A few things I dont understand:

1) why have many of the cross breeds been created by expert botanists ?

(or in other words what skills do they have that a novice does not to pull this off)

2) what is the dividing line as far as which which palms interbreed ?

(or in other words whats the taxonomy that controls palm cross breeding)

3) what is the reason that many more cross breed dont exist at this point ?

4) what skills must you have to experiment with cross breeding ?

Edited October 8, 201015 yr by trioderob

Hi, Triode Rob:

1] OTOH, many of the crossbreeds have not been created by expert botanists.

2} The dividing lines are basically found mostly by trial and error.

3] It is difficult to predict which closely related cultivars will hybridize.

4] Some experience manipulating pollen and gravid plants [parents] would be helpful.

Best Wishes,

merrill

For a site with so many hybridizers, I am amazed at the lack of responses to this topic. I am a fence sitter on the hybridization subject. I sneer at people who crossbred dogs, creating those so called designer dogs but palm crosses can be attractive (in some cases) and more resiliant than the natural species. However I still fear a frankenstein's species appearing that will turn into an infestation or something equally dire. I own 3 hybrids...a butiagrus, tough, pretty and fast growing, a veitchia-carpentaria, nothing special really just another palm, and hyophorbe verschafeltii X lagenicaulis, nowhere near as tough as either parent species, and prone to rotting from the inside out. They look fine till they fall over and you see they are hollow inside. So in my experience, 1 out of 3 was worthwile, with a why bother, and 1 waste of time.

Peachy

Rob,

First let me say that I have never attempted to cross breed palms. I suspect that it is not a "school me" topic for a thread. Perhaps the small number of replies from other hybridizers speaks to this. Merill and others on palmtalk have plenty of experience in this area that I expect took many years to accumulate and it may be that condensing it into a thread is not practical. Besides the technical aspects, some subjective content may be involved that you just need to learn from someone else by watching them.

Good luck,

Tom

A few things I dont understand:

1) why have many of the cross breeds been created by expert botanists ?

(or in other words what skills do they have that a novice does not to pull this off)

2) what is the dividing line as far as which which palms interbreed ?

(or in other words whats the taxonomy that controls palm cross breeding)

3) what is the reason that many more cross breed dont exist at this point ?

4) what skills must you have to experiment with cross breeding ?

You should read the Jubutyagrus thread. It contains most of this information and takes about 20 pages to document it properly.

-Krishna

Would like to see a cross between P. pacifica and W. robusta.

Krishna hit the nail on the head! I never answered the above request because i have allready posted before allmost all of the answers to the above questions.

I would imagine that all of the other fellows who hybridize palms feel the same as I.

There have been many posted threads regarding this subject in the past.

I would suggest to look in the archives and you will find a great deal of info!

Mark

Here is the post where Tim Hopper more or less walks you through it step by step for cocosoid palms. Other palm flowers will be different (ie. too small to deal with, dioecious, etc). I think it starts on page 3 of the post.

The only thing he doesn't detail is how to store pollen (separating, drying, freezing).

http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=4789&st=0

Of course, if you're lucky enough to have both the pollen and female flowers ready to go at the same time, just use the fresh pollen.

The most important thing.... is to find a short mother plant so you don't need a ladder