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ysabetwordsmith) wrote2022-09-29 02:11 am
ysabetwordsmith) wrote2022-09-29 02:11 am
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Landrace Gardening: Understand Promiscuous Pollination
Folks have mentioned an interest in questions and conversations that make them think. So I've decided to offer more of those. The current batch features landrace gardening.
Understand Promiscuous Pollination in Landrace Gardening
Promiscuous pollination is essential to the long-term survival of landrace crops. Some species are very promiscuous. Other species are mostly self-pollinating, crossing occasionally. Promiscuous pollination rearranges the genetics of the plants. Shifting genetics allows life to adapt to changes in the ecosystem or in farming practices.
Read more of this article.
Pollen from most flowers doesn't move far -- usually just a few feet. So to maximize promiscuous pollination, mix different seeds closely together. One way is to dump all the seeds together, shake to blend, and sow them that way. Another is to plant the offspring of one plant, or the seeds from one packet, in a single hill or stretch of row, when you have hills or rows that are only 2-3 feet apart. Plants with more open flowers, more nectar or pollen, or otherwise more attractive to pollinators will cross better so you may wish to encourage these traits. Throw your plants a happy hippie sexfest and enjoy the fun!
Conversely, if you wish to isolate seeds -- for example, to prevent hot and sweet peppers from crossing -- then it doesn't take much distance. For mostly inbreeding crops, 10 feet will minimize crossover and 20 is usually more than enough. For outbreeding crops, you may need 100 feet. Temporal separation also works: crops flowering at different times won't cross-pollinate. Isolation is the opposite of promiscuous pollination, and not usually what you want in a landrace except for separating incompatible traits or testing new seed sources. Otherwise don't worry about it.
When crossbreeding, especially with new stock or wild stock, you may need to do some troubleshooting. Taste produce before saving seeds; don't save anything that tastes bad, because it may carry toxins. Watch for undesirable traits like floppy stems, disease or pest vulnerabilities, overlong growing season, slow germination, etc. You may wish to eliminate these, or they may eliminate themselves by failing to reproduce. It's best to test new source seeds in a separate plot for at least a year or few before adding them to your main landrace, so you don't introduce unwanted traits and then have to discard a lot of seed to remove those flaws.
To counteract inbreeding depression in isolated cultivars, throw in a little seed from a similar variety. One red cherry tomato is very like another. Think about what you consider the defining traits, and then move to vary the things you don't care about. Say you want small red tomatoes. Maybe you don't care about their shape or growth habit, would actively welcome diverse flavors, and have a long enough growing season that different sprouting or ripening times are fairly flexible. Those are all ways you can mix up the genes to improve resilience. This is a good way to fix problems that sometime occur in open-pollinated or heritage cultivars due to overzealous isolation or selection.
Remember, if you don't like the results, you can always feed a few bad veggies to the livestock, wildlife, or compost pile denizens.
Understand Promiscuous Pollination in Landrace Gardening
Promiscuous pollination is essential to the long-term survival of landrace crops. Some species are very promiscuous. Other species are mostly self-pollinating, crossing occasionally. Promiscuous pollination rearranges the genetics of the plants. Shifting genetics allows life to adapt to changes in the ecosystem or in farming practices.
Read more of this article.
Pollen from most flowers doesn't move far -- usually just a few feet. So to maximize promiscuous pollination, mix different seeds closely together. One way is to dump all the seeds together, shake to blend, and sow them that way. Another is to plant the offspring of one plant, or the seeds from one packet, in a single hill or stretch of row, when you have hills or rows that are only 2-3 feet apart. Plants with more open flowers, more nectar or pollen, or otherwise more attractive to pollinators will cross better so you may wish to encourage these traits. Throw your plants a happy hippie sexfest and enjoy the fun!
Conversely, if you wish to isolate seeds -- for example, to prevent hot and sweet peppers from crossing -- then it doesn't take much distance. For mostly inbreeding crops, 10 feet will minimize crossover and 20 is usually more than enough. For outbreeding crops, you may need 100 feet. Temporal separation also works: crops flowering at different times won't cross-pollinate. Isolation is the opposite of promiscuous pollination, and not usually what you want in a landrace except for separating incompatible traits or testing new seed sources. Otherwise don't worry about it.
When crossbreeding, especially with new stock or wild stock, you may need to do some troubleshooting. Taste produce before saving seeds; don't save anything that tastes bad, because it may carry toxins. Watch for undesirable traits like floppy stems, disease or pest vulnerabilities, overlong growing season, slow germination, etc. You may wish to eliminate these, or they may eliminate themselves by failing to reproduce. It's best to test new source seeds in a separate plot for at least a year or few before adding them to your main landrace, so you don't introduce unwanted traits and then have to discard a lot of seed to remove those flaws.
To counteract inbreeding depression in isolated cultivars, throw in a little seed from a similar variety. One red cherry tomato is very like another. Think about what you consider the defining traits, and then move to vary the things you don't care about. Say you want small red tomatoes. Maybe you don't care about their shape or growth habit, would actively welcome diverse flavors, and have a long enough growing season that different sprouting or ripening times are fairly flexible. Those are all ways you can mix up the genes to improve resilience. This is a good way to fix problems that sometime occur in open-pollinated or heritage cultivars due to overzealous isolation or selection.
Remember, if you don't like the results, you can always feed a few bad veggies to the livestock, wildlife, or compost pile denizens.