What do breeders leave for the future?

"Why is it this price?"
This is a question I have been asked many times while selling plants.
Of course, I think that question is natural.

But I don't want to answer that question by saying, "Because I've been growing it for years," "Because I sowed this many seeds," or "Because the equipment costs this much."

While those are facts, it is because they are not the essence.

If I were only explaining the price, it would end as a discussion of costs and labor.

What I really want to convey is the story beyond that: "What is breeding?"

—

Selling plants is not the goal for a breeder.
Rather, it is the beginning of a new challenge.
I grow hundreds or thousands of seedlings from a single cross, and from among them, I carefully select the individuals truly worth keeping.

I don't think it's "finished" the moment that one plant is born.
"What would happen if I connected these characteristics to the next generation?"
"If I combine these traits with another line, maybe an expression I've never seen before will be born."

I am always thinking about things like that.

Breeding is not a job of completing a single work.
It is a job of connecting from one work to the next.

That is why breeding has no end.

—

It is often said that "making a profit" and "making good things" are in conflict.
But I don't think so.

Of course, supporting my family is important.
This is an obvious responsibility as long as I am working.

However, the profit that lies beyond that is not a reward for past efforts.

It is an investment in the future.

Seeds for the next sowing.
Equipment to improve the cultivation environment.
Time to focus on breeding.
Staff who build the future together.

All of that transforms into the plants of the next generation.

I believe that sales are not for recovering the past, but fuel for growing the future.

—

If I only thought about profit, there would be countless more efficient ways.

I could repeatedly make only popular crosses.
I could import and sell trendy plants.
I could lower the price and temporarily increase sales volume.
Or, I wouldn't even need to stick only to Anthurium.

I could move to plants or markets with higher profit margins.
But I don't choose that path.

The reason is very simple.

It is because what I want to see is an "Anthurium that no one has ever seen before."

You cannot reach that scenery by only pursuing efficiency.

Time is necessary.
Failure is also necessary.
A large population is also necessary.

And curiosity, not because "it seems like it will sell," but because "I want to see it," is necessary.

I believe the driving force of breeding is curiosity, not the market.

—

I have the same thought regarding lowering prices.

In the short term, sales volume might increase.
Sales might also grow.

But what will remain after that?

The next sowing might decrease.
I might give up on investing in equipment.
I might not be able to hire people, and the time I can use for breeding might decrease.

As a result, a variety that was supposed to be born might end up never existing in this world.

What I really want to protect is not the price of a single plant.

It is the environment where future plants can continue to be born.

That is why I do not participate in price competition.
It is not because I want to sell at a high price.

It is because I do not want to stop the challenge of breeding.

—

There is a breeder I respect from the bottom of my heart.

It is Tim Anderson.
He is no longer in this world.

Even so, breeders all over the world are still using the varieties he left behind and continuing new crosses.

His breeding has not ended.
The genes he left behind are still creating new possibilities.

When I learned that, I thought.

What a breeder should really leave behind is not temporary popularity or one year's sales.

It is a "starting point" for future breeders to advance beyond that.

—

I don't think I can complete breeding by myself.
That is because the possibilities of plants are far longer than a human life.

Surely, there will be countless expressions I cannot see while I am alive.

That is precisely why I want to entrust the future I could not see to the next generation.

I want to leave behind plants that make that future breeder think,
"I want to see what lies beyond this variety."

That person will then cross them again and connect them to someone else further on.


I believe that accumulation becomes culture.

What moves history is not one genius.It is the people who inherit the ambition and accumulate it little by little.
Breeding is surely the same.

—

"How long will you continue breeding?"

If I am asked that, I answer like this now.
Until I die.

As long as my mouth moves and I can give instructions, I want to continue.

However, there is only one exception.

If a breeder far superior to me appears, and I can truly think, "It is more interesting for these people to create the future than for me to chase it," then I will entrust it without hesitation.

The protagonist of breeding is not me.

It is the future.
—

That is why I am selling plants.

It is also for my livelihood.

It is also to protect my family.
But that is not all.
For the next sowing that lies beyond that.

For the next cross.
For the next challenge.
And to leave one plant that no one has ever seen before in this world.

What I really want to leave behind is not the name acu’s forest.



It is one original variety that does not yet exist.That variety will be connected to a new future by the hands of some other breeder 10 or 20 years from now.

If I can see that scenery, there is nothing happier than that.

A breeder's job is not to deliver the plants that exist now.

It is to leave plants that no one has ever seen before for the future.
I am growing plants today for that purpose.

acupom