Ploidy number and seed setting success.

[helixturnhelix]

Hi Charlie,

I was curious if you write down which crosses take with specific CVs and which crosses do not.  I was curious because I have been observing that all my pods of CG x Rain Drop have not taken, yet Robin Hood x Rain Drop and Rain Drop x Rain Drop seem to have.  I was thinking that this may be due to incompatibilities regarding ploidy number, in that some varieties are just not compatible.  If you have that data, it would be interesting to see if there are consistencies in which varieties are compatible and which are not.  If we compile it, it might be possible to make a pseudo chart or excel, which lets know if a specific cross is even possible given genetic constraints.  That pollen is precious, we dont want to use it if its not going to work

Also it looks like the first Seattle seeds are going to Cosmic Gold x Robin Hood.  Hoping for colors of Robin hood with the excellent form and bush of Cosmic Gold  

[Charlie]

Yeah, that's interesting. There are certain crosses that I think would work because of successful previous crosses of the varieties involved with other varieties. In other words, definitely not sterile and being proven seed setters but still several attempts to make the cross have not worked. That could be genetic or could be conditions were not favorable at the time the cross was made. I feel sure you are right and if enough data were available to analyze some worthwhile conclusions could be made.

We just started a new database for seedlings showing promise using Bento for Mac and have old Excel spreadsheets of named varieties with cross info but I have not kept any data on crosses that did not result in a new named variety. There's only so much time in the day - if I could hybridize full time I would do it differently but that is not the case yet.

Charlie

[helixturnhelix]

Hybridizing really is fascinating, I wish that I had the time and space to do it properly!  I will just have to rely on your hybridizing endeavors to get my fix