Grenada blames slow nutmeg production on male tree

[saltwn]

My Way News - Grenada blames slow nutmeg production on male tree

ST. GEORGE'S, Grenada (AP) - The world's second-largest nutmeg industry is rebounding very slowly from a 2004 hurricane because Grenadian farmers unknowingly planted too many male trees, which do not produce as much fruit.

Agriculture Minister Denis Lett says 80 percent of the plants farmers expected to produce a big harvest are not bearing fruit.

Local research scientist Reginald Buckmire says farmers have no way to tell the sex of a nutmeg plant until it is capable of bearing fruit.

Agriculture officials are now grafting and cloning to speed up the fruit-bearing process.

Grenada is the second-largest producer of nutmeg after Indonesia. In 2004, Hurricane Ivan destroyed about 60 percent of the island's crop.

Is this a conspiracy to drive the price of pumpkin pie ingredients through the roof just in time for the holidays? Or something more sinister like chauvinistic nutmeg trees not allowing the feminazi trees equal nuts?

[flaja]

Originally Posted by saltwn

My Way News - Grenada blames slow nutmeg production on male tree



Is this a conspiracy to drive the price of pumpkin pie ingredients through the roof just in time for the holidays? Or something more sinister like chauvinistic nutmeg trees not allowing the feminazi trees equal nuts?

Actually it could be a way to make cloning more acceptable to society.

[cnredd]

Originally Posted by saltwn

Is this a conspiracy to drive the price of pumpkin pie ingredients through the roof just in time for the holidays? Or something more sinister like chauvinistic nutmeg trees not allowing the feminazi trees equal nuts?

One would THINK the "second largest nutmeg industrial country" would know a little something about THE PLANTING!!!!!!...

[faithful_servant]

Originally Posted by cnredd

One would THINK the "second largest nutmeg industrial country" would know a little something about THE PLANTING!!!!!!...

Local research scientist Reginald Buckmire says farmers have no way to tell the sex of a nutmeg plant until it is capable of bearing fruit.

Read first, then type....

[Mikeyy]

Originally Posted by faithful_servant

Read first, then type....

That must cause some embarrasing moments while dating.

[cnredd]

Originally Posted by faithful_servant

Read first, then type....

I did...and it still stands...

These farmers should've already had precautions in place (E.g. -Volunteer plants) so they wouldn't throw a whole bunch of seeds out in a crap-shoot...

[faithful_servant]

Originally Posted by cnredd

I did...and it still stands...

These farmers should've already had precautions in place (E.g. -Volunteer plants) so they wouldn't throw a whole bunch of seeds out in a crap-shoot...

Not so. If you're not sure what you're going to get, but want to maximize your potential return, you throw out as much "seed" as possible and then weed out the bad and keep the good. If you wait until you know, then all of the female trees that could have been planted never bear fruit. I'd bet that if you went back to when these groves were first planted, the same process was followed with lots of thinning and replanting until they acheived right male/female balance.

[flaja]

Originally Posted by faithful_servant

Not so. If you're not sure what you're going to get, but want to maximize your potential return, you throw out as much "seed" as possible and then weed out the bad and keep the good. If you wait until you know, then all of the female trees that could have been planted never bear fruit. I'd bet that if you went back to when these groves were first planted, the same process was followed with lots of thinning and replanting until they acheived right male/female balance.

If there is no way to tell the sex of a nutmeg tree at the time of planting, then shouldn’t any large amount of seeds be more or less balanced between male and female? Why wouldn’t picking seeds be like flipping a coin? Why weren’t the planted seeds half and half? How did the farmers manage to plant so many male trees if they had no way of knowing which seeds would lead to male trees?

If planting nutmeg trees always involves a lot of thinning, why are the Grenadians so surprised to find out that they need to do a lot of thinning?