How new varieties of flowers are bred. Crossbreeding of plants - crossbreeding technology and the advantages of hybrid varieties. Violet leaf propagation

"I love roses very much and dream of breeding my own variety. Unfortunately, I am a beginner grower, I have no selection experience. Could you please tell me how to breed a new variety?"

There are several ways to get a new variety. The most accessible and most common is artificial cross-pollination (pollen from the stamens of one or more varieties is transferred to the pistils of another). In this way it was derived the largest number modern varieties.

The breeder always sets himself a specific goal: to create a new variety with the desired characteristics - color, aroma, doubleness, flower shape. Accordingly, by selecting parental pairs according to the shape of the flower, color, smell, one can to some extent control the creation of a new rose.

Not all traits are equally passed on to offspring. Red color tends to be inherited more persistently than yellow or white. Sometimes the desired color, doubleness or flower shape is not obtained in the first combination, then it is worth repeating the same crossing the next year.

Hybridization begins with the collection of pollen. It is collected and stored for a certain time, since the anthers of roses ripen before the pistils.

This operation is started when the buds are ready to open, but have not yet opened. In clear sunny weather, in the first half of the day, the anthers are plucked with tweezers and collected in a glass container, labeled, noting the rose variety and the date of pollen collection. Then the anthers are scattered on paper in a thin layer and dried at room temperature.

You can do it differently: cut the buds, remove the petals from them and leave them in this form until the pollen ripens. When shaking the anther, it easily spills onto the paper. Then it is collected in a test tube and stored until pollination. It is best to store pollen in the refrigerator at 2-5°C.

The hybridization process also includes castration of the flower. To avoid self-pollination, anthers are removed from the flowers (while they have not yet opened). There are several ways of castration: removal of anthers; removal of anthers with stamens; removal of anthers with stamens and petals.

Castration is started a few days before the flowers bloom. Premature castration with the removal of petals in a state of dense bud, when the anthers are not quite yellow, adversely affects the vital activity of the flower. It is carried out when the buds become loose. No more than two buds are castrated on a bush, the rest are cut off. Then the fruits are better tied and develop.

First, with a scalpel or a sharp knife, carefully cut the bud in a circle on the border with the sepals, and then cut it to the top. Then the cut part of the bud is separated, the petals are carefully bent and the anthers are plucked with tweezers. This must be done very carefully so as not to damage the pistils, as this can lead to the death of the flower.

After castration, in order to avoid unwanted pollination by insects, an insulator (parchment or gauze) is applied to the flower.

Pollination is started when a sticky liquid and a characteristic sheen appear on loose pistils. This usually happens on the 2-3rd day after castration. Before pollination, the insulator is removed from the castrated flowers, pollen is applied to the stigma with a brush or rubber band and rubbed lightly (for pollen of each variety, a separate brush or rubber band is needed). Then caps are put on the flowers again. For more reliable results, pollination should be repeated the next day, especially if it rained after.

Pollination of roses is best done during the first flowering period. Data for each pollination should be recorded. This is very important for holding the hybrid into a variety. Pollination results should be checked periodically.

After 12-15 days, parchment or cellophane insulators are changed to gauze. Practice has proven that under a gauze cap, the fruits ripen and are better preserved. The fruits are harvested when they begin to turn brown. Overripe seeds (nuts) have a very dense upper cover, so they germinate for a very long time, and sometimes only after a year, which delays the selection process of a new variety.

The period of fruit development from pollination to ripening is 70 - 100 days, in some varieties of roses - more than 100 days.

After harvesting the fruits, the seeds are cleaned of pulp and stratified (mixed in boxes with sand), rubbed well in the hands, and then placed in the basement for 10-12 days, where the temperature is 5-8 ° C. After that, the seeds with sand are sown in the ground. You can sow them in boxes or pots and place them in a greenhouse.

The area where hybrid seeds are sown is well watered and mulched. If they are sown in autumn, in September, seedlings appear the next year in April-May. When the seedlings have 2-3 leaves, they swoop down.

Young plants require careful care. The first flowering is allowed only in the second half of summer. During flowering, the best promising hybrid roses are selected for propagation. Propagated by budding. The final selection is carried out on the 3rd-4th year, when the qualities of hybrid plants are fully manifested.

The best varieties for breeding: Gloria Dei, Cordes Sondermeldung, Crimson Glory, Geheimrat Duisberg, Spect Yellow, Frau Karl Drushki, Charlotte Armstrong.

