[R-sig-eco] survival analysis: flowering time

[Rebecca Ross]

Dear All,

I am using survival analysis to compare flowering time between different populations in a field experiment. I have 3 possible outcomes:
a) flowered during experiment
b) had not flowered and were alive at harvest
c) had not flowered and were dead at harvest

Clearly, b) are right censored. But I am unsure what to do for c) as they were not censored (event will never happen), but equally I do not have a 'time to event' for them. To make things more complicated, dying before harvest is not independent of flowering time as being on the verge of death would make them also less able to flower, therefore recording them as being censored might be misleading.

Apologies if this is a naive question, it is my first time with survival analysis!

Any thoughts much appreciated!

Rebecca