sorghum. (Seed Supply Center of Yishui County, Shandong, P.R. China).

Wei Sanli, An Application of ECIWO Biology in Horticulture, Biology College, Beijing Agriculture University, P.R. China.

© Stephen Coleman 2004

A few anecdotal comments:

Buffalo Bird Woman, a 19th century Native American comments on traditional gardening. These traditions have been handed down from perhaps pre-columbian times and they used similar ECIWO seed selection techniques.

A Mexican friend tells me his family specialized in raising seed corn in a remote area of Mexico. They choose the seed from the middle of the ear and kept that as a family secret. He said the grew they best seed in the area.

Native Americans in the southwest traditionally saved corn seed from the bottom of the ear. This produced small corn cobs and plants with massive root systems capable of surviving the dry conditions of the desert climate.

I myself have improved a landrace hulless barley with ECIWO seed saving techniques to the point that it out-yields modern hulless varities."

www.new-holistic-medicine.com/eciwo-seed-selection.html

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Larger seeds tend to produce larger plants because they get going quicker after planting, and more leaf area at an earlier stage allows more sunlight to be captured.

Many seed companies inherently know this and have implemented the practice of discarding the smaller seeds before selling them. With current seed sorting equipment the process is done automatically without the need of selecting individual seeds. One enterprising seed company I saw even went so far as to only offer for sale the largest 10% of their seed crop. It's harder to do this however with the hand collection systems used by small scale growers, so knowing which parts of the plant produce larger seeds can be helpful.

I agree that the practice of planting only the largest seeds on a plant may improve cultural aspects of the crop: The phenotype. But I can't see how it would do anything to improve the genotype.

[baby daddy]

thanks for the post cas. interesting stuff. Wish I knew half the stuff Joseph and others know here, I have a slight problem with information retention.. The 3rd concussion was the charm..

[steev]

I have a slight? problem with information retention; the sixth decade was the charm.

[oxbowfarm]

I guess I need to read it a little more closely but this at first reading seems to directly contradict modern genetic thinking. I can see that a larger corn seed with additional food stores might be more vigorous than a small one from the tip of the ear with less stored energy, but it is hard to understand how position on the ear could affect genotype. If the two seeds have a different genotype that would seem more likely to be because they were pollinated at different times by different pollen due to when the individual silks emerged. Likewise flowers on different locations of a plant might open at different times, exposing them to different pollen from plants of different genotypes.
The idea of the shape or location or external characteristics of the phenotype automatically dictating genotype smacks of Lysenkoism, Lamarckism, or even the medieval Doctine of Signatures. Unless all of modern genetics is a massive conspiratorial hoax, these theories have been largely discredited.
Yield increases of 13 to 16 percent are pretty significant, if this works we should all be doing this. I'd like to see some independent confirmation of this actually working from replications of the experiment by researchers outside China. Nothing against China, traditional medicine, or alternative techniques at all. I don't mean any disrespect to anyone, I guess I am naturally skeptical of anything purporting to be a magic bullet.
Tim

[Walk]

Thanks for the info. We too have been saving our seed corn from the middle of the cob. But the info about sorghum was new. We've been saving seed from any of the big heads of grain sorghum. However, the birds always get the tops before we do. I've noticed a slight reduction in head size. I'm thinking of bagging them next year - maybe using nylon stockings?

[castanea]

More to read:

www.eciwo.sdu.edu.cn/zhang/zh3.html

[Joseph Lofthouse]

There is definitely a cultural disconnect going on. (The article was apparently written by Stephen M. Coleman of California, who seems to have a limited understanding of genetics.) The first time I read it I was going to write a scathing rebuke... However, on a second reading the article contains much valuable information if I can overlook the obvious glaring flaws...

The basic premise of the the work of professor Zhang in China is that some parts of the plant produce larger seeds that grow more vigorously than other parts of the plant, due to either more stored energy or less virus load. And that if we plant the better seeds that we will get larger harvests. It's a subtle effect (around 5% to 20%) that might not be noticed unless one was doing careful measurements.... Who would notice if their pole bean crop produced 86,000 beans instead of 80,000? That difference is smaller than the year to year variation due to weather, and it's smaller than the plant to plant differences in the same year due to variability in the soil.

