Hi, Chalyse and Xenacrockett
Chalyse wrote - Really enjoy seeing your seedlings, Brian; so many of them have their own unique looks, like Ron's! Would you say that there are a number of resistant generations in both your two hybridizer's lines that go back some 2-3 decades of observation and selection (seeding x seedling x seedling, x seedling...an on)? I can only imagine the time and effort; well spent for such lovely results.
Chalyse,
Thank you for your kind words about my seedlings. I don't have that much time in my lines. Rust has only been in the US 15 years and I have only been actively breeding for about five years, though I have grown (and thought deeply about daylilies) for much, much longer (about 40 years now). My poultry research and breeding work kept me too busy for a long time to actively pursue breeding daylilies. Once I had gotten to where I could though, I jumped in with gusto! I produce between 50,000 - 100,000 seeds each year (though I do everything in my power to swiftly kill as many as possible, making them jump through every hoop possible to end up with, hopefully, only the strongest individuals - and I hope to cut those numbers down some as I proceed into the future and develop my own lines more fully). I am just now getting to the point where I am beginning to see some of my first F1 x F1 (F2, BC1, etc) seedlings flowering and I have some seeds from some few of those this year to plant. Being in Kentucky, I get about a generation every three years (sometime four or five years) and any plant (cultivar or seedling) can take up to five years to really evaluate properly, though some are obviously culls much sooner! My first seedlings were just seeds I purchased on the Lily Auction, trying to bring in genes to give me a one year jump-start as I bought in cultivars I wanted to work with (or thought I did at the time). I did try to pick seeds from cultivars with both phenotype traits I liked and known plant traits, including rust resistance, where it was known, but it always wasn't, so sometimes I bought things that just didn't pan out in the long run.
I don't want to pat myself too hard on the back :-), but I am an artist in addition to being a breeder and genetics fanatic, and I think that gives me an edge as I have a good eye for tones and very clear ideas in my mind of what I want to produce. As well, all those decades of growing daylilies gave me a lot of insight into what I liked and (even more importantly) what I don't like. On the rust resistance front, I apply a combination of my own experience with immune-genetic selection for over twenty years in poultry and a lot of research and field-trials to locate individual plants that have both long-term resistance and breeding value. That takes time. I consider each year's results as just more possible evidence and it is at least five years of data and testing/experience (both of the plant and its offspring - to see its breeding value) before I feel secure with making something a major focus in breeding.
Xenacrockett wrote - Great to have you here.
Question: You used "Always Afternoon" in your rust resistant breeding which is curious since my experience is she was very rusty here?
She is on my list of plants to put in the "rust coliseum" next year.
Did JKO combination counter rust in some way?
Xenacrockett,
Thanks! I didn't use Always Afternoon and don't grow it. I bought some seeds that had it as a parent in a big group of tet seeds I bought really cheap off the auction. JKO does seem to have imparted some rust resistance, but not a lot. I would call those AA x JKO sdlgs moderately resistant/moderately susceptible (and they have been through three rust test years here), whichever way you want to look at it. I look at it as both. I am experimenting with them to determine if they are useful when bred with more resistant things, as they rebloom very well here for me. The jury is still out - probably a couple more years at least before I have any real idea. JKO comes from Linda's Magic which shows moderate resistance also. Some moderately resistant plants can have breeding value when combined with the right partner, and even some highly susceptible plants can produce a few resistant plants when properly combined, but I would say that is rare, though possible - may depend on whether they are carrying recessive genes and you pick a parent with complementary genes or could just be that you combine them with something more resistant with one or more major dominant resistant genes. I can't really say yet, but would think both ways are possible. From what I hear, you are right about AA.
Brian
