Variation in Russian Sunflowers.
In an acre of mammoth Russian sunflowers there seems to be three
varieties, some of the plants bear but one large flower; others bear a
flower at the top with many other smaller ones circling it, while others
have long stalks just above the leaf stems from the ground level all the
way up to the largest flower, which appears at the very top. Are all
these varieties true mammoth Russian sunflowers? What explanation is
there for these variations? Will the seed from the variety carrying but
one natural head produce seed that will reproduce true to the parent?
Your sunflowers are probably only playing the pranks their grandfathers
enjoyed. If seed is gathered indiscriminately from all the heads which
appear in the crop, succeeding generations will keep reverting until
they return to the wild type, or something near it. If there is a clear
idea of what is the best type (one great head or several heads, placed
in a certain way) and seed is continually taken from such plants only
for planting, more and more plants will be of this kind until the type
becomes fixed and reversions will only rarely appear. No seed should be
kept for planting without selecting it from what you consider the best
type of plant; no field should be grown for commercial seed without
rogue-ing out the plants which show reversions or bad variations. If you
find sunflowers profitable as a crop in your locality, rigid selection
of seed should be practiced by all growers, after careful comparison of
views and a decision as to the best characters to select for.
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