Preliminary PREFACE for Garden Book,ADDING sample chapter

[897tgigvib]

On my third cup of coffee today I come to realize our garden book needs some purpose.
Purpose for a book is important. Purpose is often given in a book's preface.
A preface is different than an introduction, and is often reworked after a book is completed, sometimes before a new edition is made also.
Here goes a first effort:

ORDINARY FOLKS GARDENING<<<a preliminary title

preliminary PREFACE

We are typical ordinary everyday people living in this tumultuous world of the year 2012 along with seven billion other humans, maybe many more. We are gardeners, gardeners who use home computers and the internet to communicate with each other on a forum called The Easy Garden, or theeasygarden.com. We are not official representatives of this website, though at this time we are considering asking one of the administrators if this book project should become a part of this forum.
Most of us only know one another as our pseudonyms that are common in use in these early days of the internet. None of us are professional writers of books.
There are a lot of books about gardening out there. Most of them are specialized with their scope and content. There are books about Roses, or Daffodils, or a single very excellent method of sustainability gardening. What we are doing is creating a book with a very wide range of gardening topics.
On an early post discussing the possibility of writing this book, we began making a list of which topic or topics each of us would like to write, and discovered almost immediately that setting teams of several of us on each topic of gardening would be a good plan. One thing we lacked however was a strong person to do the lead editor position ...I am hoping still that one will step forward... so in the interim I will hold down the fort so to speak.
The list of topics initially made was huge. It was decided to combine some of the topics, and some other toipics will be added I am sure.
This Ordinary Folks Gardening book is being written to fill some needs that have not been filled in a single book. We are all very different gardeners. There are some among us, (who have not yet expressed interest in collaborating, but I feel they should if they want to.), who have attitudes on some certain aspects of gardening very different than the majority of us. Having been on the minority side many times in my life, and had felt very much left out, I do not want to do the same thing to others I may disagree with. They too are welcome to write a valid garden topic.
A lot of gardeners have historically been politically involved, be it about the local municipal water supply, or worldwide politics, and everything between. Course some avoid politics assiduously, and without fail. Those issues often turn into hot spots, and intention is made for all sides to allow expression of ideas.
Some of the gardeners writing topical chapters here are actually small farmers, while others have a small spot beside or behind their house in urban situations. There may be a few who have window or balcony gardens stories up in an apartment. All sizes of gardens are herein represented.
There are few if any single books that touch well on so many kinds of gardening, and certainly none written by ordinary people, the folk you might see in your local hardware or department store, the lady who works at the office front desk, or the man who drives a big rig, or the retired schoolteacher. That's us. A lot of the writers here have Chickens, Rabbits, Goats, Dogs, Cats, Quail, and other assorted animals which have more or less to do with their gardening depending on how they do it. See? There is no single method, and this book addresses that no single method methodology. The reader may well see what is appropriate to their situation and ways of being to gain some help or ideas, or humor or enjoyment.
This project is one small legacy. In past generations there were different ways and generally more available land per gardener, along with more difficult tools. In future generations there may well be much less land per gardener, and gardeners who may be amazed that we could use a non digital shovel for what may seem a silly example nowadays.


I'm not even sure if I'm in the ball park here!
Soime input please?

 

[journey11]

I think it's perfect! You really summed it up and I think it's only fitting and proper that you should write the preface, Marshall, being that it was your idea after all.

 

[897tgigvib]

I wish the mama chicken was online, she'd be great input to this, and I hope seedcorn would want to do a topic or 2

 

[thistlebloom]

I like it Marshall! I think you've described it well.

