Hybridizing Dahlias

Bessie · 2023-09-14T03:43:02+00:00

Krista to discover if seeds are growing in the seed pod, after there are no remaining anthers on the pod, gently squeeze the pods between your thumb and fing...

Bessie

Cosey if a seedling looks sickly within the first 6 weeks of growth and hasn't positively responded to a liquid fertilizer with micronutrients, then I throw it away. Poor growth after being planted out is another reason to cull. Since I don't test for viruses there's no way to know for sure if plants are infected. I have a mindset that resistance to virus is really important. Your one seedling that tested positive but was asymptomatic sounds like it is exhibiting resistance. I'd buy a Dahlia that grows nicely despite being infected. Only by breeding with a Dahlia with known "resistance" will the virus resistant gene pool grow. With all that being said, I probably had four seedlings that could of had virus out of around 80 seedlings.

Cosey

Bessie From my DMV testing last year, all asymptomatic DMV dahlias showed symptoms the following spring. I test in the fall for DMV. It was discouraging to see that. And to see symptoms and positive results in my 1st year seedlings (especially since I knew the seed parent variety tested positive last year) makes me nervous.

I don't know the percent of resistance or how long plants remain resistant but as a hybridizer seedlings are already 4-6 years old before I even begin marketing them.

This symptomatic timeline should be something those who bring seedlings to market need to be aware of.

Teddahlia

DMV has frustrated the virus researchers for many years now. Perhaps we will be hearing from them in the future. The issue is false positives as the dahlia has incorporated some of the DMV genes into it's genome. Those genes caused the false positives. I do not know that they have eliminated this issue, DMV used to be one of the worst ones for negative symptoms but this confusion implies that it may be something that may not cause symptoms in many plants. Our virus peron says the general rule is to test when you see symptoms.

Cosey

I spoke with two researchers this week and I'm sending off plant and seed samples for them to investigate. I'm sending both positive and negative plants, seedling siblings, and seed parents. Each researcher has a different objective but I would like to see if one will isolate which DMV strain is present.

I expect DMV+ results given it hasn't been tested for in previous seasons but I am alarmed at the number of asymptomatic positives in the first year seedling field.

In 5 years we'll know so much more.

KitCMC

Cosey thank you for your tireless efforts!

Cosey

A Bracken Glenda seedling. Seed sourced from a friend in Australia. BG has been a reliable seed parent for fully double formal decoratives. Tubers are 50/50 for being suboptimal or good.

Teddahlia

All first year seedlings have now been dug. Because this one was over 7 feet tall and still had nice flowers on it, today we stopped the digging and took some cell phone snapshots. Then we proceeded to disagree whether it was a waterlily or an informal decorative. Waterlilies are supposed to have only 7 rows of developed petals. This flower has a couple more than that. She says we can call it a waterlily and perhaps call it a waterlily type. The picture supports her appraisal of the form and I shall now agree with her. Orange color is very bright and evenly distributed. It had a very sturdy stalk too.

NCDahlia

Teddahlia I like this one whatever the form is lol I would grow it. Hope u grow it next year nice coloring for sure just in time for Halloween

calico20hill

Other then the fact of agreeing on what the perimeters of a form are, is there a good reason to restrict the number of rows on a waterlily? It seems like more rows would allow it more days as a cut flower...more rows to open and replace back petals as they die off....

Teddahlia

Waterlilies with few too many rows do make nice arranger's flowers according to Margaret. Perhaps an arrangement in competition could be called cut flowers on steroids.

Teddahlia

This seedling did especially well this year; over 6 feet tall, always several nice flowers on the plants. And it is a pleasing bicolor of lavender pink with light pink tips.

Juliarugula

Teddahlia what’s the bloom size on this one? I love the form and the color combo.

Emilyp

Teddahlia Very pleasing indeed!

Teddahlia

I would brag if it was a B or an A or especially if it were a giant dahlia. Alas, it is a full sized BB dahlia and the largest flowers are approaching 6 inches but the majority are at the 5 inch mark. It is remarkable for it's light pink tips on the end of the petals. Here is another picture showing a display of numerous flowers. And the plants were not groomed or disbudded.

Bessie

Teddahlia I love the photo. Do you have any ugly pics to share? I am getting a warped sense of what it looks like to hybridize dahlias with so many gorgeous looking Dahlias you have shown. 😉

Cosey

Teddahlia An absolute stunner!

AndreaB

Teddahlia I REALLY like this one ❤️

Teddahlia

I am responding to Bessie who wanted to see seedling pictures.
I took some pictures of some "random" seedlings. Which one(s) would you keep?

Bessie

Teddahlia 😁, thank you! I was wondering if all of your seedlings were incredible. Even though you have said a tiny percentage of seedlings are saved, I was losing perspective.
I guess I'm a visual learner. Thanks again.
Oh, I almost forgot... The orange waterlily is an obvious keeper.

Teddahlia

We have not talked about collecting seeds very much. With no seeds there are no seedlings. Over the years some of our very best ones have come from the hand crosses done by Margaret. Alas, this is a year off for her, as it takes well over 100 hours of work to do a decent batch of properly done hand crossed seeds and we must be satisfied with collecting seeds from her hand crosses from previous years. The preparation for the dahlia tour wore her out. Seeds from hand crosses is a new "trick of the trade" as we decided that if all these hand crossed waterlilies that may or may not be really good ones, came from only from only good seed parents, We went through the hand crossed seedlings and selected seeds from the ones that had things we like and not too many things we did not like. An example would be an exotic color combination or a really vigorous plant. And of course we collect seeds from our named plants planted strategically by other special plants too. We need enough seeds to produce about 1050 seedling plants.
Every year I see people saying, "I just want to plant some seeds to see what I will get. I do not care if they have perfect form and I know there will lots of different colors. " I believe that the most experienced breeder has a streak of this philosophy. I have a row for the giants and large dahlias. Somehow a Hollyhill Snowcap pom tuber was planted in that row(and grew taller than the giants around it) and I collected some seeds from it. Not very many seeds were there but what will these special seeds make?

Bessie

Teddahlia

Not very many seeds were there but what will these special seeds make?

Ted, thank you for your insights. That question you asked is what keeps me going!
I've decided I can't grow hundreds of seedlings (at least how I grew 88 seedlings this year), so going forward I will need to concentrate on hand crosses of the best perceived seed parents with desired pollen parents.
I have not marked any of the crosses I've performed. However, every day I'm home, I try to go out twice a day(I'm retired) and collect pollen and then transfer it to what looks like mature, receptive stigmas.
At the beginning of the season I made some collection envelopes ( one for each variety) out of cardstock paper, so that I could reuse them. But, after a few weeks, I realized that storing pollen overnight (which I sometimes do) did not work very good. I dug out the little plastic containers I purchased last season for pollen storage. I have found them to work really well for collecting, moving pollen around my yard, and storing pollen.
36 Pieces Rectangle Clear Plastic Containers Transparent Beads Storage Containers Box Jewelry Storage Box Case with Hinged Lid for Small Items Beads Jewelry (1.3 x 1.3 x 0.7 Inches) https://a.co/d/cgv4x7e

« Previous Page Next Page »