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Post by terracotta on Dec 10, 2012 17:43:58 GMT -5
Heard Joseph has some videos on youtube apparently. Haven't watched any or what quality they are just stating this would not be his first publication.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Dec 10, 2012 18:02:05 GMT -5
My first publication still brings me the most amusement... It was a peer reviewed paper, dealing with some novel pesticides that we were developing. We published it at a scientific conference held in the USSR. A few years later, I was working for a spy agency reading and indexing Russian language publications from the USSR. [That was before Internet.] It caused a sensation in our department when my paper showed up for analysis.
I was issued a patent for my work on another project.
Farming is a better occupation for me. I can live simply, in peace with those around me, and I don't have to be angry all the time about how harmful my work is to the world. I liked the money associated with being a research scientist, but the moral dilemma was too much for me. I prefer being a poor sustenance farmer.
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Post by terracotta on Dec 10, 2012 18:42:05 GMT -5
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Post by terracotta on Dec 10, 2012 19:36:03 GMT -5
Terracotta: Nice research. I particularly liked the graphs of pollen dispersal. I think I'd attribute the poor quality of this fruit to mechanical damage when the fruit was very small. Seeing those pages reminded me how my thinking has evolved over the years. Today I updated my comments about open pollinated seeds.
Open Pollinated Seeds In the seed industry, the term "open pollinated" has come to mean the exact opposite of its plain and common sense meaning. As used by industry, the term "open pollinated" means that any offspring will look and grow exaclty like their parents, in otherwords, they are highly inbred and might as well be clones of their parents. This inbreeding is often reinforced by selfing, growing in cages, etc: Contrary to the plain meaning of the term. Before I understood this disconnect, it seemed like a contradiction to speak of a "pure" strain of an open pollinated crop. Shouldn't the term open pollinated imply that we don't really know who the father is? In my garden I am now using the term "Promiscuously Pollinated" to call attention to the fact that I may not know much about the pollen donor, and that there is every possibility that the father might not be a functional clone of the mother. I am only growing genetically diverse crops, mostly landraces, so I don't care if I receive pollen from other sources. I propagate the best-growing most-suitable plants each year, so if stray pollen helps my crop grow better then I welcome it into my garden. If it causes something to grow worse then I don't select that plant for making seeds. Isolation Distances "The theory goes something like this: In order to keep a highly inbred variety "pure" we must isolate it by so many feet or miles from any other plant of that same species, because the variety would be ruined if pollen came in from somewhere else. I believe the main failing of this theory is the idea that highly inbred crops are somehow desirable. Perhaps they have some utility to huge commercial operations, but "pure" crops are generally a bad choice for home gardeners and for small market growers. Highly inbred and genetically fragile crops are an especially bad choice for anyone that is interested in saving their own seeds, or developing their own varieties. " garden.lofthouse.com/isolation-distances.phtml |
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Post by steev on Dec 10, 2012 21:12:30 GMT -5
Joseph, the practical measure of "topsoil" is organic-matter content; subsoil being very low in organic matter, fully mineralized. The quick-and-dirty way to measure organic matter is to put a soil sample in a jar with water, shake it well, and let it settle; the organic stuff tends to float the longest, settling on top, if at all.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Dec 10, 2012 22:51:06 GMT -5
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Post by terracotta on Dec 11, 2012 17:14:14 GMT -5
Joseph, the practical measure of "topsoil" is organic-matter content; subsoil being very low in organic matter, fully mineralized. The quick-and-dirty way to measure organic matter is to put a soil sample in a jar with water, shake it well, and let it settle; the organic stuff tends to float the longest, settling on top, if at all. good point here's some tests to do organicgardening.about.com/od/soil/a/easysoiltests.htmAs a person educated in construction driveways settle until at maximum compaction. Constructors use compacting devices around things like houses so they will not settle afterwards and sink. This is the case of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaning_Tower_of_PisaThis happens with all soil types even clay. Joseph you do this? "In this type of agriculture, a patch of forest land is cleared by a combination of felling and burning, and crops are grown. After 2-3 years the fertility of the soil begins to decline, the land is abandoned and the farmer moves to clear a fresh piece of land elsewhere in the forest and the process continues. While the land is left fallow the forest regrows in the cleared area and soil fertility and biomass is restored. After a decade or more, the farmer may return to the first piece of land." or "farmers use their small land holdings to produce enough for their own consumption, while the little remaining produce is used for exchange against other goods.The cultivators use simple tools to produce the crop. These farmers try to obtain maximum yield from the available lands by intensifying cultivation techniques, including the preparation of paddy fields which can be used year after year. In the most intensive situation, farmers may even create terraces along steep hillsides to cultivate rice paddies. Such fields are found in densely populated parts of Asia, such as in The Philippines. They may also intensify by using manure, artificial irrigation and animal waste as fertilizer." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustenance_farming#Intensive_subsistence_farmingshould be a topic covered in the book then Is it any way like this? "Monocropping is the high-yield agricultural practice of growing a single crop year after year on the same land, in the absence rotation through other crops. Corn, soybeans, and wheat are three common crops often grown using monocropping techniques." "Monocropping as an agricultural strategy tends to emphasize the use of expensive specialized farm equipment — an important component in realizing its efficiency goals. This can lead to an increased dependency on fossil fuels and reliance on expensive machinery that cannot be produced locally and may need to be financed." " Lacking a stable ecology, in the absence of substantial irrigation and chemical "fixes" the soil can become dry and begin to erode. " en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monocropping |
