Re: Hybridizing

On: Tuesday, October 23, 2001 5:24 PM, Sandy Connerley
[s*@NORTHCOAST.COM] wrote:

>That was fascinating information.  But, if you want to try to get
>some traits that are in a particular tetraploid into a diploid for
>the smaller size, does that mean that you jus try and try and try
>and hope that the tetraploid has a little diploid pollen sometime?

Thanks.  I never thought about trying to get tetra traits into the diploid
range, and I'm not sure how it would be done.  What traits do you like in
tetraploids that you would like to see "imported" into the diploids?

Diploids already have a wider range of flower color, flower form, growth
habit, leaf form and coloration than the tetras have.  For my taste (and I
know it _is_ a matter of taste), the greatest perfection of flower form is
reached in some diploid varieties.

>Also, when you said earlier that seeds did not set in winter, do
>you know why?  Is it temperature or shorter days?  What if you
>grow indoors and supplement the light with one warm bulb and one
>cool bulb?

I suspect day length has more to do with it than temperature.  Here in San
Francisco, the mean summer temperature is not that much warmer than the mean
winter temperature.

I ultimately settled on a schedule where I would try to have all my crosses
done for the year and seeds harvested by about July, because then I could
sow the seeds and have the young plants put on some growth the same year.
That way they _might_ (no guarantee, though) flower the following
spring/summer.  If I harvested seeds later and stored them until the
following spring, I might not see flowers until the year after that.

However, I did not grow plants indoors.  It might be that with forcing under
indoor light your seedlings could come into flower sooner.  That, of course,
is the moment you're waiting for!

Barry

ps.-- Sandy, I have not forgotten the other questions you asked earlier.
I'll answer as soon as I can.

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