The first pods have started to dry out and crack open here over the past week, so I have been collecting them and allowing the seed to dry. I sorted the seed today and got mixed results. Unsurprisingly, the first of the 'Tiger Babies' crosses (with what I am reasonably sure is 'Pearl Jessica') was mostly chaff (two good seeds and about a dozen "maybes" out of three pods of the same cross). Wasn't expecting much because of its reputation to produce chaff.
However, I got a rather nice surprise from another cross, from which I collected the pods yesterday. This was the first cross I made - 'Mapira' X 'Tiny Rocket'. I was fully expecting it to be chaff, since 'Mapira' is an L/A and likely 3N, whilst 'Tiny Rocket' (Asiatic) is probably just 2N. There were three reasons this cross happened - curiosity (would a 3Nx2N work), availability ('Tiny Rocket' was the only pollen available, as nothing else was in flower) and interest (I liked both).
Photos of 'Mapira' - 8th November 2016 and 19th November 2016. Pollinated on the 6th.
'Tiny Rocket' - forced and sold out-of-season at Bunnings. Collected some pollen back in May 2016 and stored it in the freezer. Clearly it worked!
Pods on the 23rd of Feb:
The final count: 356 chaff, 35 "maybes" and
131 good seed from the two pods!
Not bad for a cross that "shouldn't" have worked. I also know that they will germinate, as four had tried to in the pod (two of which I think have dried out too much and died, but the other two I will try to save and put in a bag along with a few other seeds that were quite plump).
I will be very interested to see what these produce. A dwarf version of 'Mapira' and the colour of 'Mapira' with the nectary frosting from 'Tiny Rocket' ('Mapira' does have some, but it's not as obvious) will be ones to look for in the results.