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Post by terracotta on Dec 12, 2012 14:30:24 GMT -5
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Post by terracotta on Dec 12, 2012 15:00:44 GMT -5
I took pictures today of my cantaloupes. They were planted a few feet from each other on the same day, and as close as I can tell, based on how the weeds are growing, they share almost identical growing conditions. This spring I planted about 35 varieties of cantaloupes that people sent to me when they heard that I am doing a cantaloupe breeding project. I call these off-the-shelf cantaloupes. They are from a seed catalog, or a grocery store, or someone's backyard from far away. This is typical of how off-the-shelf cantaloupes grow in my garden:  This is a photo of what an average plant from "Joseph's Best" cantaloupe landrace looks like in my garden. It is the offspring of several years worth of selection from among perhaps 50 varieties of cantaloupe. Selection criteria was to produce ripe fruit in my garden before frost.  Yesterday and today I thoroughly weeded the cantaloupe patches. The germination rates of off-the-shelf cantaloupes were dismal. They just don't do well dealing with my soil, bugs, climate, and watering schedule. The germination rates were much higher for my landrace seeds which have become acclimated to my garden. I found about a dozen cantaloupe plants that volunteered in the garden this spring. I have marked them with stakes in order to save them and collect seed from them. I intend to add them into my landrace. If they can survive all winter in the soil, perhaps their offspring will be able to survive for a few weeks in May. It sure is hard work growing my own landrace seeds from the best of the best (for my garden), but oh my gosh! The results are so outstanding that I think I couldn't ever go back to growing off-the-shelf seeds. Better depiction of landrace method photos Remember Joseph when someone first opens it book it is the pictures and graphs one looks at. |
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Post by steev on Dec 12, 2012 19:21:13 GMT -5
First the centerfold.
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Post by ottawagardener on Dec 13, 2012 9:51:49 GMT -5
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Post by terracotta on Dec 14, 2012 14:47:59 GMT -5
It is likely that insect pollinators for tomatoes are still present in the center of origin for tomatoes. And in other areas various species pollinate tomato blossoms. To obtain a population of tomatoes that is more cross-pollinating, tomato blossoms can be examined with a magnifying glass and selection made for plants that have a more extended stigma. Those plants are more likely to be cross-pollinated than plants that have a hidden stigma. Eventually, if I get more serious about making quicker progress on my tomato landrace, I may examine the flowers closely and select for better flower structure, and watch the blossoms closely and cultivate species of pollinators that visit the blossoms... That's a project all in itself. I ain't very good at identifying insect species or discerning their natural history and reproductive needs. Perhaps a general purpose insectary, next to the tomato patch, would be sufficient. A third option would be to self tomato plants, and select for cultivars that have a self-incompatible mechanism. Tomato breeding alanbishop.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=tomatoes&action=display&thread=5532Corn photos alanbishop.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=bp&action=display&thread=5646Will grafting be part of the book? alanbishop.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=stuff&action=display&thread=6750 |
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Post by terracotta on Dec 19, 2012 16:29:52 GMT -5
A book called plants and microclimate by Hamlyn Jones (1983) talks about how to breed varieties to a particular micro climate. Sound familiar?
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Post by waltseed on Jan 12, 2013 17:10:58 GMT -5
petitvilaincanard wrote:
Now why have tomatoes colored and open flowers if a closed hidden organ could do the job of self pollination.Well,I think that's because the wild ancestors were cross insect- pollinating plants.
Many cultivated plants became self pollinators.
This is off topic of a book by Joesph, which is a good idea if he's willing. But having been a professional tomato breeder, I am somewhat familiar with tomato and related species.
Some of the Lycopsicum species which are perennial are also self-incompatible. They are indeed outbreeders. They live in the Andes mountains.
Some of the red-fruited species, ancestral to domestic tomatoes are desert plants. In deserts, plants are often isolated, and there would have been strong selection against self-incompatibility.
There is a recessive gene for brown seeds in tomatoes. It is about 3 crossover units from a gene for male sterility. So a tomato breeder took the trouble to cross a brown seeded tomato with the male-sterile, I think it was ms-23, but the name doesn't matter unless you want to look it up and order it.
So you can plant the brown seeds from this breeding line, and 97% of the seedlings will be male sterile. Any fruit on those plants will have been pollinated by insects and will be crosses with whatever is nearby. The 3% of the brown-seeded plants that are male-fertile will have many fruit, so you can tell the difference. Eat those fruit, or better still, from a breeding point of view, pull the plants so they don't lead to even more plants with brown seeds but male fertile.
Brown seeded plants fertilized by normal yellow seeded plants will have yellow seeds, so you will know they have crossed.
This gives you a cross-pollinated population that can give you a landrace if that is what you are after.
The brown-seeded male sterile line is available from the Tomato Genetics Cooperative, free of charge. Or by next fall I'll have some to spare.
Walter Pickett
I know that tomato genus Lycoperisicum has been changed to Solanum. Old habits die hard, especially if you don't like the new.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on May 30, 2021 22:30:33 GMT -5
Nine years later, I finally wrote the book. It took me 4 months of day and night attention.
It is titled Landrace Gardening: Food Security through Biodiversity and Promiscuous Pollination. I released it this week, and it already sold 100 copies. I sure appreciate the enthusiastic reviews. I ended up printing in premium color, cause it tells the story much better.
Paperback copies are available from Amazon and Lulu.com
Hardback copies are available from Lulu.com
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