Seed selection and yield

[saskafarian]

How to Rejuvenate Worn-out and Inbred Crops Using Localized Seed Selection
By Stephen M. Coleman

You are about to be introduced to a new frontier science, a new branch of biology that will forever change the way you think about seed production and genetics.

Biology professor Yingqing Zhang at Shandong University, in the People’s Republic of China, put forth the theory of ECIWO biology, which has applications in medicine, genetics, biochemistry, agriculture and other sciences. ECIWO (Embryo Containing the Information of the Whole Organism) biology applications for seed selection are revolutionary, simple, and any seed producer can quickly come to understand and master.

Many plants can be propagated asexually through cuttings and tissue culture. A somatic cell (nonembryonic cell) contains all the genetic information to be able to develop into a new complete organism. Plants are made of cells, and cells form into the various plant parts. These parts are called ECIWOs i.e. cells, branches, leaves, flowers etc.
Every ECIWO has its corresponding relationship to every other ECIWO of the same organism. This is called the bio-holographic law. In other words, a sprout on a branch is a new little plant on the bigger plant.

Let us take the shape of a leaf; if the leaf is long and narrow, the entire plant tends to grow long and narrow. If a leaf is wide at the bottom and narrow at the top, the plant will also, as a whole, be shaped similarly. Obovate leaves indicate that the leaves are on the ends of the branches. Flower petals indicate where they are located on the plant. If the petals are wide at the top and narrow at the bottom they tend to be born at the top of the plant or end of the branches. If the petals are triangular (narrow at the top) the flowers tend to be borne at the bottom of the branches such as in eggplants. Fruits also often indicate their position by their shape. Figs are narrow at the top and wide at the end are borne at the ends of the branches. Peaches are round and are borne more towards the middle of the branches.

Wheat seed has its greatest genetic potential for producing seed at the middle of the spike. Chinese agronomists have painstakingly taken the grains from each position on the spike from hundreds of wheat plants and planted the seed. The differences in yields are remarkable. Yields are increased 13. 90% to16.95% over using the seed from the whole spike. Starting from the bottom, the 4th seed position up to about the 12th is where the greatest genetic potential exists for high grain yields. The awns on the spike are modified leaves or ECIWOs, which explains why seed is chosen from the middle instead of the top of the spike.

There is also a correlation between seed size and its genetic potential position on the wheat spike. The biggest seeds grow the most grain. Chinese researchers have developed a seed separator that separates the small wheat seed from the large seed.
Yields using this seed are 11.3% higher than seed used from the whole spike.

Since there are more seed with medium or inferior genetic potential on a plant than that of superior quality, using all the seed will cause the variety to degenerate. Studies on 6 wheat varieties show that yields decrease 1.54% to 3.49% per year. In a few years the variety will be weak and worn out. It can take 10 years to develop a new outstanding wheat variety. Much time and effort can be saved using localized seed selection to improve old varieties and develop new varieties, because it is now known where the superior seeds are located.

Sorghum and millet seed for grain production are chosen from the top of the seed head. The seed head is an ECIWO, like a small plant on the big plant, the top corresponds to seed production, the middle to forage production and the bottom for root production. Seed chosen from the top has 6.4% to 26.3% higher yield of grain than seed from the bottom of the ear.

An ear of corn grows on the middle of the corn stalk. Seed chosen from the middle of the ear has the greatest genetic potential for seed production.
Studies have shown seed selected from the middle of the ear will yield from 5.9% to 19.9% higher than seed from the lower or upper thirds of the ear. Yields as high as 35% greater have been recorded.

In potatoes the lower part of the plant is what we want to develop. When selecting seed potatoes, the lower half or distal end of the potato is used and yields up to 20% more potatoes. The upper half may be used for consumption. Also the potatoes can be cut vertically and will give greater yields that when using mixed top and bottom halves. Top halves yield the least. The distal bud on the deepest, largest potatoes have the greatest genetic potential for tuber production. Viruses don’t exist evenly in the tuber; this same distal bud has the least virus. Therefore, by growing plants from this distal bud we can get rid of viruses.

