4 ms·

"Because most important crops reproduce only by sexual seed, they cannot be clonally propagated. " This is entirely wrong, many important crops (infact all) can

"Because most important crops reproduce only by sexual seed, they cannot be clonally propagated. " This is entirely wrong, many important crops (infact all) can be clonally propogated and many are.

bloak 8y ago
Perhaps the reasoning is that the most important crops are grains/cereals, and they are propagated sexually. Or am I wrong about that? (I fail at biology.) Culinary fruits, on the other hand, perhaps they are mostly cloned.
- Laforet 8y ago
  Some crops such as common bananas and sugar cane are sterile as they produce no viable seeds, so both have to be clonally propagated by planting cuttings. Potatoes can be grown from both seeds and cut tubers but the former is usually avoided because the potato genome is very complex and sexually produced potatoes tend to segregate into multiple phenotypes which usually reduces yield,hence it is rare to grow potato from seeds outside R&D. A lot of fruit fall under the same category as their traits are rather unstable if reproduced sexually. Staple food crops such as wheat and rice does not suffer from this issue because they have been selected for much longer and their physiology is much more amenable to plant seeds.
  - senorjazz 8y ago
    > so both have to be clonally propagated by planting cuttings Bananas trees will put out new shoots which will then grow into a banana tree. These side suckers are just dug out and used to propagate to a new tree. Which is different near all cloning / grafting / cutting techniques
jdmichal 8y ago
Most fruiting trees are cloned by grafting with rootstock. As the article says, sexual reproduction produces variance, and for many fruits we barely have them tamed. Sexually produced apples tend to be crab apples. Planting your Haas avocado seed will probably give you edible fruit, but nothing like a Haas.
- senorjazz 8y ago
  > Planting your Haas avocado seed will probably give you edible fruit, but nothing like a Haas. Might give you a handful of edible fruits, but nothing like the bounty you would get from a grafted tree producing 100s and 100s of fruits as well
- quixoticelixer- 8y ago
  Grafting and cuttings are a form of sexual reproduction.
  - jdmichal 8y ago
    Cuttings and grafting are both clonal reproduction. They are by definition asexual, because there is no recombinant chromosomes. Grafting to rootstock creates a genetic chimera. It does not mix chromosomes at all.

"Because most important crops reproduce only by sexual seed, they cannot be clonally propagated. " This is entirely wrong, many important crops (infact all) can be clonally propogated and many are.

bloak 8y ago

Perhaps the reasoning is that the most important crops are grains/cereals, and they are propagated sexually. Or am I wrong about that? (I fail at biology.) Culinary fruits, on the other hand, perhaps they are mostly cloned.

Laforet 8y ago
Some crops such as common bananas and sugar cane are sterile as they produce no viable seeds, so both have to be clonally propagated by planting cuttings. Potatoes can be grown from both seeds and cut tubers but the former is usually avoided because the potato genome is very complex and sexually produced potatoes tend to segregate into multiple phenotypes which usually reduces yield,hence it is rare to grow potato from seeds outside R&D. A lot of fruit fall under the same category as their traits are rather unstable if reproduced sexually. Staple food crops such as wheat and rice does not suffer from this issue because they have been selected for much longer and their physiology is much more amenable to plant seeds.
- senorjazz 8y ago
  > so both have to be clonally propagated by planting cuttings Bananas trees will put out new shoots which will then grow into a banana tree. These side suckers are just dug out and used to propagate to a new tree. Which is different near all cloning / grafting / cutting techniques

jdmichal 8y ago

Most fruiting trees are cloned by grafting with rootstock. As the article says, sexual reproduction produces variance, and for many fruits we barely have them tamed. Sexually produced apples tend to be crab apples. Planting your Haas avocado seed will probably give you edible fruit, but nothing like a Haas.

senorjazz 8y ago
> Planting your Haas avocado seed will probably give you edible fruit, but nothing like a Haas. Might give you a handful of edible fruits, but nothing like the bounty you would get from a grafted tree producing 100s and 100s of fruits as well
quixoticelixer- 8y ago
Grafting and cuttings are a form of sexual reproduction.
- jdmichal 8y ago
  Cuttings and grafting are both clonal reproduction. They are by definition asexual, because there is no recombinant chromosomes. Grafting to rootstock creates a genetic chimera. It does not mix chromosomes at all.