But no matter how successful human activity is in selecting useful plants, it still lags behind the nutritional needs of a growing society. We constantly need more and more productive plants. The population is growing very fast, we already know about this phenomenon. And more and more grain, potatoes, fruits and vegetables are required for the table, grass for livestock. Each cultivated hectare of land should be sown with productive plants. Only then will there be food for all.

We ourselves and our future generations look at selection and seed production with special hope.

After all, there is almost no free land suitable for cultivation in the world, and even in our country. On the contrary, the area of arable land in the 20th century has been steadily decreasing. Look how many roads, cities, mines and reservoirs take away arable land and meadows from people!

But we simply have to get as much as possible from a hectare. So far, the possibilities are endless.

Scientists have found another way to far-reaching changes. This is the so-called mutagenesis, the unexpected appearance of out of the ordinary plants with new hereditary qualities. And we use it, even create artificially such plants.

The emergence of mutants, strange individuals - from the point of view of nature itself - is not fully understood. This may be a sudden change in the strength of solar radiation in one very limited place in the field. Or the impact of particularly strong reagents that suddenly appeared in the soil solution caused a major change in the hereditary constancy of the plant. Then either oppressed specimens appear and live, these short-lived inhabitants on earth, or plants that differ from relatives in one or more qualities: vigorous growth, foliage, high seed productivity, early or late ripening, an increase in protein in grain, sugar in fruits, resistance to illness.

Let's take one of such examples.

More than two decades ago, in the United States, one biologist walked around the experimental field. He drew attention to the nondescript corn with ears filled with hazy grains. The scientist suspected a mutation and comprehensively studied his find. Opeyka grain, as this form of corn was called, was found to contain slightly more protein than any other variety of corn. And although the plant itself gave a low yield, it was necessary to find out whether the trait of high protein content is inherited. Crossing productive varieties of corn with opaque brought a surprise: high protein content was inherited! The first corn hybrids with a high protein content appeared in the breeding center. For Agriculture where corn is one of the main fodder crops and is necessarily given to livestock with protein supplements - soybeans, peas, alfalfa, the appearance of hybrids containing an increased percentage of protein is a more than welcome phenomenon. Breeders in different countries have been working on increasing protein in corn grain for many years and not very successfully. Today, opaques can be seen in almost every laboratory. There are already high-protein hybrids in our country. In particular, such scientists-breeders as academicians M. I. Khadzhinov, B. P. Sokolov and G. S. Galeev were engaged in their cultivation.

Such finds by experts and breeders are much more important than the discovery of new deposits of gold or platinum.

Let us recall that our famous Yaroslavl and Perm clovers became what they became famous in the country and throughout Europe, not by themselves, but with the help of selection: people did not pass by the mutants created by nature - especially productive specimens, propagated them. And, as they say, do not regret it!

We have already mentioned the Russian oilseed sunflower, such varieties as 8931, Smena, Mayak, created by breeders academicians V.S. After all, this is also the result of directional selection, hard work smart and enthusiastic people who have devoted their entire lives to breeding.

So many of the vegetables we know most—cabbages, red beetroots, carrots, onions, and garlic, as well as sugar beets—are the result of long and painstaking selection and hybridization of wild plants of little value by often obscure plant breeders.

Their work is a great science, and the selection of geographically distant relatives, and hybridization, and selection are used here. And what is very important - a special art of insight, without which it is difficult to achieve real success.

Breeding your own tomato variety, naming it by your own name and leaving it to your descendants is not such a problem. To do this, you need to purchase seeds of any rare, exotic, super productive varieties and start crossing them (you can buy seeds of more than 250 varieties of tomatoes in our online store.

All works can be conditionally divided into two stage - work in a greenhouse (2-3 years) and after a stable variety is bred - bureaucratic, after entering it into the state register (usually 4-5 years).

So let's start with the first step.
Since the tomato plant is bisexual and self-pollinating, before crossing, you need to remove the stamens from the flowers of the mother plant (on which you will apply the paternal pollen) with small tweezers - they are ideal for this. This operation is properly called castration. The flower must be supported with the left hand, and the tweezers must be in right hand. First, the petals are taken to the sides, and then the stamens are carefully plucked, trying to take them by the very bottom. This operation must be done very carefully so as not to damage the pistil of the flower.

