4 ms·

I'm really excited for the day that I can grow a decent portion of my food in my sunroom. I'd pay a lot for one of Kwon's tomato plants. Perhaps I'll have to fi

I'm really excited for the day that I can grow a decent portion of my food in my sunroom. I'd pay a lot for one of Kwon's tomato plants. Perhaps I'll have to figure out how to engineer them myself because of long FDA processes though.

jelliclesfarm 7y ago
It’s easy. We trialed 75 varieties in my farm.. with just old fashioned plant breeding by hand. Trial and error. We bred tomatoes with thin skin ..thick skin..cherry toms that are determinate as well as indeterminate. Those that can be harvested earlier and instead of picking all season long..we could plant, harvest whole plant and then simply replant. Disease would be greatly controlled. I was also interested in breeding varieties suitable for robots and automated farms..instead of delicate hand picking, we’d just change traits so it can have thicker skins, shaped like cherry tomatoes(highest margin in tomatoes..current mechanization is only for canning varieties) Multiple harvests is the way to go for automated farms and compact plants. When you have robots picking, labour costs dont matter. Disease incidence and spread is easy to control and varieties can be greatly enhanced as each planting can be a different tomato. Takes at least 7 generations..breeding old fashioned way by hand. If alternated between Mexico and Ca, we can get it ready in 3 years and in about 2 years, of breeding is outsourced to China(they do it in glasshouses) Crispr would be a game changer. I would like to see salt water tolerant plant varieties. Saline Ag is going to be the future.
- James_Henry 7y ago
  Really interesting stuff. I didn't realize that breeding could show meaningful results as quickly as 2 or 3 years through modern techniques. I think I'll have to read up on some of the older techniques along with looking more into the limits of at-home CRISPR (and probably waiting years until it is feasible).

jelliclesfarm 7y ago

It’s easy. We trialed 75 varieties in my farm.. with just old fashioned plant breeding by hand. Trial and error. We bred tomatoes with thin skin ..thick skin..cherry toms that are determinate as well as indeterminate. Those that can be harvested earlier and instead of picking all season long..we could plant, harvest whole plant and then simply replant. Disease would be greatly controlled. I was also interested in breeding varieties suitable for robots and automated farms..instead of delicate hand picking, we’d just change traits so it can have thicker skins, shaped like cherry tomatoes(highest margin in tomatoes..current mechanization is only for canning varieties) Multiple harvests is the way to go for automated farms and compact plants. When you have robots picking, labour costs dont matter. Disease incidence and spread is easy to control and varieties can be greatly enhanced as each planting can be a different tomato. Takes at least 7 generations..breeding old fashioned way by hand. If alternated between Mexico and Ca, we can get it ready in 3 years and in about 2 years, of breeding is outsourced to China(they do it in glasshouses) Crispr would be a game changer. I would like to see salt water tolerant plant varieties. Saline Ag is going to be the future.

James_Henry 7y ago
Really interesting stuff. I didn't realize that breeding could show meaningful results as quickly as 2 or 3 years through modern techniques. I think I'll have to read up on some of the older techniques along with looking more into the limits of at-home CRISPR (and probably waiting years until it is feasible).