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Michael Plant Michael Plant is offline
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Default China bush and Clonal bush

Lewis 5/9/06

> Michael Plant > writes:
>
>> Scott /8/06
>>
>>> Summer Tips > wrote:
>>>> What is difference between china bush and Clonal bush? which is
>>>> better?

>> [...]
>>
>> If I'm not mistaken "clonal" tells us that genetically all the
>> clonal bushes from the same source are exactly the same. When it
>> comes to tomatoes and other vegetables and grains, the loss of genes
>> in the gene pool due to cloning a small number of uniform,
>> homogeneous varieties is now seen as a serious problem. The problem
>> extends into such areas as lack of resistance to diseases, boring
>> tastes, and so on. Why would clonal teas not be subject to the many
>> ills of uniformity brought about by clonal planting?

>
> They would be subject to those ills if there were very few lines in
> use. I don't think it's come to that, at least not in Darjeeling.
> But my knowledge isn't very deep. Karsten - are you there?
>
> /Lew


Lew, my understanding is that when you begin an
agricultural cloning program, and when you devote
your fields to the cloned plant/s, regardless of the
number of lines you've got, in effect and by definition
you've limited the gene pool. So, we could speak of
a degree of harm. We could also speak of
making sure that the clonal doesn't completely take
over the industry, that (more) naturally occurring plants
thrive in sufficient numbers. Anyway, that's my
take on it, based on old studies.

Michael