The most suitable time for pollination is from 6 to 11 o'clock in the afternoon.
Pollen is collected from flowers plucked from the parent variety just before pollination. It is advisable to take it from flowers that have already been opened for the second or third day, and choose those whose stamens are colored brighter.
Then you need to separate a separate anther with tweezers, rip it open with tweezers from the inside. Pollen should remain on the tweezers, it is clearly visible. The pollen is then transferred to the stigma of the pistil. It will germinate in two or three hours.
The pollination operation is easier to carry out in a greenhouse, where neither wind nor insects will disturb you. Crossing should be done on the very first two brushes.
Since flowering in tomatoes occurs unevenly, castration and pollination are carried out within two weeks.

To collect more pollen to pollinate the required number of flowers, you need to pluck the opened flowers, separate the anthers from them and lay them out on clean white paper. After a day, the paper is carefully folded so that nothing can spill out, and it is tapped a little so that the pollen is detached. Then the paper is unfolded, the anthers are removed, and the pollen is carefully collected with a blade in one place. Pollen is poured into a glass tube, a tampon is inserted from below and from above, before pollination one tampon is removed and the pistil of the flower is lowered into the open hole. In such a tube, it is easy to regulate the supply of pollen by moving the lower tampon to the top. You just need to know that pollen can be stored for one or two days, no more.
On the bush where you pollinated, only these pollinated flowers are left, and the rest that will appear are removed.

Tomato is a self-fertile plant, and self-pollination between varieties without intervention is very rare, so varieties can maintain their purity indefinitely, especially since tomato pollen is considered very heavy and even with a very strong wind it can fall after 50 cm, but no further. Therefore, there is no need to be afraid if you have planted many varieties that they will lose their varietal qualities, it will not happen. Ideally, of course, for breeding new varieties, it is better to have a small but separate greenhouse for each.

The second stage is sometimes more difficult and not even always solvable for a practicing gardener. In order for your variety to become a full-fledged variety, it must be entered in the state register of breeding achievements.

In accordance with the Rules for making a decision on an application for admission of a selection achievement for use: Clause 1. Breeding achievements (plant varieties, animal breeds), hereinafter referred to as “varieties”, applied for admission to use, must meet the requirements of distinctness, uniformity, stability and economic usefulness. Clause 2. ... If the variety does not meet the requirements of distinctness, uniformity or stability Registration Department and state registers submits a proposal to the expert commission to reject the application (testing of such varieties for economic usefulness is terminated).P. , production of original seeds, payment of a fee for maintaining in the State Register of Breeding Achievements.

Translating all of the above into plain language, we get the following:
1. A new variety of vegetables or flowers that a particular company wants to include in the State Register must: a) differ in some way from those already entered; b) from year to year to give the same yields (to be uniform and stable) b) to have a high yield (to be economically useful)
2. If the variety of vegetables or flowers does not comply with paragraph 1, it will not be included in the State Register.
3. Entering a new variety of flowers or vegetables into the State Register costs money.
4. Maintaining a variety in the State Register also costs money (i.e. if the annual fee is not paid, the variety, no matter how good it is, will be excluded from the State Register).
5. The amount of payments for introducing / maintaining a variety of vegetables or flowers does not depend on the volume of its sales. Where New Varieties Come From Now, for a complete understanding of the situation, let's look at where new varieties of flowers or vegetables appear on sale. I would like to note right away that in spite of everything, breeding work is still being carried out in our country and new varieties are being developed. But very few new varieties are being developed, and only a few of them go through the stage of commercial production and reach the shelves. Therefore, for the most part, Russian bagging companies buy ready-made flower and vegetable seeds from the West, bring them to Russia and package them in colored bags. These seeds appear on sale in stores and online seed stores. Sometimes they are sold under "native" names, but often the packaging company does not buy the same variety, but different varieties vegetables or flowers of the same variety type and comes up with one name for them - something “super-sounding” and “invitingly beautiful”. From this it follows that:
1. If, for example, 2 different companies purchased seeds of vegetables or flowers of the same variety in the West, packaged them and each gave them their own name, then both varieties cannot be entered into the State Register by definition, because they are completely identical.
2. If, for example, a bagging company buys in the West seeds not of a specific variety, but of different varieties of the same variety type and sells them under its own name, then it cannot be entered in the State Register, because uneven and unstable.
3. If, for example, the purchased seeds of one or another variety of vegetables are distinguished not by high yield, but by the color or shape of the fruit, then it cannot be entered into the State Register, because. economically useless.
4. If, for example, the planned or actual sales of seeds of flowers or vegetables of any variety are not large, there is no point in entering it into the State Register, because the entry fee, decomposed by the number of bags sold, will raise their value very much.
5. If, for example, seeds of vegetables or flowers of the same variety are sold by several companies, despite the fact that the company that entered this variety in the State Register does not receive an author’s percentage from them, then it has no reason to support this variety in the State Register, because they pay the money, and the rest use it for free.

