After many revisions; my 1st order is official. I pretty much went in on candidates to improve the old USDA Blairmont cultivar. Which has a lot of pluses like taste and toughness. Basically it is going to go steady with a lot of long storing cooking apples.
I was a bit flummoxed getting used to the advanced search functions. But finally got the hang of it. Very oddly I found “Wallace Howard” in GRIN care of Australia. A Georgia apple not on the radar of UGA’s heritage apple program. I got it.
One thing I noticed is I have seen folks ordering way more then 10 selections. Not sure why. Also I here some folks order from multiple USDA repositories. Do they not keep track of such things?
Lastly I stumbled into GRIN-Global. I really like it. It feels like USDA GRIN; but the info is laid out better…IMO. I went ahead and joined since they have a staggering array of plants.
I realized I made grave mistakes ignoring ploidy issues and cancelled my Grin order. Unexpectedly a PHD at Geneva emailed me back and urged me to redo the order and they would put it back in for fulfillment in January. Just re-did the order with some much better compatible choices. They are great folks up there.
What reasoning and intent did you give? Did you offer to share? Use it for education? Do research? Offer a community planting of material after your purpose was served?
Their inventory might have been wrong. That is why I give plenty of choices.
I expect to giveaway 1/2 to 3/4’s of the plants in the end. I might keep 1 each in the ground on G.969 and 1 of each on G.11/41 in pots. That way I can use them in future projects.
I hope to progate Wallace Howard to let others establish the variety back in the USA. UNC offers it very sporadically. Not sure what Horse Creek is going to do. The only other with it is Kuffle Creek and they too are out for 24/25.
I know getting sticks to UGA will be a top priority.
I wonder if the folks at different repositories respond differently.I think some staffs might not like having to take time to disseminate plant material.
I think with apples it’s more of a waste not attitude since they still have to prune anyway.
More often it seems to be they don’t HAVE time. They have to actually maintain the collections, do research, publish data, etc. They’re not just sitting around waiting for orders to fill. That said, they do have discretion, so what one curator deems to be a valid request may be deemed invalid by another. Just depends on who is doing the reviewing and what pressure they’re under at the time.
Oh I had no intention of implying they have nothing to do. They have important work. But I’d note filling worthy orders creates more public support for the very jobs they are doing.
I’ve seen forums elsewhere where the use{wild life plot food guys mainly} was maybe questionable. But not all posters. Some used material to teach grafting and plant education. Which IMO is worthy.
Their website says it’s for breeders and researchers, not for educational purposes or for people too cheap to buy crabapple seedlings from their state’s game commission/conservation department/whatever.
I read the current policy for requesting and it’s pretty specific who can order material for legitimate reasons. So I was curious what the policy was over the years. Thanks to the Wayback Machine search I looked at a few years as far back as 1998. They have definitely have tightened up recently.
Here’s one from 2011 that was the general tone for many years. No matter the year, they do ask for the name of the organization the requester is from.
“Self” was my organization. Though I stated intent to work with the State Universities and USDA. Which IS my intent with all sincerity. I just hope I can produce as much technical data as I can without their equipment. But who says they would not benefit by motivated individuals who perform early, time consuming development; then deliver them data and samples?
Also; who says I would not buy commercially available cultivars to include in research?..lol…Because there are a few.
I would think a request with a brief summary of the goals of the research and why the particular requested material are key to it, would be enough to satisfy them regardless of the affiliation of the person asking. The current guidelines should scare off the home gardeners to start with and lame school projects.
I think cutting out dedicated amateurs misses many opportunities to utilize the value of the collections. You are not going to find universities or seed/plant companies researching stuff that doesn’t put dollars into their bottom line.
Exactly. If I find something good. I will patent it. Freely for Nurseries and Home growers. Pay for by commercial growers. Any proceeds going to fund amateur breeders and their projects.
Good luck. Ive put orders in for 4 years now, both winter and summer and they have always emailed saying that they are dealing with one issue or another. I happen to know a student at Cornell in the plant science school, and she said that the chances of me getting an order is slim… so take that for what its worth. I dont think the USDA realizes that they work for the American Taxpayer and that the entire collection is publically owned.
