HYB: seed counts per pod

TB iris crosses have an awesomely wide range of seeds per pod.  The highest
count I have ever had was on a cross on to EMMA COOK.  I don't recall the
other parent, and cannot check records as when I left Idaho in 1982 I
destroyed about 3000 seeds, my stud book,  a whole lot of catalogs, bulletins
and stuff, and walked away expecting never to grow iris again. That pod I
remember well, however, as it had a full 100 seeds in it.

The highest seed count I have had here in North Carolina were Power Woman X
Happenstance (84 seeds) and Power Woman X Vienna Waltz (81 seeds).  Vienna
Waltz X P 1-9 (sib to Power Woman: Swingtown x Romantic Evening) had 66 seeds.
A different sib of Power Woman used on a seedling from Great Gatsby X
Romantic Evening had 61.

More typically, my crosses have yielded seed numbers from the teens, twenties
to more typical thirties and forties.  Few have been in the range above 50.

I think that to get a really good sample from a cross one would need to make
quite a few pollenizations, get as large a seed number as possible, do
everything possible to encourage germination and bloom a whole lot of
siblings.  That makes for massive compost piles, but can result in some very
good babies.  Unfortunately, when one is pushing a line and making crosses
from first bloom seedlings, the crosses are limited to one or two, perhaps
three pods unless one wants to load a stalk down and practically kill the
parent by draining it of all its resources.  Seeing a seedling bloom a second,
third or fourth time can reveal flaws one did not see the first year.  Killing
it off by over-breeding it the maiden year prevents that possibility.

Neil Mogensen  z 7 in western NC

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