Darwinian Agriculture and a potential problem to be avoided

[ChlorophyllDragon (Joshua B)]

@MalcolmS

The reverse of this is also true. When selecting squash or greens, we should try to avoid saving large amounts of seeds from plants that prioritized producing seeds over producing fruit or leaves. It is only in the crops for which the seed is the desired harvest that the mechanism described by Denison would be problematic. A taller, less-seedy kale might be perfectly fine.

The seediness issue came up in another thread recently too. The reason it came up as a record keeping question was that I thought my solution was going to require tracking harvests plant by plant, but folks suggested a much better way.

Record Keeping Systems

Selecting for seediness was something I worried about too. I don’t want a sunflower “gaming” my selection process by producing more but smaller seeds. Even with peppers, where I’m less concerned with seed size, if I accidentally select for seediness plants will end up investing more energy into that and less into other aspects I might prefer. At the same time, I need plants to set seed, so I can’t ignore seed quantity either. My solution, which I haven’t put into practice yet so take it for wha…

Seediness could be a problem depending on how you select seeds, pushing plants to play the numbers game to an excessive extent (though we still want them to be at least somewhat prolific) at the expense of germination rates/fruit quality/etc. A thoughtful breeder can counteract that tendency, though.