Re: HYB: statistics from experienced hybridizers

Chad Schroter asked:

:        On average for a particular type of iris (TB SDB PCI LOUIS etc.)

The following concerns arilbreds (AB):

:        How many cross's resulting in seed pods do you make each year ?

It varies from year to year, depending on bloom and the types of crosses I can
make.  A good year sees thousands of crosses, thousands of seeds.   A bad year
is one with less than a thousand crosses, less than 100 pods.  

:        How many seedlings survive into the second year to bloom ?

Because of space limitations, I process only the seeds from those crosses which
are most important to my program.  That means no correlation between number of
seeds and number of seedlings, but the number two-year-old seedlings has
exceeded 1000 only twice.  Not all bloom at that age, however.

:        How many or what percentage are kept for further evaluation ?

Wild guess:  roughly 1 in 10.  I don't track that.

:        How many of these eventually make it to introduction ?

About 1 in 100 of the seedlings originally lined out.  The Rule of Thumb, which
I learned 20 years ago from experienced hybridizers like Gene Hunt and Henry
Danielson, was that 1 in 50 to 100 arilbreds and less than 1 in 1000 TBs would
be worthy of introduction.   I haven't reached the 1 in 50 point and really
don't expect to.   I only compute this after all seedlings from a given year
have completed the cycle, because I don't want the numbers to influence my
decisions.  

:        How many years after the cross did it take to accumulate enough

:        increases to Introduce the iris ?

When I was introducing things through ASI, sales were low enough that I'd have
sufficient stock to introduce one by the time it had made it through a complete
evaluation -- sometimes in as little as five years.   Now, only an extremely
rampant 1/4-bred or ABM makes its debut that quickly (those types are less
popular so can be listed with less stock accumulated).  Seven or eight years
from the date of the cross is more typical.  

:        How many more questions can you stand :)?

I don't know -- but keep 'em coming.  After evaluating year 20 of my 40-year
plan, I found that I'd reached most of my original goals and many of my later
ones.  (The tangerine pink with black signal and beard remains elusive!)  This
amount of progress would not have been possible without the advice, counsel, and
encouragement of experienced aril and arilbred hybridizers like Gene Hunt, Tom
Wilkes, John Holden, Herb McKusick, Les Peterson, Lin Flanagan, and Henry & Lu
Danielson.  The only way I can repay them is to pass the kindness on.

Sharon McAllister
7372.1745@compuserve.com
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