He counted them out in the palm of his hand. He sowed them in neat lines in a seed tray. He waited four weeks. They were the progeny (progeny : plural noun, the young or offspring of a person, animal or plant: His numerous progeny are scattered all over the country.) of the Excel F1 cabbage. Just pause for a moment. F1 ? Doesn't that make this the Dolly clone of the cabbage kingdom ? What on earth is happening ? Does this make Gnomes greenhouse some sort of genetic factory that is mass producing a non-producing clone of an old green cabbage lying somewhere north of Sheffield and a little South of the Cairngorms ?
Digress not. There are 75 of the little beauties, all tucked up in their own pods (aye, pods) which is not a bad result for a packet of seeds costing no more than a pound. They have been counted in and counted out and in four or six weeks shall be ready to plant out, hopefully.
3 comments:
Crikey Gnome, you must like cabbages.
I always think of F1 hybrids as 'mongrels'
When I was learning about genetics we were always told about "hybrid vigour". Hmm. "Mongrel vigour"? Yep, think I quite like that!
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