Title: Effects of pollen selection on progeny vigor in a Cucurbita pepo
Interesting. Very interesting in fact. I am thinking about how to apply it to rose breeding, and while one can apply very large loads of pollen, one would have to know how fast the pollen tubes grow in order to excise the styles at the right time.
It would seem that very large loads of pollen would allow a sort of race to begin, with only the very fastest pollen tubes achieving fertilization. In roses, that may or may not produce a better more vigorous rose. In fact, it may be that some of those recessive traits or new species traits that many of us are working on would come from pollen lacking the same vigor and they might lose the race every time when loads of pollen are applied. It would be interesting to set up an experiment.
When I was a kid, I tried breeding guppies. They are usually prized for their beautifully colored large flowing tails. It was most often the “ugly” males with the more “wild-type” short tails that would get there first if the fish were not separated into breeding pairs. Well, maybe that’s a stretch on a plant breeding forum!
Jim