Can someone please tell me how you know which hybrids come true from seed & which ones don't?
For example, Park's has hybrid wave petunia seeds. I grew some Tidal Wave Silver from seed last
year & they looked like the picture so I guess they came true from seed.
I harvested seed so will they come true also? Or is it like copying a copy of a copy?
Is there a difference in hybrid annuals & hybrid perennials?
Any information is appreciated.
Thank you!
Prism
Question about hybrid seeds
Great questions. I've been wondering the same thing. Thanks for asking!!
I'll be hanging around hoping someone responds, too. Great questions.
lets see if I can break this down for ya.
You have two different plants that both have qualities you like. Say you have a red petunia you like and a white one. These plants are crossed. One becomes the pod parent, ( produces the seed) and the other becomes the pollen parent. These two plants are crossed. because of the law of Mendell's genetic's you wil have lots of plants that wil look exactly like one or the other parent.
In some cases you get lucky and you have a plant that may have a qualities of both parents but be significantly different. This is your F1 or hybridized seed.
Depending on how the seed was fertilized wil depend on what you get. You may have self-fertilized the plant yourself, if you were able to get polon on the stigma when you were weeding or deadheading and conditions were right.
Those seeds will contain the genes of the grandparent and usually revert back to the orginal plant.
Ex: Your hybrid has purple flowers, but was self pollinated, so the flowers may turn out red or blue or yellow, which ever gene is dominate at the time.
If your hybrid seed was cross pollinated, you may get some of the exact seed, you may get some of whatever each of the parent were and if your lucky you might even end up with something new.
Usually for a hydrid to be an exact copy it needs to be propagated by cuttings or division.
Simply put, your hybrids seeds are not going to look like the plant you planted but whatever the two orginial crosses were.
The only real difference in hybrid annuals and perennials is their life span. Usually your annuals will die one they have flowered and set seed. There whole life span is completeed in one cycle. There are some annuals which you can take cuttings from and propagte them and they will live, but most just die.
The perennials you can take cuttings or divisions from the plant and propagate those and they will be the same as the plant you took it from and will generally do well. They will go through the same life cycle of the parent. Growing, going dormant to grow again.
Generally the hybridized seed you buy comes from growers and is produced under specific conditions.
If you had a hybridized seed and it is crossed with yet another different petunia color you wil end up with yet another new set of F2 genration plants.
Here's a little bit about how Menedell's genetic's work
http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/instruct/mcclean/plsc431/mendel/mendel1.htm
My advice to you when yopu plant your hybridized seed. Look for alot of surprises. You gonna have alot of everything but what you had.
Hope that helps a little.
starlight1153........ MANY THANKS for your explanation AND for the hyperlink address!!!! Really appreciate that!!
Thank you, Starlight! That is very interesting.
It's a good thing I like Petunias! I ought to have a lot of surprises this spring.
That answers my questions. I wondered how seed companies could sell hybrid seeds if they don't come true. But, as you say, they do it under specific conditions, which my backyard would not have.
It makes me wonder how fun it would be to pollinate certain ones on purpose.
I said I wasn't going to start doing that.
Never say never.
Prism, I can't help but dab..dab..dab.. That's how I have ended up with some Poinsetta seeds. I took some hybridized cultivars and crossed them and now I gonna see what surprises I get. : )
Some crosses will take and some won't also some hybrids are sterile. if ya decide to dab just get out there early in the mornign before the bees beat ya to all the pollen. They are real hogs about it. LOL
That sounds so cool. I can't wait.
Thanks, Starlight!
By the way, did you get your seeds? In tact or powdered or crushed?
You should be getting 2 envelopes. Hopefully, good ones. And, hopefully enough for postage.
Prism
This message was edited Feb 2, 2005 11:29 PM
I had a similar question about gourds & squash x-pollinating in another thread, and Melody posted the following book recommendation:
"A good book to have is Seed To Seed by Susanne Ashworth. It explains how each vegetable variety sets fruit and how pollination and cross pollination occurs. Some pollen is wind borne...some is insect borne. She also tells what varieties can be grown together with no chance of cross pollination."
I'm going to look for a copy. I don't know whether she also covers issues with seeds from hybrid flowers, but I wanted to pass along the recommendation....
I'm pretty sure I saw a posting from someone that said they have been collecting their hybrid Petunia Wave seeds and replanting them each year.. with NEAR the same results. Might of been Weezingreens post?
Thank you, Critterologist. I checked to see if our library has Seed to Seed and they do. I put it on reserve. I'm sure it will be interesting reading even if it doesn't have flowers in it.
kathys999, I had collected seed from a pink petunia last year & it looked like it was the same when it bloomed. I don't know if it was a hybrid or not though.
Since I like petunias, I'll have fun no matter what they look like. I'll check Weezingreens posts and see if I can find the one you're thinking about.
Thank you all so much.
It is quite interesting, isn't it?