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deluxestogie

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Creating an intentional cross is technically easy, though it is tedious. Here, I explain the basic procedure.

Unbagged tobacco blossoms will randomly cross with whatever varieties of N. tabacum happen to be growing within a half-mile. What you end up with, even from a single mature seed pod, will then be entirely unpredictable and varied.

One reason for intentionally crossing two varieties is to attempt to share some desirable trait of one variety (say, broad and flat leaf growth) with a different variety that has some other desirable trait (say, easy color-curing). For the best chance of possibly seeing the desired combination, you will need to do the cross in both directions: host (blossom) A crossed with pollen from B, as well as host (blossom) B crossed with pollen from A.

Some traits are supplied exclusively by the host plant (the female part of the blossom, where the seed will develop within the pod), while others are supplied by the pollen donor (the male side of the cross). [The energy machines within a cell, the mitochondria, have their own separate DNA, and this is delivered to the offspring seed only through the host (female) plant. Pollen contains no mitochondria. Most of the DNA resides within the nucleus of the plant cells, and can be contributed by either parent.] The problem is that you usually won't know if a specific trait is from nuclear DNA or from mitochondrial DNA. So creating crosses (using separate blossoms) in both directions is advisable.

Although you can perform the following procedure on a single blossom on each plant, it's a good idea to do so with at least a few blossoms in each direction. That will minimize the risk of random loss of a bud to weather, accident, budworm, etc.

I cut a waterproof stem tag from a ~2-1/2" strip of Tyvek (cut from a Tyvek envelope). The pointed end helps when inserting it into the slot. It is labeled with an "Extra Fine" Sharpie marker. These will last a long time, and will not fade in the sun. Be sure to label the tags consistently. My choice was to state the host variety first, then the pollen variety second.

Crossing20120720_373_stemTag_300.jpg


The male (pollen donor) side of the cross must be from a freshly opened blossom. The female (host) blossom must be selected and pollinated the day before it opens. This sounds tricky, but if you observe some blossoms developing, you can easily identify what the blossom looks like the day before it opens. It is critical to cross the blossom before it has opened, since it will otherwise pollinate itself. Before opening, the pollen on the anthers is not yet mature, and can be simply removed with the anthers.

Crossing20120720_372_trimmingBlossom_300.jpg


The process of performing the cross can be completed easily using a small pair of scissors and a hemostat clamp. A pair of small tweezers will work nearly as well as a hemostat.

I first clip the frill from the end of the immature blossom, then slit the blossom lengthwise to gain access to the sex organs. The pistil (female) appears as a light green stem in the center of the blossom. Its terminal end is usually a very dark green. The thin stems of the stamen (of which there are always 5) surround it, with a pale green anther at the end. The anther resembles a soft, pale green barley grain. If it appears to have a powdery coating, then the blossom is too mature, and a different blossom must be selected for the host.

Crossing20120720_375_exposingOrgans_300.jpg
Crossing20120720_376_anther_300.jpg


Carefully avoiding injuring the central pistil stem, pluck out each of the 5 anthers, and discard them. You can leave the now-naked stamen stems in the blossom.

Now go to the plant that will serve as the pollen source, and locate a freshly opened blossom. The anthers here should appear dark and powder-coated. Pluck out 2 or three anthers and place them inside the previously exposed host blossom. The host blossom is then sealed by folding a strip of paper masking tape lengthwise over it. Wind motion will allow the foreign anthers to pollinate the host pistil.

You must now tag the stem of the host blossom, trimming away all but a few immature buds to use for additional crosses of the same variety. If one of the extra blossoms opens before you do the cross, it should be removed to avoid confusion.

Crossing20120720_377_sealedBlossom_trimmedStem_300.jpg


The tape will eventually fall off with the aging blossom. If the cross is fertile, then a fat pod will develop. If the cross is infertile, then the entire tiny pod may die and fall off with the blossom and tape, leaving a bare, tagged stem.

Crossing20120720_379_infertileCross_300.jpg
Crossing20120720_380_fertileCross_300.jpg

The infertile cross on the left [N. tabacum x N. rustica] appears as an empty stalk. The fertile cross on the right boasts fat, maturing seed pods.

My practice is to use the hemostat on any crosses that use the same source of mature pollen, prior to thoroughly washing the hemostat. To handle more than one pollen source without cleaning the hemostat is likely to mix the pollen by contamination.

Successful pods should be allowed to brown on the plant, then the tagged stem removed for drying several months under shelter.

You won't know what you've accomplished until you germinate and grow out this F1 generation of seed the following year. At that time, you should germinate and plant as many of the seeds as you will have room to grow, since each one within a single pod may have combined a different set of traits from the cross. Regardless of how satisfied you may be with a plant or plants from the F1 generation, you still don't have a stable set of traits. To stabilize a new variety, you may need to then "self" it for 3 to 7 years, until most of the offspring reflect the traits of the new variety. Although this sounds like a daunting task, if you will be growing tobacco anyway, this can simply be a minor side project, which may or may not yield a useful new strain. If you are successful, then you are entitled to name it.

Bob
 

Tom_in_TN

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Thanks for a very good explanation of the crossing technique. The photos are very helpful for anyone who wants to try a similar experiment.
Hey, maybe Little Dutch crossed with Mt Pima will yield a sweet aromatic leaf with a nic hit that will knock you into next week. I'd be willing to grow some of the seed from that cross next season and give a report.
 

darren1979

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I second what everyone has said, well written and good photos. I may try this in a few years when i nail down this tobacco growing lark. Just would take me for ever to think of a good name.
 

