Orchid Hybridizing

[Undergrounder]

Does anyone have any useful information on books or papers that have information on hybridizing? I'd love to try doing this properly instead of just combining two of whatever i happen to have in flower at the time and seeing what pops out.

Thanks

[Orchidophile]

If you can get your hands on a copy of Home Orchid Growing by Rebecca Tyson Northen (4th edition), it goes in depth in the hybridizing and flasking. This book can get very pricey though and I have only seen them sold online.

[shakkai]

Undergrounder, If it is theory in choosing which plants to cross that you're looking for - and not the technical details of pod maturation time and flasking instructions - then any general flower hybridising information would be of help.

My all-time favourite writer (as long as you can get past the 'old fashioned' wording) on the topic of breeding plants was Luther Burbank. I'd recommend "Let us now produce a new pink daisy" or any of his other writings. Most of them are available online here:

History of Science: Luther Burbank: his methods and discoveries and their practical application (Volume I): Contents

If its technical information on genetics you're looking for, there are some good papers out there as well.

Or, if you aren't looking to create a new grex yourself, you could re-make crosses that have produced exceptionally nice plants previously.

[Undergrounder]

Cool thanks both of you, they both look really interesting. I'm only a little into the Daisy one shak but it really is interesting. And the preface of that book ophile also looks like it will have good info.

I do have access to tonnes of databases through uni access but its hard to separate the useful papers from the detailed, complex research ones.

So shak if you re-did the Cym. Sarah Jean you could name it a new grex? And that's how you get all the different 'Ice Cascade', 'Trish', 'Emerald' etc?

[shakkai]

Originally Posted by Undergrounder

So shak if you re-did the Cym. Sarah Jean you could name it a new grex? And that's how you get all the different 'Ice Cascade', 'Trish', 'Emerald' etc?

No, it doesn't get renamed, so all of the seedlings would be "Sarah Jeans" ... the 'Trish' or 'Emerald' designations are for particular, specific plants of the "Sarah Jean" cross. Usually, named clones of a 'Trish' or 'Emerald' are superior plants in some way to other non-named plants of the same cross. So, for example, if you wanted to remake "Sarah Jean" you could use two better than average (hopefull awarded, named clones) of Cym. pumilum 'XXX' and Cym. Sleeping Beauty 'YYY' (obviously where XXX and YYY are some specific name that has the traits you really like). By re-making the cross in this way, you increase your chances of producing a particular plant that is superior either of the parents.

In short, by using superior parents, you have better chances of producing superior offspring. And its those superior offspring that have better chances of winning awards - and you'll get to add your own name for that particular superior plant: Cym Sarah Jean 'Undergrounder' (for example...)

If you're bored, stop reading here, the rest is musing and rambling...

There are a couple of reasons why I would choose to re-make already registered crosses rather than do something that no one has done before, and they are quite specific to my circumstances, so may not be the same for you...

You are likely to end up growing out a lot of seedlings in order to find the one that has the best flowers, etc. That's a lot of plants to take care of for 7 or so years from seed to bloom. I want to have a reasonable idea of what the end result is going to be to invest that much time, energy and space into something.

Its only if you make a cross that hasn't been made before (or should I say registered before) that you get to name the grex. However, I believe that you are only allowed to name it after you have had bloom. So, if that were your goal, to avoid disappointment, you'd have to be fairly knowledgeable about what other people have done recently to make sure that there isn't someone else out there about to bloom plants of the same cross in the next few years.

Obviously, the world needs both types of crosses to be made - those willing to take the chance and make the crosses that haven't been made before just to see what results... AND those who work toward making what is already available the best that it can possibly be.

[shakkai]

For the flasking bit, John Woolf has a great article on "Orchid Flasking for the Amateur"

Woolf Orchidculture NEWSLETTERS


As for genetics information, it would be best to narrow down to which alliance you wanted to work with, as I believe that each have different inheritance rules - i.e. some things are dominant in some alliances and the same trait is recessive in others.