:HYB:Pod Vs Pollen Parent
- Subject: :HYB:Pod Vs Pollen Parent
- From: A*@aol.com
- Date: Sat, 19 Oct 2002 14:05:14 EDT
In a message dated 10/19/2002 10:44:48 AM Central Daylight Time,
s_j_mahlberg@yahoo.com writes:
<< What I, as a beginner, could not determine is if these iris were used
(Purissima as pod parent) or (Great Lakes as pollen parent) as such because
they were infertile as pollen or pod parents >>
This is probably the case. I have known hybridizers to recommend selfing a
new and promising seedling to determine it's fertility. Some have listed
this trait or lack thereof in their introduction material. I believe Ghio
has made this a practice at times & maybe even Keith K. Details as to the
hybridizer giving this recommendation is foggy at this time. I'm better at
remembering the information than I am at remembering where I read or heard it.
In reference to T.B.s only, I will pass this on from personal experience:
Several years ago, while preparing some articles on hybridizing, I wrote to
several prominent hybridizers with a number of questions. Unfortunately they
were not always the same questions. I asked a very prominent, and now
deceased, hybridizer this question, "What percentage of traits are inherited
from the pod parent Vs the pollen parent?" (I'd been told about 70%-75% came
from the pod parent)
He replied that there was no difference. In his opinion, you might as well
mix up the seed from a cross & it's reverse and plant them all together as
there was so little difference! I respect those that have gone before and I
have tremendous respect for this gentleman, but I have to question this
answer.
In my first year of making crosses, I had stumbled across something that, to
me, blew this theory out of the water! Only having one true rebloomer in my
garden that spring, I made crosses with anything in my collection that was
reported to have sporadic rebloom. I crossed HIGHLAND CHIEF & PEACH SPOT both
ways. It was probably the most interesting cross I've ever made. All of the
children with PS as the pod parent gave a max. of 4 buds, were kinda short,
and all washed out. I don't recall any being memorable except my first
rebloomer that I nicknamed "Big Bertha." A rather ugly thing with big
blooms! A white with a few flecks of purple, as were most of these
seedlings. All had very thin substance.
The reverse cross, with H.C. as the pod parent gave such a wide and varied
group of children that I remember them still . . . an orange with triple
sockets producing 9 buds . . . a yellow & white BRIDES HALO pattern, several
nice plicatas . . . etc! It was my first crop of seedlings & I fell in love
with all from this cross. It was years before I trashed them all.
Other crosses with P. S. used as the pod parent (I used it a lot for 2 or 3
years) did not necessarily give the same results. I put pollen from Copper
Mountain on it and got one yellow & brown ringed beauty (my eyes only) that
was tall with lots of buds. Form was older than accepted at the time. It
really drew the eye and I loved it. I still have a seedling from P.S. X
Vanity. It gave some very interesting things, most with better form and bud
count than P.S. In none of these cases did I make the reverse crosses.
I don't know if this contributes to the question asked, but maybe it will
help.
Betty Wilkerson Zone 6 SouthCentral Kentucky
American Iris Society web site <http://www.irises.org>
iris-talk/Mallorn archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-talk/>
iris-photos/Mallorn archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-photos/>
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