Rice grain is born on the top of the plant and seed is selected from the upper 1/3 of the panicles.
Yield increases up to 17% higher than when the whole panicle is used for seed. For even greater efficiency the lower grains can be cut off while developing, putting all the plant’s energy into the upper 1/3 forming seeds.

For Chinese cabbage, seed is selected from the lower middle near the main stem. Yields increase 11-18.5%.

Seed for turnips are collected from the lower middle region of the first lateral branches. Yields increase 14-23%.

Cucumber seed is harvested from the second or third fruit near the middle lower section of the plant. Yield increase is 10%.

Pole bean seed is selected in the lower regions and bush beans are chosen at the middle region.
General yield increase: 5- 10%.

Choose the lower sprouts of sweet potatoes for transplanting, studies show yield increases of 13.2% to over 30%.

By choosing flower seeds for floral culture from only the top, flowers will have a greater uniformity in flowering time and a larger percentage of marketable flowers. If seeds were saved only from the second from the top flowers, blooming time will be 5 to 7 days later. Seed from the 3rd flowers will be even later to bloom and will have smaller inferior flowers.

Choosing seed from only from the side branches can increase the sugar content of beets. Sugar content increases 6% to 6.9% by using cuttings from the side buds of the root. However, the plants grow slower with smaller roots. The most vigorous plants come from seed produced from the lower seeds from the middle of the seed stalk. Plant breeders can cross high sugar cultivars with vigorous growing beets to produce improved varieties.

ECIWO theory explains why carrots can inbreed or degenerate in just 2 generations. I have been frustrated growing carrot seed; after 2 generations the carrots grow as big as my thumb and have a greater tendency to bolt. Naturally, I have been selecting seed from the big beautiful umbel on top, thus I was selecting for top growth instead of large roots.

These principles may have been known long ago, ECIWO theory can easily explain how Beta vulgaris could be developed into garden and sugar beets, mangels and Swiss chard; or how Brassica oleracea could have been developed into cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, Brussels sprouts or collards.

Localized selected seed is now used in China on many thousands of hectares providing increased yields and economic returns. ECIWO theory explains why varieties degenerate and the genetic variation at the different seed production locations on plants. Thus, through a simple technique that any backyard gardener can understand, old worn-out varieties can be rejuvenated using localized seed selection.

This is a new field of study that is wide open for new discoveries, and there is much research that is needed for many different crops, ranging from field and vegetable crops to pomology and viticulture. I also believe that even new crops can be developed from wild plants using these principles.

References:

Zhang Yingqing, ECIWO biology and medicine, Neimengga People’s Press. 1987

Zhang, Yingqing,. The 1985 Publication of an Outline of ECIWO biology, 1990 English translation by Y. Wang and Z.Y. Hu, from Holographic Biology Research 1985, Shandong University Press, Pp, 1-21.

Progress in ECIWO Biology and its Applications to Medicine and Agronomy: Proceedings of the First International Congress of ECIWO Biology (Singapore), edited by T.T. Ang and Y.G. Shi. Beijing: Higher Education Press, Pp. 52-81.

Fu Zhaolin, A study of Wheat ECIWO Localized Seed Selection, Proceedings of the 3rd International Congress of ECIWO Biology. 1996

Bi Yihua, A Summary of the Tests of Wheat ECIWO Localized Seed Selection, Ibid.

Shi Zhenyun, Researches into ECIWO Localized Seed Selection (LSS) in Increasing Stem Tuber Yield, Ibid.

Xing Zuofu, Li Jingyang, Mao Guiying, Shen Cuizhen, Shen Lizhi, Zhang Yuguang, Cui Xuemei, Achievements in the Application Research of ECIWO Localized Seed Selection, Ibid.

Shixian Zhang, A Summary of the Test on Rice ECIWO Localized Seed Selection, Ibid.

Wang Ruiku, Liu Xidong, Du Jingsheng, ECIWO Biological Researches into Potatoes Multi-Level and Multi-Orientation ECIWO Localized Seed Selection, Ibid.

