Labelling and Organization

Matts,

I suspect record keeping is an issue for everyone, particularly as one gets into further generations. I'm at a point now where frequently none of the parents I'm using have names, and both the pod and the pollen parents are the result of crosses where each side of the cross has up to four parents. The way I'm dealing with this now is…I just buy larger hang-tags, so I can fit all the information in.

Add to that the fact that often I'll have rows with 50 seedlings, all from the same cross, and all blooming for the first time, where I'll use one particular pollen on all of them, and then throw all the resulting seeds together in a batch. I'll end up knowing the parentage that's involved, so I'm good that way, but as far as being able to point out the exact seedlings that were involved ( particularly after we've dug that row in the fall, and only kept the good ones)…not so much.

My sense is that if one is working with advanced selections…the plants that you've saved from a large group of seedlings, then giving the resulting selections "field names" is the best way to go about it. As long as one keeps records of their parentage that is.

My situation is odd though. My seedlings are 150 miles away, and I only get a few days to see them and work with them. So I don't do much in the way of keeping records of individual plants. Which I'd probably do more of if I had more time with them, as some plants really are much better seeders than others I've found. While others, which I know to be tets, and which have great looking carpals; often (and much to my surprise) some of these will make no seeds at all. The few plants that I have at home…one does get familiar with them over time, and that makes things quite a bit easier.

But yes, as far as records are concerned, if one is really trying to push things forward quickly, through using new seedlings as parents as soon as they make their first blooms…things can get complicated pretty fast.