Re: [tomato] It's your turn
Louis Mensing (Tomato@GlobalGarden.com)
Sat, 17 Oct 1998 21:57:00 -0700
-----Original Message-----
From: Margaret Lauterbach <mlaute@micron.net>
To: tomato@GlobalGarden.com <tomato@GlobalGarden.com>
Date: Saturday, October 17, 1998 11:53 AM
Subject: [tomato] It's your turn
>Chuck, Catharine and I have explained why we prefer open pollinated
>tomatoes to hybrids. I think the fellow who accused us of ulterior motives
>ought to explain why he was defending hybridization. Margaret
Margaret,
I do not feel I am defending hybrids...but rather the freedom to discuss
merits without feeling a need to defend myself. Last year I saw discussion
being squelched and you three ending up 'talking' to each other as if the
rest of us on the Listserv didn't exist. There was very little
participation after that.
There are so many variables in gardening (and tomatoes fit here too) that
reducing them to open pollinated (and heirlooms) and hybrids seems to me to
be oversimplifcation.
My feelings about hybridization include the notion that the goals selected
do not need to be cannonballs, tastless, and designed only for shipping.
You could hybridize for any qualities within the realm of 'tomatoes'.
Recombining traits and increasing vigor is wide open for the
garden/hybridizer. Chuck talked some about stabilizing a strain...which is
an interesting plan for those of us that have the space and desire. I'd
like to know more about this. I am not interested, however, in finding out
how I am being duped by big business or some other nebulous force when I
don't mind spending a few bucks for the convience of buying seeds or plants.
Sincerely
Louis Mensing
Eugene, OR