Lynn, thank you for the information, you are always so helpful. I was aware of the feature and use it regularly.

I have to say, however, that having the seedling codes available for non-named/commercially releaced varieties is a very important piece of information. It allows us to determine actual siblings rather than mere cousins. When I figure out my breeding plans for the year, I like knowing that the same seedling was used in the creation of a particular variety (as opposed to several seedlings with the same parents) because it gives a little bit more strength to the my predictions. I usually go back 3 generations when I look at the lineage and when I see “seedling” listed as opposed to an actual name I am lead to different conclusions.

We see many varieties that have the same two parents (Mister Lincoln, Papa Meidiland, and Oklahoma being well known). All three are different enough to warrant different uses in breeding programs. While the seedlings from any of these three would be closely related, we would be able to determine which are actual siblings (those descended directly from Mr. Lincoln) and not mere cousins (those that are descended from Mr. Lincoln, Oklahoma, AND Papa Meidiland) if we know the named variety versus just the parentage.

Also, providing the seedling code would help hmf's search capabilities. By listing the seedling codes instead of just the parentage, a more consistent and thorough search may be conducted. Moore's 1-72-1 is a good example of this. When a descendant search is done on 1-72-1 (as opposed to Little Darling X Yellow Magic) we limit the search to just those directly descended. Unfortunately though, we miss those that are descended from 1-72-1 but only have the parentage listed on hmf(like Snow Twinkle). 1-72-1's sister seedling Rise 'n' Shine is known to give different results when used in breeding , so for a breeder, having the seedling code or name listed would be better than having just the parentage.

Finding Buck’s codes for his World’s Fair X Floradora (57185-1) and Morning Stars X Suzanne (55325-1) is good news for me. I can now distinguish these particular seedlings from other seedlings with the same cross. After all, 57185-1 would most likely be different than Herb Swim’s Embers and I would not expect to get the same results from these two plants. This is what hmf is all about.