So when it speaks of "variety improvement" or "genetic potential", I interpret that, from my western perspective, as synonyms for Mendelian genetics.... But the article is really talking about what I would call the phenotype: The measurable characteristics of the plant after it has interacted with it's environment, and not about the actual genes of the plant... After all, the method is called something like "every part of the plant is genetically the same as every other part".

I'm speculating that we could get similar improvement in yield by planting the seed producing plants at wider spacings in richer soils with a more favorable water/sunlight regimen: The idea being that larger less virus loaded propagules produce better plants and thus higher yields.

It's easy to say that the position of a corn kernel on the cob affects it's phenotype and the phenotype of the plant it produces the next year... We have a long tradition in the usa of selecting corn seeds for planting from the middle third of the cob because the tip kernels tend to be small and to produce less vigorous plants, (who knows why the bottom 1/3 isn't favored....)

The paragraph about inbreeding of carrots, and the paragraph about Beta vulgaris, and the speculation about domesticating wild plants are unfortunate (and should be deleted by Mr. Coleman from his web site in order to make professor Zhang's work more accessible to western scientists, farmers, and plant breeders).

[keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.)]

Aug 22, 2011 8:27:15 GMT -5 oxbowfarm said:

The idea of the shape or location or external characteristics of the phenotype automatically dictating genotype smacks of Lysenkoism, Lamarckism, or even the medieval Doctine of Signatures. Unless all of modern genetics is a massive conspiratorial hoax, these theories have been largely discredited.

some of us still believe in Lamarkian genetics (epigentics) in some sense, and i for one believe the environment has a much larger effect on genotpye (and indirectly phenotype) than we actually realize. That dosen't mean that it itself isn't governed by natural selection, or is exactly like Lamark originally imagined, but saying that it has been proven wrong is nonsense. Be as skeptical as you want, but clinging madly to either darwin or lamarck (or anyone really) is a bad idea. Darwin really didn't study genetics. He did write about some processes that seem to coincide with genetics which have turned out to be helpful and in many cases invaluable, but i don't think we should worship the man.

I think it's important to keep reevaluating what we know about the world, and to constantly challenge those ideas. I think whenever possible we should do our own experiments and try and notice more than we already do.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

I have often wondered about epigenetics as it relates to fowl and livestock... Domesticated pheasants released into the wild sure are different behaviorally. There's the cultural aspects of incubator raised birds not having a role model to teach them proper pheasant culture, but I wonder if there ain't an epigenetic component as well, especially associated with female cells, even if it gets lost by the male cells.

And in regards to plants, I wonder if part of localizing a plant to my garden has an epigenetic component as well, of certain previously inactive genes being activated already in the embryo because something about my garden triggered their activation in the mother plant.

[12540dumont]

Thanks for posting this. Being a "Beany" I had read part of this before in relation to saving Bean seeds. I was unable to find the source of the "science data" and am by nature a doubting Thomas.

SO, last year I saved all the bottom beans from the Stangenbohne Ilanz beans. This is what I planted this year. What I got was a typical bumper crop of green beans. I'm picking 10-20 pounds every other day. But here's the real difference. The beans are longer! By one or two beans!
Here's a photo showing a bean that is 8 inches long. I have not tried it with any other crop. But I will. This was not a scientific experiment in terms of what I normally do. I would normally have done two plots to check out the math. But, I didn't because this method of bean saving works for me.

By leaving all the bottom beans on "all" the bean plants as next year's seed crop, I get beans from every plant and don't have to worry that my seed crop was accidentally picked, like the year my mom came and found a whole section that hadn't been picked and promptly picked them. The big beans on the bottom look tough and overdone so, I don't have to worry about the scavengers stealing them.

However, when I do a first year grow-out on a bean, I save every bean, from every vine. Only the second year do I start selecting the bottom beans for seed.

Of course, now I want to try this for other crops. I see another field trial on my horizon. Well, right after the onions, garlic, and turnips....

