Re: for Chris Darlington

Chris,

>please give it a bit of a chance to see if it will throw 
> some increase by the fall.

Yeah, it's getting the chance.  My past experience doesn't make me 
very hopeful.  I don't know what caused it, but this year my 
seedlings of any cross of any type put on much increase.  At one 
point in late summer I was thinking it might even be zero increase.  
Must have been weather related somehow.  They were a varied lot 
ranging from TB X TB to AB X AB and increase just didn't happen 
though the plants seemed healthy and grew well.  That is something 
that hadn't happened before and I'm still scratching my head over 
the phenomenom.
 
> Gold Of Ophir should have limited fertility if it's a 1/4 bred, 
no ?

True.  It doesn't seem limited enough to qualify.  At least to me.
 
> Did you do anything special to get it to set a pod ?  If I 
remember 
> correctly, you were using a chemical to increase you success rate, 
are 
> you still doing this ?

Yes, I did it.  The process results in a very high percentage of 
balloon pods.  On the other hand, last year I got more seeds from 
odd crosses than I've ever managed before.  So I did it again.  I 
expect a good more than half of my pods will be balloons this year.  
The chemical may remove some fertility barriers, but it does not 
affect the unbalanced chromosomes inherent in some plants.  That's a 
barrier that is something of a miracle every time a seed forms in 
spite of.  Roberto Marucchi is doing - apparently with some success -
 quite a few of those kinds of crosses.  If Thomas Silvers starts 
using his diploid results with tetraploids as he seems to be 
planning - and has success - then he will be doing the same thing.  
For me, those seeds are hard to come by and even more difficult to 
coax into germinating.  If quantity was a requirement, I'd quit.  I 
make more normal crosses to compensate, but I do concentrate on 
those less likely to give me anything - and they often don't :).

Donald Eaves
donald@eastland.net
Texas Zone 7b, USA





------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> 
In low income neighborhoods, 84% do not own computers.
At Network for Good, help bridge the Digital Divide!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/EA3HyD/3MnJAA/79vVAA/2gGylB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~-> 

 
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/iris-photos/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    iris-photos-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index