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seeds Seedlings selection

Hello,

because of my limited growing space i'm often forced to carefully select best growing seedlings and pull the rest.
Apart from the obviously sick / bad looking seedlings, what are your selection criteria?
When selecting for breeding projects what are in your opinion some specific characteristics to look for in the seedling stage?

Thanks

Datil
 
First off, if I intend to keep 10 plants of the same variety I'll look at 20 seeds under the magnifier, chose 15 of the largest and most common shaped. Out of those the 10 most vigorous out of the "dirt" will survive and get potted up. Smaller, deformed seeds have not produced the "best" plants nor pods in the past........at least for me...

Greg
 
I will just have about five of the same varieties out of 50 plants not including other pepper species, so I will look for the weak and or deformed to pull out of the best If I have more than five nice looking plants per type they will go into a different group that I have named extreme stress these will have plants that will be separated for manual taste testing and will be netted for seed purity for testing and growing for another season. In my Group which I will label mutations which is what they will be I will look for several things that will vary from the norm but will still be healthy looking plants strong stems, healthy looking large and small leaves later on with these I will look to see if they are showing early branching sooner or later that the species type normally does, also rapid or lack of growth at early stages, those are the top things I look for at pre garden stage. I have a much larger list of vital checks that will be for my over all garden watch, my pepper garden this coming season will consist of 5 gallon buckets as I can control the environmental pressure on the peppers that they might get.
 
I will just have about five of the same varieties out of 50 plants not including other pepper species, so I will look for the weak and or deformed to pull out of the best If I have more than five nice looking plants per type they will go into a different group that I have named extreme stress these will have plants that will be separated for manual taste testing and will be netted for seed purity for testing and growing for another season. In my Group which I will label mutations which is what they will be I will look for several things that will vary from the norm but will still be healthy looking plants strong stems, healthy looking large and small leaves later on with these I will look to see if they are showing early branching sooner or later that the species type normally does, also rapid or lack of growth at early stages, those are the top things I look for at pre garden stage. I have a much larger list of vital checks that will be for my over all garden watch, my pepper garden this coming season will consist of 5 gallon buckets as I can control the environmental pressure on the peppers that they might get.

Dang, it's people like you that maintain a strong source of strain DNA. Thanks for your efforts.
 
Not exactly an answer to your interesting question, but I personally cannot kill a sprout :P . i Usually grow outside, and when i got more sprouts than i really want, then i just give them to friends (not only peppers, but herbs and stuff)

I like the idea that someone else got a plant i grew up from seed. Last spring i must have given away at least 50 goji berry, more than 20 stevias and more than 20 oregan, thyme and rosemary seedlings.

So an answer would might be, why don't you just give the ones you don't want away?

Regards,

Manolo
 
Last spring i must have given away at least 50 goji berry, more than 20 stevias and more than 20 oregan, thyme and rosemary seedlings.

So an answer would might be, why don't you just give the ones you don't want away?

Probably i need more friends with a green thumb LOL
Seriously, i give away stuff too but my question is mainly by a breeding point of view. Some interesting criteria to select before fruit set would be useful for speeding up the process and saving time, space and resources!

Ciao

Datil
 
I select for:
  1. early germination, vigor, and overall health in the early growth phase. culling about 50%
  2. once flowering starts cull the late bloomers 50%
  3. then select for fruit set, shape, color and flavor.
  4. if you have slow developing pods you may also select for quick ripening if you notice a marked difference.
Out of 70 F2 plants I began with I have 6 left right now, but I'm only keeping seeds from 3 of those.
 
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