breeding Another breeding question thread

If you were trying to create your own strain how many seeds would you plant each generation to try to find the 'best' phenotypes(?) to grow? Would that number stay the same for each generation?
 
Also, would you use all the seeds from 1 pod, or would you try to do multiple crosses(same2 plants) and use seeds from multiple pods? And for that matter, would you try to use multiple different plants of the same 2 strains for any reason?
 
Another question, a few years ago I wanted to breed my own type of guppy and I read about backcrossing(I think thats the term, its been a while..) where you will breed the offspring back to the parents every once in a while to reinforce traits that started to disapear, is that done with plants too?
 
Thanks, and feel free to post any other tips on creating your own strain. One of my goals in life is to be able to 'prove' evolution anytime the topic comes up by actually having used the processes(some anyway) to create my very own breed of something, thats why I was doing guppies(but quickly realized how much indoor space it would take and decided to do it with plants instead)

spysee said:

If you were trying to create your own strain how many seeds would you plant each generation to try to find the 'best' phenotypes(?) to grow? Would that number stay the same for each generation?
 
Also, would you use all the seeds from 1 pod, or would you try to do multiple crosses(same2 plants) and use seeds from multiple pods? And for that matter, would you try to use multiple different plants of the same 2 strains for any reason?
 
Another question, a few years ago I wanted to breed my own type of guppy and I read about backcrossing(I think thats the term, its been a while..) where you will breed the offspring back to the parents every once in a while to reinforce traits that started to disapear, is that done with plants too?
 
Thanks, and feel free to post any other tips on creating your own strain. One of my goals in life is to be able to 'prove' evolution anytime the topic comes up by actually having used the processes(some anyway) to create my very own breed of something, thats why I was doing guppies(but quickly realized how much indoor space it would take and decided to do it with plants instead)

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I'm no expert and don't have much experience, but just from a theoretic/mathematic perspective:
 
1. Depends on what you were aiming for. If you want the most robust gene pool you would maximize the number of plant outs and cull the undesirable ones over hundreds even thousands of generations until you get something you like and is pretty stable (yes... exactly what happens in nature). If you're looking to create a variety with a very specific set of traits, you would initially go for a large number to up the chances of finding the right phenotype. After that, well, the same logic applies, but your chances of getting something more or less right with a smaller number of plants would be much higher.
 
2. Same logic as above. Increases chances of falling upon a good mix of genes at F1. As for different plants from the same strain, yes same reason + you might have noticed that there's more or less of variance between plants from the same strain but different sources. As long as the desired traits are uniform (pod shape, heat, taste, growth, disease resistance, etc), the plants will probably resist potential threats better with a wider gene pool.
 
3. Yes. Lookup the Greenleaf Tabasco. There should be a paper somewhere outlining the process of how they bred a TEV resistant strain that saved the tabasco sauce industry. They used backcrossing to assure it had the right tabasco flavor (otherwise no tabasco sauce lol).
 
Good luck with proving evolution--is it even necessary? Darwin's version was just a theory, but modern genetics has made it an evident fact. If there are people you need to try to convince by showing them new breeds of peppers, they probably believe HIV and all the deadly new strains of the avian fllu are coming from the all mighty to punish humanity for its wickedness...tough luck. Maybe feeding them a few superhots would induce an epiphany.
 
Plants take some time to grow and produce seeds by the way. What about breeding some small bug with a short life cycle and which is easy to feed? Did you see that post about flightless ladybugs?