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Help needed to access info from GRIN

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SmokeStack

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I am searching for information (days until maturity) and PI numbers for the tobacco varieties that I am growing. I did a search for Nicotiana Yellow Twist Bud and got two PI numbers 552784 and 148270. Why are there two PI numbers and how do I know which one to use?

Furthermore, I clicked on Observations for accession for PI 552784 variety and I saw two Maturity values under Phenological descriptors (79 and 63). How do I know which value to use?

In other cases, when I searched for Nicotiana rustica, I got 174 hits. However, when I refined my search for rustica Aztec or rustica Mohawk or for any other rustica varieties, I get zero hits. These rustica varieties are commonly sold but why am I unable to get any information from GRIN in regards to their common variety name?


Again, the same thing happened when I searched for Nicotiana Zimmer Spanish – I received 3 hits and three different PI numbers (551284, 46907, 46906). Which one should I use? Under PI 551284, again I saw two Maturity values under Phenological descriptors (47 and 45). To the right of these numbers was displayed TC_AGRON 79TC_AGRONOMIC_LEX 79 and TC_AGRON 79TC_AGRONOMIC_OXF 79, respectively (under the Study/Environment heading). Which one of these should I use as a source of information? How should I interpret this data?
 

deluxestogie

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The ARS-GRIN data is shaky as best. The PI numbers refer to individual plant inventory accessions, often from different geographic sources or at different dates. Unless your seed is already identified with a PI number, or in the rare circumstance in which ARS-GRIN has only a single accession for a named variety, you just won't know.

The "Observations" are listed by different corporate trials, apparently under dramatically different conditions. All of the measurements that I have been able to verify with my own observations have proven to be no more than ballpark estimates. 45 vs 47 is shockingly consistent. So, my suggestion is that you use the ARS-GRIN values only as crude, categorical estimates, rather than meaningful quantitative values. (Even counting of leaves, or measuring of the height seems to have been wildly inaccurate.)

In one of the ARS-GRIN search engines, the choice of a) active only, and b) active and inactive, is by default set to active only.

Bob
 

deluxestogie

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Other than google searches by specific topics, there are a number of pre-scientific books on archive.org, for free download:

http://archive.org/index.php

search tobacco; text.

These are actually excellent for the technology available to home growers. Among my favorites are the two books by Killebrew JB, and various texts by Garner WW, Billings ER and Lowe.

On Turkish Tobacco: Constantinides CL: Turkish tobacco : a manual for planters, dealers, and manufacturers. @ http://kdl.kyvl.org/cgi/t/text/text...t=occur;start=1;size=25;didno=b98-49-42334745

Bob
 

SmokesAhoy

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Yeah I wouldn't be surprised if original Turkish tobacco had poppy based..... latex.. involved.
 

deluxestogie

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A link to the entire Constantinides book on Turkish Tobacco, as a pdf file (7.5 MB).

Thanks to leverhead's patience and endurance, he has created a single file version of this book. Be warned, there is a lot of extraneous travel log content, but buried within it are many pearls regarding Oriental tobacco that you won't find anywhere else. The publication date is 1912, so it's giving a snapshot of the Turkish tobacco situation as it then stood.

So far as I've been able to determine, the book is out of copyright, and is freely distributable. A printed copy of the rare book goes for about $1000.

Constantinides: Turkish Tobacco. 1912

Bob
 
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