Try it and even if you don’t get documents for your grade, believe me, the very process of creating something new will captivate you for many years.

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HOW NEW APPLE VARIETIES ARE DEVELOPED

And van Vladimirovich Michurin, the great transformer of nature, said: “We cannot expect favors from nature; to take them from her is our task.” Michurin devoted sixty years of his creative working life to the art of creating new varieties. He also pointed out the way in which new varieties of plants could be created.

This path of hybridization, or artificial crossing different varieties plants to obtain hybrids (crosses).

As you know, a fruit tree without flowering cannot set a fruit and give a seed. Only in the process of flowering, the stigma of the pistil is pollinated by pollen from the same or from another tree of the same species, and fertilization occurs. The seed that has arisen in this way will be the bearer of the characteristics characteristic of the maternal and paternal trees. And during hybridization, a person chooses producers intentionally, that is, with such properties that he would like to give to the future plant.

Here is an example from the work of I. V. Michurin. AT middle lane In the European part of the USSR, there are no pear varieties that would combine the good taste of fruits and the ability to store for a long time, that is, there are no winter varieties. To get a similar variety, Ivan Vladimirovich acted in this way. In 1903, several flowers of a young, six-year-old Ussuri pear tree that bloomed for the first time, the small fruits of which are coarse, were fertilized with pollen taken from a potted specimen of a bere-royal pear - an Italian variety with tasty and long-term stored fruits.

Of the five hybrids obtained from this crossing, one, according to Ivan Vladimirovich, "successfully combined both in the properties of the tree and in the qualities of its fruits the dignity of both producing plants." The fruits ripen in late autumn and remain fresh until March (take winter Michurina).

Another example. The currently widely known Slavyanka variety was obtained by Ivan Vladimirovich by crossing antonovka ordinary (mother variety) and pineapple reneta (father variety), whose birthplace is France. As a result of hybridization, the excellent taste qualities of rennet, its exceptional aromaticity, were perfectly combined with the winter hardiness of Antonovka and a very significant keeping quality of its fruits (until spring).

How is plant hybridization done? It is not only useful for young gardeners, especially those working in circles, to know the technique of hybridization, but they themselves should actively take part in crossing fruit trees.

This is the technique of hybridization. On the mother plant, inflorescences are planned (the so-called groups of flowers that come out of one fruit bud) with normally developing buds and the least developed ones are removed, leaving two or three of the best. The buds, ready to bloom tomorrow, must be opened and castrated today, that is, carefully pluck out all the pollen sacs with tweezers or scissors.

In order to prevent pollen from other flowers from being brought onto the castrated flowers by wind or insects, the treated inflorescences should be enclosed in white gauze bags, carefully and carefully tied.

Pollen from the flower of the paternal variety is harvested a little earlier - one or two days before castration. Having opened a bud that is ready to bloom, but not yet bloomed, they tear off the pollen sacs with tweezers and put them in a glass jar. The collected pollen is placed for ripening in a warm and dry place, but not in the sun. Pollen soon ripens and spills out of the sacs. In this form, it can be preserved without losing viability for a month or more (this makes it possible to obtain pollen from remote areas in advance).

On the day after the castration of the flower of the mother plant, in the morning, between 8 and 12 o'clock, pollination takes place.

Pollen in a jar is shaken and then applied with a fingertip or a piece of rubber or cork, mounted on a wire, on the stigma of the pestle.

After that, the inflorescence is again enclosed in an insulator to protect the flowers, and subsequently the ovary and fruits from accidental damage. A label is attached to the branch near the inflorescence indicating the mother plant and the pollinator variety, the date and number of pollinated flowers.

Pollination of each flower must be repeated within the next three days.

In the future, as they ripen, the fruits are removed. Summer varieties are given 7-10 days for final maturation, after which seeds are selected. Varieties ripening in a long maturation are left for storage and seeds are selected from them only when the fruits begin to deteriorate.

