Has anyone bred back mules to fertility

[Dimovi]

I'm interested in cold hardy cocoseae, but it bothers me that mules cannot reproduce.

I wonder if anyone has managed to cross back a mule to the point that the offspring can produce viable seeds? Is anyone actively pursuing that?

I have some butias and maybe I can try jubaea, but that's probably all.

[buffy]

2 hours ago, Dimovi said:

I'm interested in cold hardy cocoseae, but it bothers me that mules cannot reproduce.

I wonder if anyone has managed to cross back a mule to the point that the offspring can produce viable seeds? Is anyone actively pursuing that?

I have some butias and maybe I can try jubaea, but that's probably all.

Yes. Plenty of examples. Start searching. 

[RJ]

3 hours ago, Dimovi said:

I'm interested in cold hardy cocoseae, but it bothers me that mules cannot reproduce.

I wonder if anyone has managed to cross back a mule to the point that the offspring can produce viable seeds? Is anyone actively pursuing that?

I have some butias and maybe I can try jubaea, but that's probably all.

As Buffy stated it has been done numerous times, the problem is you often have to back cross far enough back that the parent plant looks very much like the original and you loose the hybrid vigor.  For an example: 

(BXJ) to have viable seeds often needs several back crossed to produce viable seed. You end up with ((((BxJ)xB)xB)xB). There is so little Jubaea left that it looks pretty much like a butia. 

[Dimovi]

1 hour ago, buffy said:

Yes. Plenty of examples. Start searching. 

I am asking here because I could not find much.  Do you know anyone who sells seeds or seedlings?

[Turtlesteve]

I have not seen proof that it's been done, except via back-crossing.  For about a year, I had a seedling from between the old leaf bases of a mule palm, which I think was an unintentional (BxS)xB.  Unfortunately, it did not survive so I won't ever know for sure.  I have heard on the forum a couple times that some BxJ or JxB F1 crosses (presumably a small percentage) are self-fertile and produce seed that are true F2's.  I have no reason not to believe it, but neither has anyone been able to document that they are actually 50/50 parentage and not back-crosses.

I also do not know if the infertility of mules is genetic or based on some other mechanism (e.g. a defect of the pollen or fertilized seed).

Steve

[Steve in Florida]

Mule palm flowers may accept Butia pollen but the percent pollinated is low. 

[edbrown_III]

John Raulerson created a 3/4 Butia x S. romanzoffianum in the 1980s---  A few folks have created Butia - Jubea x Syagrus crosses ---      low percentage of sucess --- or if one wants to make it their lifes work 

[waykoolplantz]

11 hours ago, edbrown_III said:

- or if one wants to make it their lifes work 

Make fertile mules...develop skills as a poo-sculptor...so many life choices