Lu Shide, Guo Shucai, Sun Honglai, Sun Wenjun, Liu Juntian and Cheng Xiatiang, A Summary of the Bio-Holographic Localized Seed Selection Experiment on Sorghum. (Seed Supply Center of Yishui County, Shandong, P.R. China).

Wei Sanli, An Application of ECIWO Biology in Horticulture, Biology College, Beijing Agriculture University, P.R. China.

© Stephen M. Coleman 2004

http://www.the-tree.org.uk/TreeCultivation&Uses/Seedart/seed.htm

[zif]

Interesting ideas, but I think the idea of using seed selection using ECIWO (Embryo Containing the Information of the Whole Organism) is pretty crazy. I'd much rather select for observable qualities, than expect to improve plants just by picking seeds from an arbitrary part of the plant.

Ever noticed all the cannabis look-alikes? There are many plants with cannabis-like leaves, and yet they all have totally different forms. Nevermind the diversity of plants with similar simple leaf structures but totally different growth patterns. That's just way too broad a generalization....

zif

[c-ray]

Luther Burbank, arguably the most prolific and diverse plant breeder of modern times, had a very similar whacked out theory that if you counted down the seeds that formed starting from the apex of the spiral at the tip of each bud and wrapping down the sprial of each bud that each one had different qualities. For instance perhaps the top seed would be a better yielder, the third seed would make more aromatic flowers, the 6th seed would grow plants with stronger root structures, etc...something like that. He actually took the time to pick specifically located seeds from the plants and would then grow them by the thousands. I think it's an idea that merits further study, though one should ideally be selecting for observable qualities first and foremost, then select and label seeds specifically located seeds from the prime candidates. There would be nothing to lose by such a study, except maybe a bit of effort. I am in particular curious about the differences in seeds collected from early pollinated pre-flowers compared to seeds collected from the later bud. With a large enough sample size definite correlations or lack thereof could be determined.

[zif]

c-ray,
Interesting story about Burbank. It's hard to discount any theory of his, given his incredible success with varietal development. Of course, his prime mantra was numbers, numbers, numbers - absolutely correct, but difficult for the cannabis breeder in today's world.
The pessimistic argument would be that meiosis is blind to where it is happening, and therefore genetic assortment will not be influenced by the macroscopic characteristics suggested here. An obvious counter is that the plant is not necessarily blind to the genetic potential of seeds it is devoting its resources to giving life. The question, though, is what qualities of a given location on the floral spike might realistically affect the mother plant's selection of offspring, assuming she culls inferior genetic combinations.
Of course, her ability to provide resources to different seeds is a possible non-genetic mechanism for these kinds of effects. Should we go further than being cautious about utilizing white or inadequately developed embryos to actively selecting the most well developed? Is that even a start? Damned thought provoking stuff indeed....

[c-ray]

yes definitely the seed plants should be allowed to go as absolutely long as possible, until the seeds are falling out of the pods, for many reasons one simple one being an immature seed though potentially genetically superior will often get culled back because it's seedling shows a lack of vigor in comparison to it's sibs, though not by it's own fault..

[BravoC.D.]

wow, i read this else where and was just thinking about it. good to see you posted the study sas.

[c-ray]

but wait there's more


The Outline of the ECIWO Theory
ECIWO Biology Institute of Shandong University

Yingqing Zhang, Professor
(ECIWO Biology Institute, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong 250100,
P. R. China)

Do various organs or various relatively independent parts of the plant
have the same essence? It also can say, are branches, leaves, leaflets,
leaf lobes, veins, leaf bunches, flowers, calyxes, petals, carpels,
stamens, pollens, roots, cells etc. all the same in essence? This is an
important problem of universal significance in botany.

Previous studies have not solved the problem. For example, Goethe
believed various organs of the plant are all the metamorphosis of the
leaf. But Bower thought that leaves are secondary and it is branches
that are the basic units of the plant. Though these results are very
useful to explain the evolution among some organs, the same essence of
all organs of the plant has not been found. However, I find that each
of various organs or various relatively independent parts of the plant
is a specialized new individual being both at a certain stage of its
own ontogenesis and a component of the plant, and discover the
essential unity of various organs of the plant. It provides a
completely new view of the plant for understanding anew multitudinous
problems in botany, and opens a way for directionally changing the
characters of the plant according to human needs.

