I studied Food Science in college, but in my office I had a good friend who was doing a PhD in agronomy. He knew a lot about plant genetics, and he was the first person how explained to me about "hybrid vigor". This was in Texas A&M. We were working mostly on cereals, particularly sorghum. The basic concept is that you have two varieties, each one with specific qualities. If you interbreed these varieties, you obtain a hybrid, which has BETTER properties than each of the original varieties. Hence the term hybrid "vigor". A "problem" with hybrids however is that you typically can't propagate them properly by seeds, because the resulting plants are not true to the parent hybrid, but rather you get a lot of variability.
Inter-species hybrids are even more interesting - at least to me -, and the things that have been done with Annonas I find fascinating. Atemoyas (A. squamosa x A. cherimola), Cherilatas (A. cherimola X A. reticulata [custard apple]), Sugarlatas (A. squamosa X A. reticulata), and other things people are doing I find fascinating.
I was wondering if anyone here is working breeding annona hybrids? I have a ton of questions....
For example, when breeding atemoyas, does it make a difference if the female flower is a Sugar Apple or the Cherimoya? Another question, I have seen that people take an Atemoya female flower and fertilize it again with Sugar Apple pollen... What happens when you do this? Is the hybrid vigor mantained?
I have been searching for more information on this subject, but can't find much....
Topic: Hybrid vigor and Annona hybrids (Read 708 times)