Lorn, that's some interesting info. How does one find out the ploidy percentage? I have read before that they are never 100% when doing a ploidy conversion. Which makes a bit of sense. They are originally diploids. I didn't know that they had a shortened life though. Is the result the same if you take 2 cultivars with a high 4n percentage and hybridize them?
I think there is still a lot of work that can be done with ploidy. Maybe through generations of breeding with high percentage 4n? They would be as close to 100%. But that would take many generations to accomplish. Maybe then they could have a longer garden life. But then again maybe not, having multiple extra chromosomes, which in turn expels more energy for the plant every year, might not be a way to get around that.
