Re: HYB: beating the odds
- Subject: Re: HYB: beating the odds
- From: L* M*
- Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2002 07:51:37 -0400
Anonymous said:
<Hybridization is a process of probabilities, like Las Vegas. The people
who have the most experience, cross the cultivars they think most likely
to be the best parents, and they are saying that even with their best
theory they may only get 1/200 seedlings worth introducing.>
Keep in mind, tho, as someone, I think Sharon McAllister (grand guide
and teacher of genetics). said, when trying to hybridize & select
seedlings in a difficult environment, with a good dose of benign
neglect, a lot of those 200 'seedlings' are eliminated long before bloom
time, because they just can't survive. Also, I thought it's been said
here that the odds are more like 1/1000 seedlings?
In other words, of the 1000 potential seedlings I might start with, very
very few will make it to bloom, counting pods that don't set or mature
because the parents don't have what it takes to thrive here & produce
healthy reproductive organs, seeds that aren't viable for the same
reason, seeds that rot or damp off, baby seedlings that don't survive
lining out, & mature seedlings that don't survive in the open.
From most of my crosses which resulted in pods with seeds so far, there
are only a very few seedlings that have lived to bloom - for most, 6 or
fewer out of 30 to 150 seeds. Some of these have been major duds. A
few are probably worth introducing. Not because they are improvements
in form or color, or new patterns, but because I can easily select for
tough plants.
Linda Mann east Tennessee USA zone 7/8
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