Larry,

If you don't mind waiting 4 years to sort them out after they flower then
your plan should work.... of course, if you pull off the selects to "baby
along" for special attention during the first replate then you might be
pulling out only one of the multiple crosses contained in the entire swarm,
so don't flush the balance of the germinated plants down the toilet. I
recommend you buy an old football stadium and set plenty of benches up on
the playing field in order to grow out all of the million plants for
inspection and separation into proper groups.

Mick
www.OrchidFlask.com

Actually, I don't think either of us got it right; the term should be:
polycrossing (one 'l') or perhaps poly-crossing.


On Fri, 21 Mar 2003 23:13:20 -0500, "Mick Fournier"
(Mick Fournier) wrote in Message ID
:

Larry,

If you don't mind waiting 4 years to sort them out after they flower then
your plan should work....

Granted, working with reed-steem Epidendrums, with their (alleged)
genetically dominant foliage phenotype, would make identification of
specific intergeneric crosses problematic before they reveal their
flower forms.

I don't see how the waiting time is increased though. If the intended
product of the particular breeding program were flower related (as I
believe most are), would it not necessitate the blooming out progeny
of the crosses with its requisite multi-year wait? Or, have you found
a way to judge the flowers of new (unregistered) intergeneric crosses
without blooming them? :-)

of course, if you pull off the selects to "baby
along" for special attention during the first replate then you might be
pulling out only one of the multiple crosses contained in the entire swarm,

Right.

If, on the other hand, the breeder _randomly_ selects plantlets (to
baby along), wouldn't such a random sample likely contain individuals
from each cross in proportion to its germination rate?

so don't flush the balance of the germinated plants down the toilet. I
recommend you buy an old football stadium and set plenty of benches up on
the playing field in order to grow out all of the million plants for
inspection and separation into proper groups.

Mick
www.OrchidFlask.com

Please accept my sincere gratitude for your sagacious recommendation.
:-)

Finding suitable environment space to grow out representative samples
of all the crosses is an issue of concern in any breeding program.
Some breeders partner with growers in a sharecropping arrangement, but
the best solution is to conduct the breeding program in an
environment/climate/habitat that will support the plants naturally.
If a greenhouse environment is not required to grow the plants,
because the local climate is suitable for growing-out the hybrids, the
limitations of finite habitat space and expense associated with
maintaining suitable humidity and temperature are mitigated.

To the extent that they provoke further thought on this subject, I
thank you for your thoughts, Mick, and welcome any additional insights
you may be able to provide.

Larry,

A gang bang is more accurate.

Mick

On Sat, 22 Mar 2003 14:39:25 -0500, "Mick Fournier"
wrote:

A gang bang is more accurate.

Oh. I hadn't realized that was a botanical term. :-)