Hybridizing, Part 4

Here is the next part of our series about hybridizing an African violet by Barb Werness. We're very lucky to have such an up close and detailed view of how the seeds are formed on the violets. Enjoy!

Hybridizing Session IV: I promised to give monthly updates on the seed pod development. So, if anyone can tell me what happened to the whole month of March, maybe I can figure out what happened to that update. I was so busy, but didn’t seem to accomplish half the things I set out to do. Okay, a month was missed, but nothing very exciting happened anyway. Instead, things seem to be a bust so far.

You can see from the picture of Rebel’s Scotty, there are no seed pods developing on this plant. As mentioned when the session started, there was a concern about making this a maternal plant. All the seed pods began to develop, but died off quickly before growing to any significant size. The plant is due for repotting, so after that is done and it reblooms, I will try to pollinate it again.

Two of the other plants I wanted to use were Private Dancer and The Night Life. Of course, using them to pollinate Rebel’s Scotty resulted at mentioned above. I held off cross pollinating to these two as the maternal plants because I was hoping to enter them in the spring show. So, as soon as Rebel’s Scotty is blooming again, they will be pollinated.

However, two seed pods did develop from the cross pollinating. That resulted in good news/bad news. Sora School Time has a very healthy seed pod and the peduncle is still strong and healthy. Heinz’s Sentimental developed a pod, but the peduncle is starting to dry up and the seed pod is soft. If it were at least 4 to 5 months since pollination, it might be okay, since it usually takes about 6 months for a seed pod to develop and dry. The likelihood is that with this seed pod being only two months old, it will not be viable. I’m going to try it anyway, but don’t have much hope.

So, that’s it for now. I’m pretty much back to square one. Hopefully, the first of May will have more seed pods developing. Wish me luck!!