Attachments:

[blueadzuki]

Aug 22, 2011 10:01:12 GMT -5 Joseph Lofthouse said:

We have a long tradition in the usa of selecting corn seeds for planting from the middle third of the cob because the tip kernels tend to be small and to produce less vigorous plants, (who knows why the bottom 1/3 isn't favored....)

This actually reminds me of an incident that happened back when I was taking my classes in Plant breeding and agronomy. The teacher had just pointed out that, in industry, it is often the habit to remove and discard the "butt kernels" (that bottom 1/3) becuse their wider irregualr shapes often got stuck in modern processing equipment. I asked, given the fact that they were 1. bigger and 2. by what he said processing useless, farmers simply didn't use the butt kernels as thier planting stock. His answer was that basically, in this day and age, the person growing the crop ade the person producing the seed were rarely the same person, and that most farmers wouldn't want butt anyway, as it would also clog modern seed drills. Basically the answer boiled down to "that's old fashioned thinking (more fool him).
As for position affecting genetic diversity, It is my belief that that would only really come into play in the case of plants that outcross easily (but are still capable of pollinating themselves), and where flowering is staggered. In that case, I imagine that whichever direction the plant flowers from those that open earlier will be most likely to have the highest diversity, due to the pollen shortage (it's sort of the same idea as why some experty recommend you dont save seed from the first few tomatoes that show up one each plant each season, the shortage of mature flowers on the plant at that point increases the change of outcrossing.

[castanea]

Joseph, I think there is some imprecision and/or confusion in language, in part possibly because this phenomenon is not recognized and precise language does not exist for it.

The cells of one person's arm and that same person's liver will have the same genotype but obviously the arm and the liver express different aspects of that genotype. Why can a liver regenerate and an arm cannot? It's the same DNA, but obviously expressing itself differently at different places in your body. Phenotypic plasticity is widely recognized but I am not sure all aspects of it have been explained. I am not ready to rule out the possibility that seed located at different position on a plant may express different characteristics and that is what they seem to be saying.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Aug 22, 2011 18:21:01 GMT -5 blueadzuki said:

(it's sort of the same idea as why some experts recommend you dont save seed from the first few tomatoes that show up on each plant each season, the shortage of mature flowers on the plant at that point increases the change of outcrossing.

So in my case, since I am seeking genetic diversity and genetic drift, the first few tomatoes that show up could be the most interesting, and the most likely to produce something new that might be better for me than what I have been growing.

For what it's worth, remember that tomato I put a $100 price tag on at the farmer's market because of the high value I placed on the seeds? Ha!!! It didn't have any seeds in it! But no worries, the tomatoes that the plants produced a few days later had plenty of seeds. I haven't got those shipped yet, but I will soon.

[blueadzuki]

Aug 22, 2011 20:47:30 GMT -5 Joseph Lofthouse said:

Aug 22, 2011 18:21:01 GMT -5 blueadzuki said:

(it's sort of the same idea as why some experts recommend you dont save seed from the first few tomatoes that show up on each plant each season, the shortage of mature flowers on the plant at that point increases the change of outcrossing.

So in my case, since I am seeking genetic diversity and genetic drift, the first few tomatoes that show up could be the most interesting, and the most likely to produce something new that might be better for me than what I have been growing.

That seems logical. It's also not unusual (at least in some tomato strains) for the first few fruits to come out sort of weird. flowers can start growing together; one on top of another or ever totally merged. This has an obvios tell, such flowers will have extra petals (a double merged flower will have 10, a triple 15, after a while they start looking more like crysanthemums). I actuall go one that started growing leaves through the middle of the flower/fruit! Depending on how you look at it, such flowers can be good or bad. If you are looking for crossing, they are often good; the malformation has a tendency to do things like push the stigmas out past the anthers, which virtually guantees cross pollination. On the other hand some of those messed up fruits can be a little hard to eat (the leaf in the middle devloped into a ring of seed bearing flesh with callus and calyx in places that made eating it hard), and hard to sell (they tend to be really ugly). And by defintion, saving seed from tomatoes do this yield tomatoes that can also do this. So it's really up to you.