Those cuttings I took a week or so back have rooted in water and today I potted them up. There are 2 of my Eleanor here and a further 2 of Ice and Fire. They made strong little plants which are now on the dining room windowsill. I have never tried this before. I do realise that they will get very drawn and leggy over the winter but this will give me the opportunity to take more cuttings in spring and see if I get any difference in the maturity of the plants compared with seed sown. If there's little or no difference, it would still be worth doing for the sake of a few F1 plants when the seed of these is so ridiculously priced!
The Autumn Paintbrush is Out
3 days ago
13 comments:
I shall watch with interest, great way of keeping propogating material going through the winter so you can get an early start next year.
Interesting idea. I think I'll give it a go too!
I was going to try this this year as well but haven't taken my cuttings yet.
Wouldn't it be easier in the long run to dehybridise the F1's? Save seed, and save again from the best each year. People have done it successfully before.
Oooh, that is a nice little experiment.
I am dehybridising too Robert. One of these is a cutting from a Sungold F4 selection. I just think there's room for doing things in different ways.
Dehybridise? I guess I'll have to look that one up.
It simply means growing on the seeds of an F1 hybrid (which don't breed true) and saving seed from those which come nearest to the original - or have the best traits of the original. After several generations (some say as much as 7 or 8)you will get a stable new variety and depending on your selection criteria they can be a close approximation to the F1 or even, to your own taste, better, and will breed true each year.
I think this is a really interesting experiment and I'll watch your results with interest. I might even give it a go myself next year.
What an interesting experiment! I kept sweet potato cuttings over Winter in the same way. Looking forward to your results.
It shouldn't be too hard to keep them going - temperature on the cool side and with maximum amounts of light. Watch out for aphids. Good luck.
That's a good idea to clone the F1's. Wise I read this before I ripped them all out :-)
I've always wanted to do this and have tried a couple times though my plants generally get foliar disease near the end of the season so I have hesitated on bringing anything inside that is transmittable to my overwintering peppers. I'd be interested to see how they do next year for you!
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