so today in my plant propagation lab we got to practice micropropagation (a.k.a. tissue cultures) and this guy came in talking about studying genes of plants of tobacco (its actually a good lab guinea pig for many viruses and diseases) and he was talking about how the wine industry is against GMO's and i sat there surprised. down where many grapes are grown in this state i saw tons and tons of acres lost to mildew.... and here is a plant that is made to be resistant to mildew thus cutting the costs of applying fungicides...
maybe its because i come from a science background and understand things but plants have been selectively breed over thousands of years. this is just about the same thing but done instantly in a lab... but yeah... i am excited because there is a rootstalk and also a type of pear cultivar (bartlett or d'anjou) that they are making more fireblight resistant. this is done by the plant being tweaked to naturally produce antibiotics and other bacteria inhibiting things. that is the number one disease sprayed for in pears because it can easily kill the entire tree and is highly contagious. the infected branches have to be removed. the cuttings must be burned (epa has no say in not burning but only on when, this is because its the only way to destroy the bacteria is by burning, no other method kills it) also sulfur and antibiotic sprays must be applied. sulfur is the first choice because we do not want the bacteria to become antibiotic resistant. and i was talking to the graduate researcher and he said some people are against eating things tweaked like that.... i was thinking eating something built with antibiotic properties in the metabolism (DNA) is alot different than eating beef that has been fed hormones.... we cannot take plant dna and become 'contaminated' with antibiotics. the biology doesnt work that way... but meat products fed hormones does continue through the food supply.
the gmo can be argued both ways but in the long run i think it is a benefit because we do not have more land to grow things with and we have to become the most efficient at using ever acre. thats why the number of family farms is really low but the tons produced is the highest its ever been.
it is also good to preserve the old heritage and wild types or visiting the plants area of origin. the best example of this would be potatoes. ireland had the issue of the plants becoming diseased... they were all clones... so dna was taken from the old originating varieties in chile that were resistant and because of that potatoes were saved....
sorry if its alot i just get excited when i learn new things.
I also got a grape plant as a gift. its a lab rat variety of grapes that is a dwarfing kind. i mean 18 inches big max. and constantly blooming and fruiting year round. i plan to propagate this plant to sell as an indoor ornamental and experiment with growing it hydroponically, it would have to be forced fed cytokinin hormone to make it grow bigger but its a chimera of pinot merinor (sp it starts with an m). the plant is naturally not sensitive to gibberellic acid (GA) even though it produces it and because of that it is dwarfed. it is still a vitis vinefera plant so the small clusters can be used for wine.... it would just take alot and be really expensive....
my plant is a month old, started from a tissue culture and is already 3 inches tall. this grape plant can literally be happily grown indoors IN A COFFE CUP. it was made by the USDA so it is an open release and i can propagate it because it is not patented or royalty. it seriously was made to be the lab rat of grapes because of how fast it grows, they can test new cultivars and disease and dna markers faster than growing a normal plant that takes 3+years.....before it would fruit...
plants are fun but chickens are a faster way to learn genetics... then again this plant will be mature in 3 months...... but i can get maybe 2 generations of chickens per year? treefruits are 10years per generation (pears, apples are 5)
wouldn't it be cool to have an indoor grape plant the fruits year round and grows to a smaller size than most plants???
This is Pixie (seriously google "pixie grape" that is what it is called, i am not crazy and giving plants cute pet names.....)
on another note did you know that tomato plants can be grafted onto potato plants? i am soo wanting to do this next spring to sell at the farmers market. limited garden space? also peppers work too. tomatillos maybe. eggplants i am not sure yet. the electrophorisis enzyme compatibility indicated graft incompatibility... but then i dont even eat egg plants and my chickens dont either.
so i am learning alot. you think it might be useful for novelty markets (farmers market and fruitstand)?