The selected seeds are stratified in the usual manner and sown in the spring. However, it is impossible to be late with the stratification of seeds of winter varieties. It should be done in a timely manner. In this case, of course, one must be especially careful to ensure that each group of seeds has its own exact designation.

For greater success in hybridization, I. V. Michurin recommends proceeding from certain provisions established by him.

So, the best result is obtained if the producers are taken from different climatic, soil zones, from different reliefs, etc. The hybrids obtained from such crossing are easier to change in the direction we need when they find themselves in an environment unusual for them.

Young apple trees that have recently entered fruiting, like adult trees, but are weakened by something (dry weather, cold spring, affected by pests), are less likely to transfer their qualities to the hybrid than plants that are in full strength of their development.

In years with a warm, moderately humid and quiet spring, there is the highest percentage of successful crosses. In such weather, the qualities and properties the best varieties, developed under favorable conditions of a warm climate, are much more fully transferred to hybrids in our area.

Especially great importance Ivan Vladimirovich attached to the influences that a hybrid plant undergoes in the first years of life. The plasticity of the young hybrid is very high, while the stability of the inherited traits is weakened by the new environment in which the hybrid plant now finds itself. Therefore, the education of a young hybrid is of great importance.

Care of trees in a hybrid nursery, tillage, pest control should be carried out at a high agrotechnical level. However, in cases where one of the producers is a southern variety, fat soil is excluded. Hybrids that grow luxuriantly in such soil are pampered. Only brought up on thin soil, hybrids are resistant to frost.

Fertilizing seedlings, says Ivan Vladimirovich, should be started only when they begin to lay their fruiting organs. Enhanced nutrition must be continued during the first three to five years of fruiting, when all the qualities characteristic of a given plant are finally determined. In addition, it is necessary to keep seedlings of hybrids from developing a large number small branches by pinching lateral branches to direct the movement of juices to continue shoots.

Some growers sleep and see how to breed a new variety, and what to cross to get a hybrid form that strikes the imagination in size, color and taste ... I want to disappoint those who want to try on Michurin's laurels. Selection is a long process.

If time doesn't scare you, be patient! You will need the following gentlemen's kit:

at least five years to breed one variety;
decent piece of land;
the ability to endure failure;
receive positive emotions from the lesson.

It is useful to familiarize yourself with professional literature. This may be a textbook on viticulture by the authorship of Negrul, and "Genetics and selection of the vine" by Ayvazyan P.K. and Dokuchaeva E.N.

You also need to turn your vineyard into an impregnable fortress, otherwise the fruits of your combinations may go to banal thieves who will sell bunches on the market, and you will lose all the results of your work. Such cases are not just unsettling, they leave a bitter aftertaste for a long time.

And still it is necessary to put only feasible tasks. Breeding frost-resistant grapes with good performance whole scientific institutes are engaged, and the results are still modest.

An amateur breeder cannot handle such tasks. The probability of getting a variety with frost resistance -30...-32°C from offspring with frost resistance -23 ... -25 ° С is the same as hitting the jackpot in the lottery. The same can be said about high resistance to diseases.

Despite these limitations, the field of activity of enthusiasts is very extensive. You can improve the color of the bunches, the shape of the berries, the size, the taste, the structure, the ripening time, the vigor of the growth, the yield, the sex of the flower, the seedlessness… So that's enough work.

Never cross pairs at random. Use the “duet” rule: if you plan to breed a large-berry variety with a given color of bunches, then choose both parental forms with a given color. Use this rule when setting a selection problem. The probability of getting a bisexual variety is different: when crossing bisexual varieties, the probability is 3 to 1. That is, three seedlings will be bisexual, and one will be unisexual. Previously, all same-sex forms were rejected. But if we do this now, then we would be left without Talisman, Flora, Flamingo, Victoria, Sofia, Gourmets ... So do not rush to reject hybrid forms, maybe they will have other advantages. In industrial selection, out of a hundred seedlings, only one or two with the desired properties were selected, the rest were rejected. In amateur breeding, 20-30 seedlings are considered sufficient.

And the last. It has been noted that the earlier the maturation period of the mother form, the worse the germination of hybrid seeds. The lowest germination in super-early varieties is only 1-1.5%. And in maternal forms with early term maturation - 10-25%. The best germination is in seeds from late mother bushes.