Hi All,
@Dave, since all of the wild plants, ornamentals, etc. are outside the focus of my work, I don't have any input on whether or not these additional requested data points are applicable globally. And as Kent points out, we have had that discussion back in February and the consensus seemed to be that they would not be desireable.
However, for the custom databases mentioned at the beginning of the thread, these fields would make the information more useful to users and would mirror what folks are used to seeing in commercial catalogs as well as descriptive information listed in trade and scientific journals. Specifically the fields that should be in the food crop databases are:
Year Introduced
Heredity
-Open Pollinated
-Hybrid
-GE/GMO
History
Country of Origin
My feeling on the "Hybridizer" field is mixed. Yes, if it is not too much trouble to add, it would make searching for the work of a specific seedsman interesting, but the information, particularly in regards to old family heirlooms or old commercial releases, is often lost to history (not available). In the tomato and tobacco databases, I have simply added it to the narrative in the history field.
As far as deciding on the title, I have never seen it referred to as "hybridizer" but then I am primarily working with food crops. The convention used is "Breeder" for the person responsible for the variety (whether they actively bred it, discovered it or selected it), and "Vendor" for the company that introduced the variety into the trade.
In regards to the GE/GMO option under "Heredity", this does not need to be in any of the aforementioned databases right now except for Zea, Eggplant, Peppers, Potato, Soybeans, Squash, Brassica, Beet, Tomato, Tobacco. I am sure that there is work being done on many other species, but those can be added later as need arises. (I have omitted rice, cotton, wheat, etc. from the list because they do not at present have custom databases).
Hope this helps.
Mike
