S. alata 'NOVA' Stone Co, MS
Dec 9, 2019 18:38:56 GMT -5
stevebooth, dozer1028, and 3 more like this
Post by meizzwang on Dec 9, 2019 18:38:56 GMT -5
I'm currently working on breeding for red alatas, and it'll be a several year long project. So far, I've crossed a bunch of un-named alata clones that turn red with each other and grew out several different large seed batches. From one of those large seed batches (shown below, the result of 2 different red clones crossed together), I've already culled all of the plants that looked green and had no potential for red coloration: that narrowed it down from hundreds of plants to about less than a hundred.
Out of the remaining plants, some are still greenish, but I think I got a lot of red ones at this point. the next step is to find the individual or individuals that color up easily. Will that happen in this case? Probably not, but I still have hope there will be a few winners from this batch.
I call this batch "NOVA" just to prevent confusing this new batch of seedlings from the older mother clones in the collection. Keeping track of one cross from the next is already getting complicated, so names help simplify things. There will probably be a day years later where this designation will be useful to distinguish the mother plants from their offspring. right now, it's obvious, but once these reach maturity it won't be. One thing is for certain: you can expect a bunch of "new" select red clones in cultivation in the next few years! I'm only going to propagate the best ones from each batch for distribution.
S. alata 'NOVA' Stone Co, MS, pics taken mostly 12/8/19:
You can see that some of these seedlings, despite very harsh selective pressure, are still not coloring up all the way. I might just keep them to see what happens in the long haul, you never know:
This will probably be a winner:
MW gut tuition says this is a winner:
Amazing how impressive these are even as small seedlings:
Out of the remaining plants, some are still greenish, but I think I got a lot of red ones at this point. the next step is to find the individual or individuals that color up easily. Will that happen in this case? Probably not, but I still have hope there will be a few winners from this batch.
I call this batch "NOVA" just to prevent confusing this new batch of seedlings from the older mother clones in the collection. Keeping track of one cross from the next is already getting complicated, so names help simplify things. There will probably be a day years later where this designation will be useful to distinguish the mother plants from their offspring. right now, it's obvious, but once these reach maturity it won't be. One thing is for certain: you can expect a bunch of "new" select red clones in cultivation in the next few years! I'm only going to propagate the best ones from each batch for distribution.
S. alata 'NOVA' Stone Co, MS, pics taken mostly 12/8/19:
You can see that some of these seedlings, despite very harsh selective pressure, are still not coloring up all the way. I might just keep them to see what happens in the long haul, you never know:
This will probably be a winner:
MW gut tuition says this is a winner:
Amazing how impressive these are even as small seedlings: