Hybridizers: Post Your Most Memorable Previous Experiment , 1 by Zen_Man

Zen_Man wrote:
redheadclan,

Those PVC pots look like very durable reusable homemade pots. Do they have bottoms? Do you have trouble getting them to release their contents for transplanting or repotting? I use commercial plastic square pots whose slanted sides make it relatively easy to dump the root-bound contents out into my hand as a "rootball" that won't fall apart. My zinnia roots form their own "peat pot" without the disadvantages of a peat pot.

Your "best result" iris is impressive. It appears that the petals have a lot of substance and a good bi-color combination. I admire the breeding possibilities with iris, lilies, daylilies, hibiscus, roses, etc, but the long wait times in the breeding cycles with those species are not to my liking.

I have chosen zinnias to breed because of their accelerated breeding cycle and their wide variety of colors, flower forms, and plant habits. The individual zinnia blooms can last for weeks, and a zinnia plant can stay in continuous bloom for months. Zinnias are easy to grow. They germinate in only a few days with no seed pre-treatment needed and bloom in 5 to 7 weeks. By germinating immature "green" seeds, I can accelerate the seed-to-seed time to achieve several generations in a year. I can get two generations outdoors here in Kansas and another two generations by growing some zinnias indoors.

I have developed a technique for growing zinnias successfully from cuttings, and am now experimenting with the tissue culture of zinnias. The zinnia breeding hobby can be year-round, with no "down time" waiting for cold pre-treatment or lengthy germination and no long waits for the plants to mature to a flowering stage.

In keeping with the Most Memorable Previous Experiment aspect of this thread, I have had several "break through" zinnia specimens that were very satisfying, and it is difficult for me to pick just one. My "Pink Shaggy Dog" specimen was probably the most spectacular bloom, and I am attaching a picture of it. But there have been many other unique specimens in the "you-can't-get-that-from-a-seed-packet" category. I think my most memorable next experiment will be to develop a successful method of tissue culturing my zinnias. That will give me something to work on this Winter. And I am raising some of my hybrids-of-hybrids zinnias indoors as well.

ZM