In the past, the term Embryo meant a new individual at the early stage
of ontogenesis, namely, the young. However, I use the term Embryo in
wide sense and it means generally a new individual that may be at every
stage of ontogenesis, no matter whether it is at early, middle or late
stage. For example, the zygote can be regarded as a embryo at the
earliest stage of ontogenesis, and adult can be regarded as a embryo at
the very late stage of ontogenesis. I have put forward the view that an
organism not only develops from an embryo but also is composed of
multitudinous embryos at various levels below the whole organism. An
embryo composing the organism has three characteristics: 1, it lives in
the parent body and is a component of the parent body; 2, it is
specialized and performs a certain function in the organism to serve
the whole; 3, it is at a certain stage of its own ontogenesis, and in
many cases, it cannot continue to develop into an independent adult
because the embryo is specialized and the whole organism inhibits its
development. I have named such an embryo an ECIWO(an acronym for Embryo
Containing the Information of the Whole Organism). The definition of
the ECIWO is a specialized embryo being both at a certain stage of its
own ontogenesis and a component of the whole organism.

This paper will prove that various organs or various relatively
independent parts of a plant, such as branches, leaves, leaflets, leaf
lobes, veins, leaf bunches, flowers, calyxes, petals, carpels, stamens,
pollens, roots, metamorphosis branches and leaves, cells, etc. are all
ECIWOs. This paper will found the plant ECIWO theory and also explain
anew the nature of the development and the reason for producing
stipuls, prophylls of a branch and compound, lobose, or opposite leaves.

To sum up, the plant ECIWO theory has the following key points.

1. An ECIWO is a specialized embryo being both at a certain stage of
development and a component of the whole plant. An ECIWO is a
relatively independent new individual first, and then it may be the
component of the plant. The condition that a part of a plant may bean
ECIWO is that the part has relatively clear boundaries to its
surrounding parts in structure and function, so it can relatively be
isolated from other parts. In a plant, any relatively independent part
with relatively clear boundaries to its surrounding parts in structure
and function is an ECIWO.

2. The autonomous development of an ECIWO is the ontogenesis of the
ECIWO as a relatively independent new individual. In a plant, each
stage of the autonomous development of an ECIWO has its corresponding
stage in the ontogenesis of the plant. An ECIWO at a certain stage of
the autonomous development rough recapitulates the course from the
early stage to the corresponding stage of the ontogenesis of the plant,
and the ECIWO is similar in general character marks to the plant at the
corresponding stage of the ontogenesis. ECIWOs may have different
degrees of autonomous development and may also have different
directions and different degrees of specialization, so they may have
the ability of boundless metamorphoses and can become different organs
and parts of the plant.

3. A plant is composed of multiplicate ECIWOs at different stages of
development and with different specialization. A certain ECIWO can be
divided into many ECIWOs of lower levels, and many ECIWOs can compose
an ECIWO of a higher level. In a multi cellular plant, there exist
multiple ECIWOs contained grade by grade between the level of the whole
plant and the cell level, and the whole plant is the ECIWO whose
developmental degree is the highest, and a single somatic cell is an
ECIWO whose developmental degree is the lowest. They are both the
special cases of the ECIWO. In a plant, there exist substance changes
among different ECIWOs, and ECIWOs can coordinate each other and serve
the whole plant.

