2012 National Plant Germplasm System request.

After some discussion with Rich, I've submitted my 2012 National Plant Germplasm System request.

Here is the list:
DVIT 2963 - Vitis cinerea var. cinerea - 5489 - Texas, U
PI 588210 - Vitis cinerea var. helleri - B 65-7 - Texas,
PI 588216 - Vitis cinerea var. helleri - Resseguier 2 - Texas,
PI 101865 - Vitis vinifera subsp. vinifera - Honigber - Morocco
DVIT 360 - Vitis vinifera subsp. vinifera - Black Morocco
PI 63409 - Vitis vinifera subsp. vinifera - DVIT 2044 - Algeria
DVIT 2426 - Vitis vinifera subsp. sylvestris - DVIT 2426 - Tunisia
PI 98190 - Vitis vinifera subsp. vinifera - Olivette Blanche - Tunisia
DVIT 463 - Vitis vinifera subsp. vinifera - Muscat Bowood - Egypt
PI 171177 - Vitis vinifera subsp. vinifera - Itonychi Mavro - Greece
PI 171292 - Vitis vinifera subsp. vinifera - Bakari Mavro - Greece

The request has some thought provoking questions, so I thought it might be useful to post my answers here. First, the NPGS requires agreement to the following statement:  "The accessions within the NPGS are available in small quantities for research and education purposes only."

OK, I don't see a conflict, but what 'research or education' do I see following this?

I really haven't given 'education' much thought. Perhaps we need to invite high school kids over to see what we are doing. Preparing an afternoon program for high school students would certainly be a worth while project. Additionally, I can easily imagine having an educational day on 'organic' grape growing. Of course, this would require some working definition of 'organic growing practices', but anything is possible. As for research, that is easily satisfied by posting the ripening dates of new crosses here.

Continuing with the process, the NPGS request form asks: "Describe your planned research use of this NPGS Germplasm: (Information on your results is expected to be provided at the conclusion of your research).

To this, I answered: "We are creating cinerea, vinifera crosses.  Conventional wine grapes grown in North/Central Texas ripen in August. We hope these crosses will ripen in October. We are posting updates on our research at http://texasoctobergrapes.blogspot.com/."