POGreen

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Must say that I am just amazed in how much knowledge you are sitting on Bob.
Is it pure experience or more ?
 

POGreen

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To me you don't seem old just one bit , but ok I meet you halfway and say : An elderly guy with a lot of knowledge in the field of tobacco.
The old thread is very interesting to me , didn't know anybody in here was able to cross tobacco varieties like this.
You pass on some pretty valuable knowledge/information here Bob and thats worth a great deal to us a bit younger fellers.
Thats the way I see it and cherish it highly.
Nobody in here knows as much as you do and I think you should be very proud of that. It's a work of art.
Where else would we find information as good as yours ? I'd say it is not to found anywhere.
Think everybody in this forum supports up my theory.

POGreen
 

Cigar

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Best info I have seen on cross-breeding tobacco so far! I have [2] questions Deluxestogie? 1}how many breeds you would call sucess have you done? 2}is it possible to cross differnet types
of tobacco..like example: burley[glesnor} with cigar{sumtra}. would love to try several different types next year since I only grow very few plants to begin with would be easy to control.

Cigar
 

deluxestogie

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I have never attempted to create a new strain of tobacco. I used the technique to verify that Papante and Mt. Pima had been widely mis-classified as Nicotiana rustica, and were, instead, Nicotiana tabacum.

Any varieties of N. tabacum will readily cross with one another. As I've stated in many threads, creating a new, stable tobacco variety is a project that requires adequate space and multi-year dedication. It would require 5 to 7 years, and the planting of numerous examples (say, 50 to 100) of each generation for selection and back-crossing. Growing "only a few plants" would simply result in unstable, pot luck.

Keep in mind that identifying one handsome progeny plant still leaves you with curing, aging, and then utilizing it in various forms, before you have any idea what you've really got. And the first (F1) generation of a cross is never genetically stable (heterozygosity approaching zero).

Bob
 

deluxestogie

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Must one bag the flower after taping it up?
Bagging a flower is not necessary, so long as the tape fully closes the flower. By the time the blossom (along with the tape) falls off, the pollination is completed. BUT...be sure to tag the stem of that flower, so you know which one it is.

Bob
 

ChinaVoodoo

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Bagging a flower is not necessary, so long as the tape fully closes the flower. By the time the blossom (along with the tape) falls off, the pollination is completed. BUT...be sure to tag the stem of that flower, so you know which one it is.

Bob

I picked the other flowers off. Is that OK?
 

Chicken

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Very good info.
I know the people who experiment with medical marijuana.do this taking one plant that helps with a aillament..and another whose characterisics they are looking for to make a plant that reaches the desired target..

Good info on the characterisics of a bacca plant..
 

rustycase

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Thanks for the neato presentation, Bob !
...I've been off on a tangent with the microscope people, looking at amoeba and fungi as soil nutrients, the gmo people and nonsanto, gene sequencing and patenting organisms... whew!
Most of it goes over my head, as might be expected...
Did I miss electron microscope imaging.
These days, I think the labs developing seed at a commercial probability level have high dollar equipment beyond most of our reach.
They could be using contract labs, or university facilities through the Ag department.
It's possible we could access those facilities through some local Ag extension agent or prominent horticulture club ???
Might be worth a try...
Best
rc
 

Tutu

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Very good info.
I know the people who experiment with medical marijuana.do this taking one plant that helps with a aillament..and another whose characterisics they are looking for to make a plant that reaches the desired target..

How exactly should I picture this? Marijuana has female and male plants. Only the female plant produces smokeable marijuana buds. How would you know if the male plant either helps with ailament or reaches a high target production if crossed.

Not saying it doesn't work but simply trying to figure out how it would be done....
 

deluxestogie

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Very tricky question. In dioecious plants (male and female on different plants), if you can start with two strains, each of which has high homozygosity (which requires inbreeding for 5 to 7 generations), then the traits of each are stable in both the male and female of either specific strain. Then you cross the two varieties in both directions to see what you get. Since the female always provides the primary metabolic workings (in the chloroplasts), the direction of the cross makes a difference. It's certainly a more tedious process than crossing monoecious plants like tobacco.

Bob
 

Tutu

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Yes, that sounds like the way to go about, thanks for clearing that up. The way it was put earlier seemed as if you could just take two plants with the desired phenotype (ailment and high target) and cross them. Didn't even start about the fact that finding out about good smoking properties of a plant makes it too late to use that plant for crossing purposes because you smoke what you should use to cross. However, if we are talking about generations of a strain, that would indeed be possible. Just thought it was put as if it were rather easy when in reality I think it is not quite as easy as that.
 

Tutu

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This thread by Bob had me excited for a long time and I have been eagerly anticipating this day. My first ever attempt at crossing tobacco. Kasturi x Amersfoort. The flowering of Amersfoort is near its end and the Kasturi has yet to start. There has not been any rain for the past two days so I felt that this might be the right time for the fresh male anthers to have some pollen powder. Because the Kasturi flowers are still rather young, they have no adult anthers available, so I was only able to use Amersfoort anthers. While working on it, I started to wonder whether there is such a thing as doing this too early. The flowers of Kasturi seemed very young, still greenish. The male anthers were definitely not yet developed, but I wonder how much time it takes for the female pistil to develop and use the pollen from the Amersfoort anthers. Is there enough time overlap when the pistil is fertile while at the same time there being enough pollen left from the inserted anthers? For the first trial run I used three flowers of Kasturi, inserting 6 anthers of Amersfoort on average per flower. I can't wait to see whether there will be any seedpods from these flowers.

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