 

[897tgigvib]

Here is a sample of beginning work on your chapter:

I'll start by outlining the chapter in this post

BASIC PLANT BREEDING
1) discussion about what varieties are and how they come to be
a) include the basic biological definition of species, simple version
b) discuss what selection is about
2) discuss why a person would want to do plant breeding
a) talk about some of the easiest breeding methods that do not involve crossing at all
b) discuss what plants are simplest to breed
3) introduce Mendel's experiments with crossing peas.
a) a simple explanation of dominant and recessive genes
b) simplify the complicated codominant and linked genes things
c) explain how Mendel's experiments oversimplify reality
4) doing some simple crosses
a) what to expect, and how patience rewards
b) selections from the 2nd generation on, stabilizing
c) normal multiple plant selections
d) rapid selections from single plants
5) the effects of hybrid vigor, and how it sometimes reduces in following generations

This is just a first draft outline. I'm gonna stew on it awhile, and hope for some input before I start doing each little section. Each one of those things may only need a short blurb, or maybe a longer blurb.

But you can see, I'm trying to break it down into simpler parts, and not just trying to write ad hoc improvise as i go along. This is a topic that fills entire books. I'm going to try to do it in a few pages. This is one of the more technical chapters of our book, and I want our book to be for ordinary folks, by ordinary folks.

 

[897tgigvib]

BASIC PLANT BREEDING

Most species of plants come in many varieties, though it is possible for there to be only a single variety of a species. Varieties are visible variations within a species, and often breed true to many of the characteristics of a breeding population. A breeding population is what a gene pool is. When there is a gene pool that has visible characteristics that are mostly the same one has a variety.

There are all kinds of names for different uses of the term variety, but for the ordinary folks gardening and preparing to do plant breeding, terms such as cultivar, subspecies, or landrace only matter when and if we have to deal with scientific seedbanks such as Nordgen or the USDA. But a plant breeder does need to know which species a variety by any term belongs to. This is because normally plants that belong to distinctly different species will not cross. (There are exceptions, but that is definitely a more advanced topic.)

About that word species: It is definitely one of the most misused words in all of science. This is because of the way it has been defined by different kinds of persons using it over the centuries. Roses for example. Wild Roses worldwide have been habitually called different species depending on where they are from, even though almost all of them are really varieties of the same biological species. A wild rose from the American Southwest will indeed cross with a wild rose from Siberia, and almost all of those seedlings will readsily cross with either parent's variety or with any other kind of true rose and make mostly healthy seedlings that will probably flower and also make good seeds. Only because of old convention are wild roses called by their species names. The same is true for many other plants.

A species is a group of which all its members can interbreed, and is distinct from other groups that it can't breed with. If two plants can breed to produce viable seed that can grow and reproduce with either parent's gene pool then they are the same species. The can contribute to one another's gene pool. If two plants can't contribute to one another's gene pool, they are probably different species. (Let's nevermind any other causes.)

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Most any variety can be selected. Most normal varieties have variations in their traits, especially in traits not plainly visible. One Brandywine tomato plant might have 3 lobes on its first true leaves while another might only show two lobes. Since that may not have been important to the seed company source of the seed, it might just be random how many have which, 2 or 3 lobes on its first treue leaf. That is variation within a variety. There can also be variations that only show themselves because of conditions. Most of those Brandywine seedlings might die if right after sprouting they are exposed to 24 hours of 33 degrees, but one might just pull through, just like most of the Stupice do. That one surviving Brandywine might have pulled through because of more anthocyanin in it than the other Brandywines. So, it may be a silver lining even though the other 31 died. You may have a variation that has a desirable trait, one to save seeds from.

Selection is about either improving an already set standard variety, or selection can be an important part of creating a new set standard variety. This second kind is called "stabilizing after segregating", and I'll get to that in a bit.

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Why would anyone want to go about the trouble of breeding plants? There are a whole lot of reasons. It is fun and satisfying. It can be very fulfilling. There are a lot of other micro reasons like that. There are macro reasons too. Maybe you live in a place that only 3 varieties of corn have been known to be successful. By doing some crossing, segregating, and selections, in a few years, using only 2 of those 3 varieties, you may be able to make it be 7 or more varieties that can grow where you are. Or if you grow a variety just for its tassel pollen that can't quite ripen cobs and use it as the male, you can legacy to your area even more kinds of corn for you and your neighbors. Or maybe you really want to grow evergreen tomato but it gets diseases in your area. Maybe if you cross it with the Lemon Boy that always stays healthy, grow the F1, and then grow the F2's and save the evergreen looking and tasting one among them that is as healthy as the Lemon Boy, you have yourself something special. Maybe. Oh. If there's going to be a maybe, maybe try some other crosses, or do some backcrossing, that is, cross one of the F2's with one of the original parent varieties. There are all sorts of things to consider before starting, or heck, just do it. I'm sure some or most of the plant breeders in past centuries did not know the following things.

