| Determining the Parents |
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First step is to choose parents that possess desired traits that compliment each other.
- Plant history
- Tolerance to environmental stresses, i.e. cold hardiness, tolerance to heat, drought, high soil ph, poor soil fertility, poor drainage, etc.
- Tolerance to insect and diseases
- Plant size and form
- Aesthetic qualities such as flowering, fall color, leaf color, and texture, etc.
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Making Crosses
- Collect pollen from male parents and store, if necessary, until female parent receptive
- Emasculate female parent to prevent selfing and insect pollination
- Hand pollination
- Bag and seed parent to prevent insect or wind pollination
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Seed Collection and Propogation
- Collect fruit when seeds mature
- Clean seeds
- Provide necessary treatment for seed germination, i.e. stratification, scarfication, proper germination conditions required for each species
Seed Collection and Propogation
- Collect fruit when seeds mature
- Clean seeds
- Provide necessary treatment for seed germination, i.e. stratification, scarfication, proper germination conditions required for each species
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Evaluation of Hybrids
- Early evaluation of seedlings to reduce population sizes
- Field plantings in Oregon and Minnesota for further evaluation for desired traits
- Select promising plants and asexual propagators for wider testing under different environmental conditions
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Produce second generation hybrids
- Controlled crosses or open pollinated to produce 2nd generation that results in recombination of traits
- 2nd generation plants grown in different regions by Center cooperators to select plants that are well-adapted to
environmental conditions of the respective region and possess other desired traits
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