Why doesn't portulaca color come true?

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LAS14 Albany, ME(Zone 4b) Jul 01, 2015

I plant yellow portulaca in my garden every year. No other color. We live literally miles from anyone else with a flower garden. Every year the seeds that I gathered from my own plants produce some white as well as yellow portulaca. But the seeds I purchased produce only yellow. How do the seed companies do it? Anything I can do to avoid the white portulaca?

TIA
LAS

Post #10104296
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Gitagal Baltimore, MD(Zone 7a) Jul 01, 2015

TIA--

Your Portulaca is probably--most likely- a Hybrid. Seeds collected from Hybrids
will not, necessarily, come true to the parent plant.

Just like a human family....
You have a Mama, a Poppa, and a baby. Who will the baby look like?
The Baby carries Genes from every person that preceded it.
This is what a HYBRID is.

Seeds sold in seed packages are, probably, grown under controlled conditions
and their seeds will come true to the parent plants.

Seed packets are cheap. If you want only yellow Portulaca--buy the seeds.

Gita

Post #10104312
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LAS14 Albany, ME(Zone 4b) Jul 02, 2015

But what are those "controlled conditions" that I'm not providing as well? No other portulaca within many miles.

Post #10105074
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altagardener Calgary, AB(Zone 3b) Jul 02, 2015

By "controlled conditions", I believe Gitagal was referring to the grower having an understanding of the genetics of the colour strain.

Post #10105077
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LAS14 Albany, ME(Zone 4b) Jul 02, 2015

Could you give me an example of what this means? What does the grower do differently than what I'm doing (harvesting seeds in an environment where there are no non-yellow portulaca).

tia
las

Post #10105085
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altagardener Calgary, AB(Zone 3b) Jul 02, 2015

What I was trying to suggest (while trying at the same time to avoid having to try to explain it ;-) ), is that your yellow portulaca may be an F1 hybrid (not a hybrid between species, but a "hybrid" in the sense of traits inherited from parents).

This explains it much better than I can remember (from Grade 6 science... I suppose it's pretty good I can remember any of it):

http://anthro.palomar.edu/mendel/mendel_1.htm

So, it is very likely that you are collecting and sowing the F2 generation, which is giving you a mix of traits, that is, both yellow and white.


This message was edited Jul 2, 2015 4:48 PM

Post #10105150
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LAS14 Albany, ME(Zone 4b) Jul 03, 2015

Thank you SO MUCH!!! Just what I was looking for.

Post #10105441
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sallyg Anne Arundel,, MD(Zone 7b) Jul 04, 2015

thanks altagardener, nice refresher

Post #10106101
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