sandy0225

I know with heirloom tomatoes, when you grow out plants, they become more "locally adapted" to your growing conditions.
So if you took a basjoo that had been say, outdoors in Indiana for 6 years, dug it up and used it for tc stock, is there any chance it would be potentially more hardy than ones you received this year from Florida? Or is this just exactly the same plant that "got lucky" and received good mulching and a proper microclimate? and wouldn't be beneficial at all.

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Sandy Burrell



Northern Tropics Greenhouse
1501 East Fuson Road
Muncie, IN 47302
www.northerntropics.com


specializing in bananas, heirloom tomatoes and water gardening plants~
check out our new online store at our website!

51st state

Gabe's the man to answer this properly, but my understanding is that by selecting locally successful plants you are in effect doing what local farmers do in creating 'landraces'. These are still the same species but the genetic variation which occurs naturally within a species is being utilised.

TC is basically cloning so a TC'd plant should in theory (with minor variations) be an exact copy of the mother plant.

It basically proves what Darwin said was correct

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sandy0225

so then really I'd have to have my basjoo (that was originally a tc) produce fruit and grow out some of the seeds, just like you do with the tomatoes to make it work? That's kind of what I thought, but it never hurts to ask....

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Sandy Burrell



Northern Tropics Greenhouse
1501 East Fuson Road
Muncie, IN 47302
www.northerntropics.com


specializing in bananas, heirloom tomatoes and water gardening plants~
check out our new online store at our website!

51st state

thats my understanding, yes. only then can natural selection exhert it's influence.

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Gabe15

Plants (or any living things for that matter) cannot be genetically altered for adaptation by their environment. The way landraces and heirloom varieties succeed is by human selection for a particular trait, not by mutating for adaptation within a single plant. Selection and evolution must occur over multiple generations. For non-seeded bananas, it can seem like they are adapting, but really its the same thing, random mutations lead to some bud sports that are better off than others and those are selected by farmers and propagated. In nature its the same thing, except since we aren't out there picking the ones that do best, other forces intervene and we call it natural selection.

TC is actually used however for breeding and improvement with bananas. What is done is that if you are producing enough plants (the program that is famous for this does about 2 million a year I think...maybe more) through TC, then there are bound to be somaclonal (somatic, non sexual) mutations that occur and when grown out in the field variations become noticable. Also, you can induce mutations by radiation, but the concept of not knowing what you will get until you grow it out and then selecting the ones that happen to be different and useful...is the same. The only way to directly change the genetics of a single plant (not the line over generations, thats selection) to suit a different set of conditions is by genetic engineering. However, even in genetic engineering, there is usually still a selection process.

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Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.