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Minnesota

You can have your soil tested, leafs tested, is there a place where they test seeds? tell you what the make up is, low on something, high in something. Also, since svb's are attracted to yellow, would a mold of a pumpkin plant, with vines looking trap with yellow work better than the one used today. Thanks

6/29/2014 7:25:03 PM

Princeton Kentucky

Richard, Never heard of seeds being test for anything of this sort since their in a pre radical state. Not that familiar with the idea. You may have something on the yellow premise of the vines although lots of green vine get bored into by the buggers too. Why can't a grower lay down say something like 40-60% 6" wide strips of shade cloth down the length of at least the main to help combat the borers and help hide the yellow..just my thoughts. Later, Good Luck

6/30/2014 6:37:13 AM

Minnesota

Thanks, I was just thing they could probably find a lot of info from the make up of a seed.

6/30/2014 3:47:50 PM

Connecticut

The technology is out there to essential get the genetic make-up of a seed, but currently it is cost prohibitive and we would also need to know certain sequences (genes) to be able to have something to compare to. Ideally, we could make a cross and send a seed out for screening and then tell already if it had the "grow big genes" or the "bright orange genes" or the "splitter genes". In a way it does take some of the fun out but it would be a way to speed up the selection process because just because the genes are there we need to do our best to ensure they are expressed.

A test that is done for seeds is a virus screen. There is a lab that will test Cucurbit seeds for 7 common viruses to see if they are present. This would be good to do if the seeds came from a plant/pumpkin that was infected. However, the data that I have seen says the transfer rate is quite low but this way you would know for sure.

More Info: http://www.agdia.com/testing-services/Cucurbit-Seed.cfm

6/30/2014 10:37:35 PM