Which plants can be bred together???

[ghosoff]

I had a question about what plants I can breed together do I go by alliance or which ones can mix?? Do I go by

Subfamily:
Tribe:
Subtribe:
Alliance:
Genus:

Help would really be appreciated and others probably have the same questions but thanks alot for your help before hand!!

[lambelkip]

generally, plants within the same alliance can be bred together, although there are some exceptions.

[ghosoff]

Could you elaborate on that one a little bit more and do you perhaps know about how diploids, 3N, and 4N works into all the breeding too?

[lambelkip]

an alliance is a group of closely related genera, for example, the Oncidium alliance includes Odontoglossum, so you can cross am Oncidium with an Odontoglossum and get an Odontocidium.

diploids (2N) have paired chromosomes, which is fairly normal. 3N means there's 3 chromosomes in a set, 4N means 4 chromosomes to a set.

in normal plant reproduction, the pairs of chromosomes are split into N (haploid) cells, then when the flower is pollenated, the N cells from 2 plants combine to form a 2N embryo. sometimes the process goes wrong, and the parent plant produces 2N cells instead of N cells. If one parent does this, the embryo will be 3N. if both parents do it, the embryo is 4N.

A 4N plant will produce 2N cells during the split, so crossing a 4N plant with a 2N plant will give you a 3N plant.

A 3N plant usually can't complete the split, so it can't be crossed with another plant.

I hope this all makes sense.

[ghosoff]

Thanks alot yeah that makes perfect sense!!! So Can I breed one Alliance with another or that is when it gets tricky huh..? But thanks alot for that other information!!

[lambelkip]

it gets trickier as you move farther into the family tree - crossing two species of the same genus will probably work. crossing two species of the same alliance is somewhat likely to work, and two species of different alliances will almost definately not work.

[ghosoff]

Ok I was just wondering because I have been saving alot of pollen and I didnt want to waste it trying something silly because I have some paph. pollen and was thinking with one of my plants might I mix it with or should I just save it !! But then I mixed a Mtssa. with a P. and it seemed to take but I dont know if it will be viable so it might have been a mistake !! But it is good to try new things!! Then I also tried a Vuyl. with the Mtssa. but that has more chances of being something I think but thanks alot!!

[bodaciousbonsai]

i just crossed neostylsis lou sneary with ascocentrum miniatum,
Got some very nice seed pods too