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Why do we cross-breed? |
The reason is to get beautiful flowers by improving the varieties.
For the student who wants to produce new flowers, let me explain a way of crossing.
First, think about what kind of flowers, etc., you want to produce.
Then select the parental varieties of the morning glory that might lead to your desired flower.
For this purpose, you're wise to examine which are dominant or recessive in certain characteristics.
Please refer to the table, which shows the dominant (always appearing) and recessive (hidden) characteristics, including background colors and coloring patterns of flowers as well as the shapes and colors of leaves.
After you decide on a female plant and male plant, you prepare for crossing.
With the female plant, on the evening before a flower opens, cut the side of a flower tube and take off all the stamens carefully.
Then, cover the flower bud with a paper bag to protect it from insect invasion.
With the male plant, cover the flower bud with a bag or tie the tip of the bud with woolen yarn lightly, to prevent the flower from opening.
The next morning, remove the bag from the female flower and carefully transfer the pollen from the male flower to the stigma of a pistil in the female.
You can do this delicate work by using a forceps to pick up the anther, or cotton swab sticks to carry the pollen.
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If you do many kinds of crossing at one time, you should wipe the tip of the forceps and your fingers with alcohol or use a new cotton stick for each crossing, to prevent the different pollens from getting mixed with each other.
After the crossing, use a plastic label to note the names of the parental varieties in the following order: female variety x male variety. Then attach the label to the peduncle of the female flower.
If your crossing is successful, an ovary gradually swells and develops into a fruit, in which seeds are produced.
Before the seeds fall, let's harvest them.
Next year, you'll sow these seeds and take care of the germinated plants.
This is the generation of children (the first filial generation, F1).
If a flower has begun to bloom, make sure self-pollination proceeds, and then harvest as many seeds as possible.
To ensure self-pollination, let's tie up the tip of a flower bud with woolen yarn (or cover it with a bag) one day before the opening of flower.
You can get plants by sowing these seeds next year. They are the generation of grandchildren (the second filial generation, F2).
If you use a dominant characteristic in crossing, it appears in the generation of children, but a recessive characteristic skips over this generation. Instead, it appears for the first time in the generation of grandchildren.
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