Seeking variations of alder for breeding it as a grain crop
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Seeking variations of alder for breeding it as a grain crop
by Michael Bell-11
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10 Cambridge Avenue
Forest Hall Newcastle -upon - Tyne NE12 8AR michael@... 0191 266 6435 I have embarked on a project to develop Alder (Alnus) as a grain crop, as I describe below. In my meaning of the word, a "grain" is a hard dry food-thing with good keeping qualities, no matter what the exact botanical description. If you look at some Alder trees and imagine that each cone was replaced by an ear of wheat of the same size, you can see it would be a good crop. Alders fix nitrogen, they do not need to be resown every year, they do not cast a heavy shade, grass grows beneath them, and animals could be pastured on the land. My original aim was to make profitable use of the uplands of Britain, and Britain cannot feed itself, but I see now that it could also be grown on lower land and elsewhere in the world. So, I am looking for trees, cuttings or seeds, which have the traits I want. I am undecided between Alnus incana and A. glutinosa. Alnus incana grows higher and further north than A. glutinosa, and it is less dependent on water than A. glutinosa, but A. glutinosa is more plentiful. But the two species hybridise so I am interested in both. I foresee that the trees will be grown in rows to form a hedge. The cones will be pulled off using a mechanical comb and threshed in something like a combine harvester. The cones can easily be pulled off many varieties. By timing harvesting correctly it will probably be possible to pull off the cones without losing seeds and then break them open in the harvester. That said, I want the finished breed to have cones which don't open on the tree, which are strong enough not break when pulled off the tree, but are easy to break open in the harvester. Any steps toward that will be welcome. Some alder trees carry no cones (!), others carry huge numbers of catkins and very few cones: the opposite of what I want. Walking many miles and looking at the alders as I passed I have found a few trees which carry vast numbers of cones on special cone-only branches, unlike "normal" alders where the cones are carried on the leaf-carrying branches. I can send a photo off-list. It is near Newcastle airport. It is too early in the season to tell, but the seeds in these cones will probably be the usual wretchedly small size. I want bigger. It was easy to walk past lots of trees and from many yards away see how many cones they were carrying. I can see no such easy way of searching for bigger seeds, and this is where I am asking for help. How can you search for bigger seeds? One possibility is that if a single seed is bigger, the regular pattern of scales will be broken by a bigger seed inside. Is this a workable search method? Another possibility is to sift the seeds after they have been got out of the cones. How easy is it going to be do this by looking for big-uns by spreading the seeds out on white paper? I have built a seed-sifter which uses an air current from a computer cooling fan to sort seeds by size/weight ratio. It shows promise. Have you got some seeds which I could sort through? I can come and do it, I can bring the sifter in my car. Are there any better ideas? To spread my net wide, I would be interested in any tree which has cones which are unusual in any way. I would be very grateful for any help with any part of this. I would be grateful for cuttings (which preserve the gene combination which gave rise to feature of interest) or seeds (especially if they are big) or an invitation to see a tree of interest. The plan is to copy the "Open Source" ideas of Linux and similar computer systems. All those who contribute material will be offered the results of my work. Obviously this is a very big thing, and I would like make use of the knowledge which some of your members surely have. I don't know how you would like to handle this. You may put this letter, in whole or in part, into your own publications. Unfortunately I have to be away at the busiest time for this, 18 Sept - 19 Oct, to attend the wedding of my nephew to a Nepali girl in Kathmandu. It will be a Hindu ceremony, with "heroic eating and drinking", followed by a walk in "the hills" - the Himalayas! Michael Bell -- _______________________________________________ Plantbio mailing list Plantbio@... http://www.bio.net/biomail/listinfo/plantbio |
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Re: Seeking variations of alder for breeding it as a grain crop
by Barbara Bliss
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Does Alnus have any food value? How would one prepare it?