4. The nature of the development of the plant is the ECIWO
multiplication, the respective development of ECIWOs and the respective
specialization of ECIWOs. In the past, the cell theory has discovered
the unity among different cells, but it can not solve the problem of
the unity of different organs above the cell level. However, the plant
ECIWO theory has discovered that the various organs or the various
relatively independent parts of each level from the cell to the whole
plant are all ECIWOs and all have essential unity. The cell is only one
kind of ECIWOs, so the cell theory of the plant has been contained by
the plant ECIWO theory. The totipotency of the somatic cell is the
basis of the existence of the ECIWO. Owing to the semiconservative
replication of DNA and the mitosis of cells, in general, a somatic cell
has the same whole set of genes as the zygote. In artificial medium,
the somatic cell separated from the plant may develop into a new
individual; but in thebody of the parent itself, namely the natural
medium, the somatic cell that is not separated from the plant may also
develop to a new individual and may specialize in the development
course, so that any relatively independent part can become a
specialized embryo at a certain stage of development, namely, an ECIWO.
In addition, there is a clear and major difference between the plant
ECIWO theory and the totipotency theory of the somatic cell. The latter
points out that the somatic cell has the latent ability to develop to a
new individual, while the former points out that it is a fact that the
somatic cell develops to anew individual in the natural plant itself.
The totipotency theory of the somatic cell alone can not explain the
nature of various organs or relatively independent parts of the plant,
and can not explain the unity and the variety of various organs or
various relatively independent parts of the plant either.

The plant ECIWO theory discovers that a plant consists of symbiotic and
multiple ECIWOs. And different parts of a plant are the same in
essence, namely, they are all ECIWOs. So, the theory has provided a
completely new view of the plant. This may be a fundamental and
conceptual change for botany, so it will exert important influence on
various theoretical and applied fields related to plants. For an
example, an ECIWO is a new individual in essence, so it can have both
heredity and variability, and the variability is determined to a great
extent by the certain character of the position where the ECIWO lives
in the parent, and the variability in the progeny is towards increasing
the certain character of the position of the parent. So, that the ECIWO
at the certain position is used as the reproduce material may set off
the directive variation. About this problem, I have advanced the theory
of the dynamic equilibrium between cDNA retrojoining and loss in the
genome, the theory of ECIWO localized seed selection being effective,
the method of the ECIWO localized seed selection and the theory of the
trans-geno combination for the strength of the expected character based
on the ECIWO theory. The method of the ECIWO localized seed selection
has been used successfully in the fields of agriculture, horticulture,
plant tissue culture etc.16 The plant ECIWO theory also has a general
biological significance. It will greatly help people to understand and
accept the general ECIWO theory that the general organism including the
human body and other animals is composed of ECIWOs.
List of Prof. Yingqing Zhang's Publications (in English)

1. ECIWO and Its Application to Medicine: New Discoveries of the
Unity Among the Different Structural Units of an Organism and the
Physiological or Pathological Correlation in a human Body, 147pp.,
Shandong Press of Science and Technology, 1991

2. ECIWO Theory in Medicine, 763pp., This book included practical
papers of over 150 doctors. High Education Press, 1992

3. The Proceedings of Third International Congress of ECIWO Biology
and The First International Congress of ECIWO Acupuncture Medicine,
500pp., This book included practical papers of over 200 doctors.
Qingdao Publishing House,1996

4. A New View of the Organism -- The ECIWO and Its Solution of some
Challenging Problems In the Frontiers of Medicine and Biology, 173pp.
Peace Book Co. Ltd. Hong Kong, 1992

5. Progress in ECIWO Biology and Its Applications to Medicine and
Agronomy, Including 61 clinic papers by nearly 80 doctors. 639pp. High
Education Press,1990

6. ECIWO Biology and Medicine: A New Theory of Conquering Cancer and
a Completely New Acupuncture Therapy. This book is translated from
Chinese book " ECIWO Diagnosis and Therapy", 257pp. Neimenggu People's
Press, 1987.

7. Videotape, 90 minutes, including 3 films. (a) ECIWO: a New
Discovery in Biology. (b) ECIWO Diagnosis and therapy. (c) ECIWO View
of the Human Body.

List of ECIWO Medical Instruments

1. Electroeciwograph for diagnosis

2. ECIWO Instrument for Treatment

If you need above books and instruments,please contact with us.
ECIWO education

1. The correspondence course of ECIWO biology, acupuncture and
medicine

2. ECIWO Therapy and Acupuncture practice

You may come to Jinan, China and study one month.

Address:
ECIWO Biology Institute of Shandong University
Jinan, Shandong 250100, P. R. China
Fax: 0086-531-8566503
E-Mail: eciwo@sdu.edu.cn

[outdoordreams]

This is amazing research!