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Best to use cuttings. Each year when you prune stick the cuttings in the ground. They nearly all take.
They don't come true from seed. You might strike lucky and get something good, or you might not. Cuttings come true, and are a lot faster.
Quote from: Robert_Brenchley on April 28, 2010, 19:06:26They don't come true from seed. You might strike lucky and get something good, or you might not. Cuttings come true, and are a lot faster.Ok, so are most fruit bushes F1's?
Actually, if the seed were self-polinated would they come true? Sorry if that's a stupid thing to ask, but my plant-genetics is only what I remember from O-level biology. Of course if they do come true then there's no advantage over cuttings which are way easier, but I'd like to understand how it works.
The breeder made a cross and obtained an F1, but the two cultivars used in the gross would not have been stable themselves.
In my limited understanding of what an F1 is, this is not the way you get to it. First of all, you need to breed out all the various crosses so that both parents are stable and true breeding. It takes up to 7 generations to get the correct parents, so F1's are the dogs doo dahs and well worth spending good money on.
You then pick the best parents with the characteristics you wish to bestow upon the F1 children. For example, large fruit, strong taste and vigorous growth. Both parents must have the same characteristics to get the full benefit. Then their children (the F1's) will have the full qualities of its parents added together.....much larger fruit than its parents, much stronger taste than its parents and grow much more vigorously than its parents.
Anyway, that's how I understand F1's.....all thanks to two pages of an Alan Titchmarsh book I read.
Just crossing any old plant with another is not an F1.
Quote from: Dirty Digger on April 29, 2010, 01:44:05In my limited understanding of what an F1 is, this is not the way you get to it. First of all, you need to breed out all the various crosses so that both parents are stable and true breeding. It takes up to 7 generations to get the correct parents, so F1's are the dogs doo dahs and well worth spending good money on. An F1 in a non-cloning population is derived from stable parents, there is no stability required or present in cloning populations. An F1 in a stable population produces no segregation, in an unstable cloning population there is no stability in the F1, you simply sow all the seed, and if you like one of the segregants you clone it.F1s are only the bees knees if your are dealing with an outbreeding plant that suffersd inbreeder depression, otherwise OP varieties will suit most needs far better.QuoteYou then pick the best parents with the characteristics you wish to bestow upon the F1 children. For example, large fruit, strong taste and vigorous growth. Both parents must have the same characteristics to get the full benefit. Then their children (the F1's) will have the full qualities of its parents added together.....much larger fruit than its parents, much stronger taste than its parents and grow much more vigorously than its parents.It doesn't really work like that at all, the F1 will have the characteristics of the dominant alleles supplied by each parent only, every F1 is identical genetically. You will only see a combination of all the best characteristics of each parent among some of the F2 population.QuoteAnyway, that's how I understand F1's.....all thanks to two pages of an Alan Titchmarsh book I read.I think he should have explained it differently then.QuoteJust crossing any old plant with another is not an F1.Yes it is, it may not be a commercially viable F1, but it's an F1. An F1 is any hybrid resulting from two distinctly different parent types.
F1s are only the bees knees if your are dealing with an outbreeding plant that suffersd inbreeder depression, otherwise OP varieties will suit most needs far better.