This user has been deleted.
Error: You must enter a message to post.
Hi Jon, In the beginning....well not quite that far back but.....a long long time ago you wrote,
10/14/07 at 12:08 AM
I have almost 20 "Celestes", and they are being DNA tested at USDA / UC Davis, currently, as part of a research project, to see if they are, indeed, all the same, or similar. Malta is among them. I do not have and ETA on the results.
I have never seen them but was told that most were identical. There were some that were supposed to be Celeste and were clearly not, and tested as such. The adjunct to the testing was that the do not all perform the same, and are generally different in size and looks, but the variation on a single plant over a season makes it near impossible to make any firm distinctions between each variant.The goal was to determine if Celeste is Celeste is Celeste. The DNA tests say yes, but the field observations say no.
Was the Malta a Celeste?Since that time has passed have you been able to selectively improve your Celeste?
At this point, without doing some digging, I don't remember what all was tested, and do not have the actual results to correlate with. This was started by a fellow who was head of the repository program about 5 years ago. There have been several changes since his tenure, so doubt that it will proceed any further.