Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Inter-generational assets - 3

Let's put a bit of a different spin on this. Under Biomass Nut Production (BNP) I gave a definition. But I neglected to take it as far as it must go. If I use non-select material, my first generation of trees (the ones I plant) will have some with useful characteristics (or abilities, to use the service concept), and others with less useful ones. What I want to do is try and increase the gene frequency of the trees with useful abilities in my total population. Unlike the orchard of selected grafts, which I noted was the dominant model, I am not starting with an 'end'-product. By means of generational selection I am looking for the optimal outcome on my particular site (one of the 'land' concepts). In overall terms, I am trying to enhance the overall service value of my inter-generational asset (to me, the population) using the medium the tree gives me to do it - the fruit. In that the genetic content of the fruit (hidden away in the chromosomes of the kernel) allows me to pass on recombined abilities of the known mother and unknown father trees, it is in itself an inter-generational asset. On average, I wish the abilities of the offspring to be enhanced vis-a-vis the known abilities of the mother tree. Only by sowing a large number of nuts from the mother tree can I identify whether the ability(ies) of interest is (are) heritable, that is to say, some quantifiable level of continuity in ability from the mother tree to its offspring. As the black walnut is wind pollinated, the father remains unknown, not unlike, some would say, outcomes of male behaviour in our species.

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