Helmet Heads - How I deal with them

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by joseph

My strategy for dealing with Helmet Heads is to cull them. I need plants to spring out of the ground and grow normally without taking up any of my attention other than watering. I figure that any plant that can't do that isn't holding up its end of the domestication bargain and can be eliminated.

Because I raise nearly all of my own seed, I don't allow the propagation of traits that I consider to be defective... If I started rescuing helmet heads I figure that I'd be encouraging more of them next year. I'm a culling maniac... If a seed germinates late it gets culled. If the cotyledons don't look normal it gets culled. If it grows slowly it gets culled. Helmet heads get culled.

Joseph, when you say you don't allow propagation of traits, meaning DNA, meaning Genes, I'm one of many, see those who posted above,who thinks there are MANY variables that can and do determine if helmet heads appear.

THE only time that I worry about them is if someone has sent me seeds for a previously uncirculated variety so that just the two of us have seeds, and then yes, if a helmet head appears, then yes, I try to get that newly germinated seedling going.

But I'm not one who believes that helmet heads are predetermined genetically.

Carolyn