breeding Question on Cross Pollination

[MrArboc]

I'm not quite sure of your question. I believe inbreeding depression is basically the opposite of heterosis or hybrid vigour, when a cross is inferior to its parents although there's mo[r]e to it than that.

Inbreeding depression is caused by "doubling up" of bad genes, the same way but opposite as the way heterosis are caused by "diluting the genes".

We want to make the plant homozygos when it comes to the desired traits (that's what 'stabilizing' is all about) - but how do we avoid inbreeding depression when our goal is to inbreed/self pollinate our peppers and thus also make them homozygous for less desirable traits? Hope for the best and (hopefully) kill the plants that don't perform as we wish?

 

[POTAWIE]

Oop, I believe I was thinking outbreeding depression originally but saying inbreeding depression. It was a long weekend here

 

[gasificada]

Thanks all... I is learning!!!

(although still a little lost on some of the terminology and all that )

 

[charlesNYC]

i like this discussion. don't have much to add, but yeah.. lots of good info here.

 

[Bleash]

This is a great post with lots of interesting information.

Got to say that this shows that developing any new variety involves a lot of work, space and at least 2 to 3 years.

I was thinking about giving it a try but after reading this I'm not sure I can do it.

Bleash

 

[FayahBen]

(although still a little lost on some of the terminology and all that )

if you don't understand something, you can ask, no problem ^^

I was thinking about giving it a try but after reading this I'm not sure I can do it.

well, it all depends on your goal...
if you want a complicated mix between two strains it can require a lot of plants to grow, but if you just want to create a new thing mixing two strains and have a few criteria but you don't bother some randomness, you can still try it
you'll get what you'll get, but it can still be funny

another thing, if you want to get only one thing from a strain to change on another, like changing the color of pods and keep all other traits (keep in mind the genes controlling the color are linked to some other traits' genes on the same chromosome(s)), you can make it easier by using a backcross
which means after doin the first cross (F1), you choose plants from the F1 that are closest to what you want (right pod color and closest to the main parent), then you cross them back to the main parent
in the next generation (F2) you'll have a lot more chances to have something close to what you want
you can even use another backcross (F2 x main parent), but it's not really necessary if you have already found some plants close to what you want

 

[charlesNYC]

you also have to be aware though that a lot of characteristics will not be manifesting themselves in an F1. For example, (I'm making this up. Not factual.), you may want a purple habanero, but orange dominates over purple (I REPEAT NOT FACTUAL I DONT KNOW THIS), you might get a bunch of F1s that all end up orange, but once you cross them all with each other or even self-pollinate into an F2, then you may start seeing purples pop up.
a backcross would only seem significant if you wanted to override something that's dominant and be almost assured that you'll get a recessive characteristic to show up (assuming that characteristic is present in the pure parent in the backcross).

the easiest way to explain this is in person with a little mendel checkbox diagram.

here we go, i found an amazing little diagram:

 

[FayahBen]

yeah, my mistake, sorry

the F1 should be homogeneous, so you have to grow only one plant (or a few to be sure) then backcross it to the main parent and you'll have more chances to get what you want (in my previous example) in the resulting F2

or you could find a close F2 (in the normal way) and backcross it to the main parent

 

[sreinhard88]

So maybe I missed it somewhere in this post, but how do you go about the actual process of creating the cross? I have a Serrano and a Habenero that I want to try crossing at the end of the season.  Do I just take a q-tip and get pollen from one flower onto the other? If I understand correctly, I think I want the Serrano to be the mother and I guess that makes the Habanero the father.  It's only my first season so I'm not exactly familiar with the whole process.

 

[devilswrath]

Its best to pollinate a flower thats not open but is almost open....you pluck or cut off the male flower parts and use a freshly open flower as the father.