Even without doing any cross polliunation at all, plant breeding can be done. As I was saying earlier, many varieties already have some variation in them. By selecting survivors from near catastrophes that any gardener will have, a good form of breeding plants is being done. Also, there can be slower breeding done, such as when growing Rutabagas and only a few of them bulb up in your particular conditions. If you consistently for several or many years save seed from those that do bulb up the best, you may well develop a Rutabaga that consistently bulbs up for you. Yes, it is my opinion you can call it your own variety. Some will call it a "strain" of the original variety. There will be some internal reason that may be invisible to normal eyes, some physiology, that makes it different, and better for your conditions or methods of growing Rutabagas. The same can definitely be done with Peas. Some may average more per pod. Select those for seed for 5 years, or even fewer years.

Be careful that your best plant is not the best because it has better conditions. Those will not pass on any better traits than a random selection on average. Also, some varieties have more natuyral variation than others. Some seed companies' packets have more variation than others. (Some seed companies allow too much variation, but that can be extra fun.)

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Some plants are easier to cross pollinate than others. Common Beans practically require a surgical team. Squashes are easy as pie. Tomatoes require knowing how to do it, knowing the flower parts, and decent steady coordination. There is a way to cross tomatoes that even I can do, and a good 80 or 90 percent of the seeds get crossed. That's not enough for a commercial endeavour, but is good enough for me. Basically, I transplant the anther cone. Actual techniques should be another chapter. This is the general basics about breeding plants here.

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>>>>> I will put the outlined parts 3, 4, and 5 on the next page.

This page took 68 minutes.

 

[Smart Red]

Marshallsmyth, please check your pm.

 

[Smart Red]

I'll get started on an outline for composting. Don't expect anything before tomorrow though as spouse, fur, and feathers are calling.

Love, Smart Red

 

[897tgigvib]

Thank you, and I just did, and sent a happy reply

I like how you fix things up!

 

[897tgigvib]

Page 2, BASIC PLANT BREEDING

(on my outline, this is the 3) introduce mendel's experiments with crossing peas section)

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Back during the 1850's in europe there was a surprising lot of basic increases in the knowledge of botany and biology going on. Charles Darwin was getting letters from Queen Victoria to hurry up and finish his book about the origin of species. Over in Austria, in a monastery, there was a monk named Gregor Mendel who grew beautiful edible and non edible Peas. I guess he was very dextrous and coordinated with a lot of brains that worked his fingers, because he was able to cross pollinate Peas. Peas are apparently not as difficult as Beans to cross pollinate, with bigger flowers and easier to disassemble parts, and probably more pollen. Gregor did an amazing thing, quietly, and with no fanfare at all. In fact, after he died, his brother monks put his notes carefully up on a shelf where they were forgotten for decades. When his notes were rediscovered, they were a leading cause for many breakthroughs in plant breeding.

Gregor acquired many set old standard varieties of the standard edible Peas. He set about classifying their distinct traits such as round seed, wrinkled seed, yellow seed, green seed, tall growing, short growing. (I am pretty sure he did some preliminary crosses that were not written about, because he was very careful to only chart traits that were very clearly DOMINANT or RECESSIVE.) Once brother Mendel set himself to observing traits, he began crossing Peas with clearly different variations of the trait. I will use the simplest example he did. He crossed a tall variety with a short variety. He did not get seeds that ever made a medium sized variety. In fact, when he crossed a tall plant with a short plant, the seeds from that cross always made tall plants. He tried it very carefully using the tall one as the mother plant, and also tried it using the short one as the mother plant. The seeds made from the cross always made tall plants.

