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Originally Posted by Bolero  ...So let's say a plant blooms well one year out of 10 really well but for the other 9 years it doesn't bloom as award quality. So is that plant worth awarding? |
In my humble opinion, yes. Afterall, as we're constantly being told by our fellow AOC judges, we're judging what's before us on the day. But that "rule" isn't the only reason I'd answer "yes" to your question. The main reason (again in my opinion) is that only a plant that posses award quality genes can produce an award quality flower. I'm speaking only of flower quality awards in this instance. There are so many other factors that can affect the quality of a flowering: moisture, temperature, time of year that it blooms, light conditions, whether it's generally a good season or a bad one, etc., etc. If any of these factors are unfavorable, it could prevent a plant with award potential from realizing that potential. If these factors are favorable, a plant with award potential could well produce an award quality flower.
However the opposite isn't true, if a plant does not have award potential in its genes, not even the most perfectly ideal conditions will enable that plant to produce an award quality flower.
So for this reason, I would award a flower (assuming it is an award-quality flower) even if i knew for a fact (which a judge rarely if ever does) it did not bloom award quality every year, if on the day of judging it was worthy of an award.
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Originally Posted by Bolero Is it worth breeding from? |
I would say "probably." It would certainly be better if it bloomed with a consistently high quality year after year (and doing so could possibly indicate something like hardiness or tolerance of a wide range of conditions), but as I've pointed out, sometimes the quality of a bloom is affected by other factors. Even if it doesn't bloom award-quality every time, if the plant was awarded at least you'd know for certain that it had genes capable of producing award winning flowers and of course that's desirable for breeding.
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Originally Posted by Bolero Will improvements in breeding come from such a plant? |
Possibly. Of course if you made a cross with your award-winner you'd end up with maybe 100 or so plants and probably only a hand full of them would be an improvement. Using award winning plants in a breeding program though (assuming that award potential is one of your breeding goals) gives you the best chance of improvements in breeding. In orchid breeding, good parents will produce at least some good children whereas bad parents will never produce good children.