Re: CULT: Broken stalk with seed pod

>I was out weeding the other day in the iris garden and lo and behold, I
>brushed up against a stalk that had a seed pod on it. It broke. Can it
>be saved as it was a big pod and I want the cross? I put it in a water
>pot, hoping that might do it. Here's hoping.
>
Oh, Art. Have we got a thread for you. Donald Mosser went through this with
his first self-cross of BROTHER CARL. Does anyone remember what the subject
head on those postings would be? Was it "The Pod" or "Surrogate Potato"?
Oh, wait. I put a brief writeup about Mr. Mosser's experience in our club
newsletter. Let me dig it out and reprint it here for you.
celia
storey@aristotle.net
Little Rock, Arkansas

"Spud to the Rescue"
Breeding new irises is a complex process that takes several months, so when
new hybridizer Donald Mosser accidentally bumped his very first seed pod
off its single parent plant, the tall-bearded rebloomer Brother Carl, you
can imagine he was a little dismayed.
The quick-thinking Mr. Mosser leapt to his computer and fired off a
distress signal to Dr. Lloyd Zurbrigg, a veteran hybridizer and the creator
of Brother Carl. Dr. Zurbrigg suggested using a raw baking potato as a
surrogate parent for the orphaned pod.
Well, thought Mr. Mosser, why not? So he cut a small round hole in the
potato and inserted the end of THE POD. He sealed the edges with wax melted
off a birthday candle. Then he placed surrogate mother and child in a
letter tray on top of his computer desk near a north-facing window (so he'd
remember its existence). THE POD stayed green and firm about a month before
it slowly detached from the mother spud. Unsure what to do next, Mr. Mosser
pitched out the potato and left THE POD sitting in the letter tray.
"I figured that the pod was as mature as it was going to get at 3+ months
of age," he said, "so I performed a C-section on the pod to see what the
seeds looked like. I've never seen what mature TB seeds look like, but
these looked like small boiled peanuts and most were a light tan color."
The next day he planted them in the sandy raised bed he uses for vegetable
gardening at his home in North Augusta, South Carolina.
Mr. Mosser reports that of 38 seeds planted, five have germinated so far.
"The pod story is interesting, but far from scientific," he said. "That is,
I can't infer that THE POD matured any better this way than if it had been
allowed to just dry out on the windowsill." Nonetheless he's delighted to
have attained germination from his very first cross.
Although he doubts his seedlings will be introduction material, he's
certainly having fun dreaming of potential names for his babies: Idaho Eye,
Mashed Potato, French Fry ... .

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