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Old August 22, 2009   #6
mjc
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Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: WV
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Blueaussi View Post
And of course, in the real world there are a lot more genes involved in a F1 cross then a simple single one for color, which is why a lot of folks don't bother to save seed on F1 plants.
Unless you want to spend several years growing out the offspring generations and selecting the closest matches in order to create an open pollinated version of the original F1 seed...a process known as dehybridizing.

And yes, there should be, if enough seeds are planted a very nearly exact duplicate of the original in the F2 stage...most of the time. It also gets more complex when more than one gene pair controls a particular trait.

And without doing DNA analysis, it is nearly impossible to find that 'exact' match...that is why for things that take a fairly long time (like fruit trees) from seed to fruit bearing age, nobody bothers with seed saving/dehybridizing. Think of how long it would take to dehybridize an apple tree that takes 5 to 10 years to bear fruit from seed and five or more generations to achieve results. Tomatoes can take 5 to 10 years or so (less if you can grow them in a greenhouse or live in a mild climate and can get two crops in per year).

But it is a fun hobby, if you've got the time and space to dedicate to growing out a fairly large number of one variety.
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