The seeds that result from a cross pollination are called F1. When you grow those F1 plants and let them pollinate themselves, those seeds are called F2, and they make F2 plants.

So Mendel saved the seeds from those tall F1 plants. Hundreds of them. He planted them all. One out of four grew short plants, the other three of four grew tall plants. Being a careful and honest monk, he repeated this experiment with many different varieties of tall and of short peas. Now to be sure, his numbers were not always exactly 1 of 4, or 3 of 4 out of hundreds, but the numbers he got were always close to those ratios. Gregor must have had a knack for severely organizing his monastery garden. I would like to see how he stored his seeds! Well, Brother Mendel then did another thing. He grew his self pollinated F2 seeds.

This is where things got really interesting! All the seeds that came from short plants grew short plants, 100%. Shortness does not go away in self pollinated Peas. Shortness was the rarer of the 2 versions of the trait of tallness or shortness of the F2 generation.

Some of the tall F2 plants made seed that grew into tall plants only, but two thirds of them still made seed that produced short plants. So Mendel looked back to what happened, what was the mix of the F2 plants, and realized that was where traits began to SEGREGATE, that is, to sort out in some very special way, and not as if some liquids were being mixed, but as though some particles were being sorted, and very mathematically too.

When Mendel repeated these crosses watching two or more separate traits, he noticed that every time those separate traits sorted out INDEPENDENT of each other. In the 1850's there was no concept of DNA, no concept of genetics. Even Darwin did not know what was doing the thing that caused a daughter to look like her mother at least a little. Some thought it was a liquid that mixed. Mendel found it was not mixing like a liquid, because traits were SEGREGATING INDEPENDENTLY of each other. But Mendel was not doing this to publish it, so nobody saw his results for decades.

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What it boils down to is that some traits are what we call dominant. Tall is the dominant trait in this example. Some traits are recessive. Short is the recessive in this example. When a dominant trait form is crossed with a recessive form of the trait, the resulting F1 plants will express, that is, be, the dominant form. Call tallness T, and call shortness s. T crossed with s will make a hybrid plant a Ts, and a Ts plant will be tall. So will an sT be tall. Mendel shows us that. That tall F1 plant carries the short gene though. When the Ts is crossed with another Ts you get some plants that are TT, some Ts, some sT, and some that are ss. One fourth of each, and those are the F2 plants.

Those that are TT are already set as pure tall, and will only make tall descendents when self pollinated, or crossed with other TT plants. Same thing with those that are ss. Those are set as short, and they will produce only short plants as descendents when self pollinated or crossed with other ss plants. It is the other tall plants that still carry the recessive s, short, gene in them that are not yet set as pure for that trait. For that trait, they behave just like their parent F1 plant did, and will continue to sort out in the same special segregating way.

The 2 paragraphs above these words are the important things for a plant breeder to know.

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All traits do not behave as cut and dried as Mendel's experiments though. Some traits are what is known as CODOMINANT, and codominance is caused by several things. Some traits such as the color of a tomato are caused by several genes that together make the colors we see. Thickness of the skin, opacity of the skin, the inside colors, and the colors of the skin. That is a form of codominance in the simple version. Other times one gene works several visible traits. You will be noticing a lot of things that do not follow Mendel's simple and very true discoveries. That does not mean he was wrong.

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What you can do when confronted with codominance as a problem is remember that some traits will be inherited "kinda/sorta". Smallness of a tomato is codominant trait. Cross a big tomato with a small one and the F1 will be a bit larger on average than the small parent. From there they will sort out even more variable in the F2 generation. You can also look up websites of major agriculture colleges to see if they havew a list of traits as dominant, recessive, or codominant.

Mendel's experiments do oversimplify realities of plant breeding, but then, he had no plans for his research to ever be known. He was just being a good monk in a monastery in Austria.

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I will put outline part 4) on the next page
doing this this way makes me nervous that i will accidentally lose a lot of work if i bump something wrong on my keyboard