Re : HYB: more seeds vs less seeds

Christian, this is the explorer's dilemma - using up all the available
blooms in one highly desirable cross and getting nothing in return  vs
using a few blooms for several crosses and still possibly getting
nothing.

In the first case, I may get nothing because the seedlings all die
because they aren't disease resistant enough.

In the second case, I may also get nothing.  A lower average percentage
might die, but with so few seeds, I wind up with only one or two
surviving seedlings per cross & have no idea what the potential for the
cross might be.  With unknown probabilities of getting disease resistant
plants from any given parent, it's impossible to know if the probability
of healthy kids is high or low. And equally impossible to know how those
probabilities match up with other traits related to bloom (color,
pattern, stalks, form etc)

So I do a little of both.

If I get a healthy cross, with promising looking seedlings, I may repeat
the cross another year, but as other "real" hybridizers move along to
introduce descendants that are "better" in both health and flower
traits,, I worry about wasting time repeating a mediocre cross when
there might be a more recent something much "better" out there.

Currently, I'm more likely to try the cross again with a "better"
descendant of the pollen parent.   I have <no> idea which approach would
be better to reach my goals.

With only one surviving seedling from IMMORTALITY X PINAFORE PINK that
turned out to be a rebloomer with some good stalk & bloom traits, should
I try the cross again, try to get 4 or 8 pods from the few blooms I
usually get on IMMORTALITY?  Or should I just move on and try to use it
as a pod parent? I will probably compromise and do some of both.
Currently, no "better" descendants from PP to choose from here.

Like Betty, a lot of my posts aren't just for me - I hope the
discussions help future and current pollen daubers a little.

<....giving some thought to the idea that more seeds/pods from a cross
is better.......Of course I could also 'discover' a lethal cross and end
up with no SIX PACK pods at all.  Worse than that I'ld have to decide
which cross was the most important to get babies from! ack! <vbg>
Christian in KY>

--
Linda Mann east Tennessee USA zone 7/8
East Tennessee Iris Society <http://www.korrnet.org/etis>
American Iris Society web site <http://www.irises.org>
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