Crossing Bing and Van = Rainier cherry?
Can one get Rainier by crossing Bing and Van, what are the original wild types?
Hi Chinnlab
Although Rainier is indeed a cross between Bing and Van. You cannot duplicate it again by doing crosses between those varieties yourself.
The variation from the original gene mix would be too great.
That's why any variety is always propogated on with material that goes back to the original mother tree.
In fact with modern genetic tracing the breeding and research stations are constantly checking to make sure that all varieties that are marketed do indeed have the original mother tree parentage.
Jona.
Although Rainier is indeed a cross between Bing and Van. You cannot duplicate it again by doing crosses between those varieties yourself.
The variation from the original gene mix would be too great.
That's why any variety is always propogated on with material that goes back to the original mother tree.
In fact with modern genetic tracing the breeding and research stations are constantly checking to make sure that all varieties that are marketed do indeed have the original mother tree parentage.
Jona.
Hi Diane,
Yes there is only one original 'mother ' tree.
A breeder will start off with perhaps upwards of a thousand seedlings from a particular crossing.
He/ she then over several years gradually discards plants for a variety of reasons....poor growth,,,desease succeptabilty....poor cropping and lousy fruit...etc.
Eventually they will be left with just a few that they are pleased with. These will be bulked up by grafting and nowadays tip culture and the resulting trees sent out to various orchards to test them in actual growing and soil conditions and climate variations.
When these results are in then it will be decided if any of them are good enough for public sale.
Its a long process that usually takes about ten years or so.
The individual tree is then propogated up into a series of mother trees that go out to the nurseries for them to increase the numbers.
All the time though the variety can be traced directly back to the original mother tree.
Quite a process.
Jona.
Yes there is only one original 'mother ' tree.
A breeder will start off with perhaps upwards of a thousand seedlings from a particular crossing.
He/ she then over several years gradually discards plants for a variety of reasons....poor growth,,,desease succeptabilty....poor cropping and lousy fruit...etc.
Eventually they will be left with just a few that they are pleased with. These will be bulked up by grafting and nowadays tip culture and the resulting trees sent out to various orchards to test them in actual growing and soil conditions and climate variations.
When these results are in then it will be decided if any of them are good enough for public sale.
Its a long process that usually takes about ten years or so.
The individual tree is then propogated up into a series of mother trees that go out to the nurseries for them to increase the numbers.
All the time though the variety can be traced directly back to the original mother tree.
Quite a process.
Jona.