On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 3:33 PM, Michael Bell <michael@...>wrote: > 10 Cambridge Avenue > Forest Hall > Newcastle -upon - Tyne > NE12 8AR > michael@... > 0191 266 6435 > > > > I have embarked on a project to develop Alder (Alnus) as a grain crop, > as I describe below. > > In my meaning of the word, a "grain" is a hard dry food-thing with > good keeping qualities, no matter what the exact botanical > description. > > If you look at some Alder trees and imagine that each cone was > replaced by an ear of wheat of the same size, you can see it would be > a good crop. Alders fix nitrogen, they do not need to be resown every > year, they do not cast a heavy shade, grass grows beneath them, and > animals could be pastured on the land. My original aim was to make > profitable use of the uplands of Britain, and Britain cannot feed > itself, but I see now that it could also be grown on lower land and > elsewhere in the world. > > So, I am looking for trees, cuttings or seeds, which have the traits I > want. > > I am undecided between Alnus incana and A. glutinosa. Alnus incana > grows higher and further north than A. glutinosa, and it is less > dependent on water than A. glutinosa, but A. glutinosa is more > plentiful. But the two species hybridise so I am interested in both. > > I foresee that the trees will be grown in rows to form a hedge. The > cones will be pulled off using a mechanical comb and threshed in > something like a combine harvester. The cones can easily be pulled off > many varieties. > > By timing harvesting correctly it will probably be possible to pull > off the cones without losing seeds and then break them open in the > harvester. > > That said, I want the finished breed to have cones which don't open on > the tree, which are strong enough not break when pulled off the tree, > but are easy to break open in the harvester. Any steps toward that > will be welcome. > > Some alder trees carry no cones (!), others carry huge numbers of > catkins and very few cones: the opposite of what I want. Walking many > miles and looking at the alders as I passed I have found a few trees > which carry vast numbers of cones on special cone-only branches, > unlike "normal" alders where the cones are carried on the > leaf-carrying branches. I can send a photo off-list. It is near > Newcastle airport. > > It is too early in the season to tell, but the seeds in these cones > will probably be the usual wretchedly small size. I want bigger. > > It was easy to walk past lots of trees and from many yards away see > how many cones they were carrying. I can see no such easy way of > searching for bigger seeds, and this is where I am asking for help. > > How can you search for bigger seeds? > > One possibility is that if a single seed is bigger, the regular > pattern of scales will be broken by a bigger seed inside. Is this a > workable search method? > > Another possibility is to sift the seeds after they have been got out > of the cones. How easy is it going to be do this by looking for > big-uns by spreading the seeds out on white paper? I have built a > seed-sifter which uses an air current from a computer cooling fan to > sort seeds by size/weight ratio. It shows promise. Have you got some > seeds which I could sort through? I can come and do it, I can bring > the sifter in my car. > > Are there any better ideas? > > To spread my net wide, I would be interested in any tree which has > cones which are unusual in any way. > > I would be very grateful for any help with any part of this. I would > be grateful for cuttings (which preserve the gene combination which > gave rise to feature of interest) or seeds (especially if they are > big) or an invitation to see a tree of interest. > > The plan is to copy the "Open Source" ideas of Linux and similar > computer systems. All those who contribute material will be offered > the results of my work. > > Obviously this is a very big thing, and I would like make use of the > knowledge which some of your members surely have. I don't know how you > > would like to handle this. You may put this letter, in whole or in > part, into your own publications. > > Unfortunately I have to be away at the busiest time for this, 18 Sept > - 19 Oct, to attend the wedding of my nephew to a Nepali girl in > Kathmandu. It will be a Hindu ceremony, with "heroic eating and > drinking", followed by a walk in "the hills" - the Himalayas! > > Michael Bell > > -- > > _______________________________________________ > Plantbio mailing list > Plantbio@... > http://www.bio.net/biomail/listinfo/plantbio > Plantbio mailing list Plantbio@... http://www.bio.net/biomail/listinfo/plantbio |
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Re: Seeking variations of alder for breeding it as a grain crop
by Barbara Bliss
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Michael Bell:
Alnus rubra is the PNW coastal upland N-fixing pioneer ("weed") species. The seed has wings. To use it as a grain, you'd need to get that off (Bradley Sherman used the sprouts, not the grain). Has anybody done that? another important thing to know will be how long seeds remain viable, and, if they are to be marketed as a food, how long they remain of nutritive value. Getting the germplasm will be free and easy; proving it is worth doing will be trickier. A lot has been done to select for herbs (corn, rice) with highly nutritive endosperm already, and each improvement is time consuming and costly. The Populus trichocarpa genome has been sequenced, however, and it is a close relative of Alnus, so could prove helpful. bb On Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 12:30 AM, Bradley K. Sherman <bks@...> wrote: > Barbara Bliss <bjbliss@...> wrote: > >Does Alnus have any food value? How would one prepare it? > > > > http://www.wildwoodsurvival.com/survival/food/saldercatkins/index.html > > --bks > > _______________________________________________ > Plantbio mailing list > Plantbio@... > http://www.bio.net/biomail/listinfo/plantbio > Plantbio mailing list Plantbio@... http://www.bio.net/biomail/listinfo/plantbio |
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