The Seeds Look Good

Happy Easter,
I hope everyone is doing well. The seeds we received from Mexico look good, there was very little pest damage. The Schmidt Lab is in the pre-planting phase right now. We are going to lay down the plastic for our early field on Tuesday 4/14 so that the parents of next years PV crop won’t become inundated with weeds. Thanks to everyone in the group for being such fun, wonderful people. I learned a lot in my week down in Bucerias and had a great time as well. The mutant tours were very impressive. Sarah’s knotted mutants gave me a real appreciation for the effect of background on mutant phenotype. Knotted plants in some backgrounds looked like melting candles while those in other backgrounds exhibited only slight knotting. Guri also had some very interesting plants that had originated from the same population and been selected for over ~15 generations based on stalk strength. Over the course of five or so years Guri had selfed those plants with the weakest stalks , and selfed those with the strongest stalks. After ~15 generation the differences between the two lineages was stark. The weak stalks could be easily crushed by the grip of a hand while the strong stalks could be used by the authorities in Singapore to deal with shoplifters and vandals. Thanks again to everyone, I hope to see all of you again in Nayarit, 2010. Special thanks to Torbert for being the master organizer (you have a gift man!!).
Happy planting,
Craig Gaines