I want to know how many generations of a new boxwood should I test before I know if it will stay to the new variety or convert back

So I understand that the first generation of a cross will yield a consistent result every time, but now that I’m onto an F2, which specimens will be different? Will each seed from a single tomato be unique?

Hi all, I am a graduating student with an MS in plant breeding focusing on Maize here. I had two internship experiences with Maize and winter wheat and RA for one year in the lab. Currently, I'm applying for jobs before graduation. I'm interested in working in the Midwest, like Kansas, Iowas, or Illinois. What will be the ideal salary and jobs I should look into? Research technician or research associate? Can someone share their job title and salary for my application?

I recently took a molecular plant breeding course for my biotechnology master (which was my first exposition to the topic). What piqued my interest was that it seemingly was exclusively focused on improvement of already domesticated plants. I then did a cursory check of when vegetables I like were first introduced, and it seems most of them date back at least three centuries. The "newest" crop i could find was Triticale, first created in the 19th century, but it itself is a combination of wheat and rye, which we use since millennia.

So the question is, do we still domesticate new crops from previously unused genus or even families? How much time could such a domestication require? Would consumers even want new crops?

What is the likelihood that this will revert back if propagated off of.

I was hoping to hear insights into the overall trends of this industry. Whether you started working when the first GE products were released or when CRISPR was discovered or when genomic prediction was being adopted...

Was there ever more money flowing during certain periods or a load more opportunities, and if you could compare it with the current state in 2024.

Any sort of insights: how it was when there were more medium sized companies, or any effects you noticed during the recent 5 years of corporate consolidation, etc..

I am brand new to this. I know pretty much nothing, but plants absolutely fascinate me and the idea of breeding is super exciting. I just have absolutely no idea where to begin… could anyone suggest me a super simple intro project? Thank you!

Would love to find a good podcast that can let me soak in information as I drive. I would particularly like to hear from independent breeders or small seed companies, but I’m open to molecular breeding discussions too. I work at a Big Seed R&D company, but my 10 year plan is to get out and do something I’m more passionate about, hence the interest in Indy or small business breeders.

Thanks!

Hi all!

Undergrad here, getting ready to apply to PhD/masters programs in crop breeding. I've wanted to do this career since I was little, but I've been considering other career paths lately because (1) I'm worried about managing the stress of a PhD, and (2) I really don't want to live in the Midwest or California (nothing personal, just want to stay close to family).

Does anyone know, how competitive are breeding jobs on the East Coast? I only ever see very small number of listings posted (just on the google "jobs" thing), but maybe there are more openings if you know where to look? What are the chances of being able to get hired for those positions?

Thank you so much!!

Hi everyone, I'm a long-time lurker and first time poster here. After researching a large number of potential species for my first project, I settled on columbines because of their reasonable growth time, high phenotypical variation and apparent interfertility. I don't have much of a botanical background, but from my readings I have come up with two rough protocols to begin breeding.

1. Find two columbine species/cultivars with traits that I am interested to cross, grow to reproductive maturity, [manually] cross pollinate, collect and grow f1, then either cross f1s or backcross, find the desired traits in f2 and work on stabilizing the cultivar.

- This protocol is most similar to the one that breeders looking to create a strain with specific traits, but the problem in this case is that I don't really have any idea of what traits I'd like to cross: I am most interested in easily identifiable modifications, such as flower color, diameter, petal spur length etc.

- Secondly, despite the genus being described in literature as "very interfertile", I would assume that it is unlikely that every combination of species is capable of producing fertile progeny, and I would rather not waste an entire growing season attempting to cross two incompatible species.

2. Acquire a wide variety of columbine species/varietals, grow in a field and allow open-pollination, plant f1s (or allow to self-sow) until an interesting phenotype comes up, then attempt to stabilize the cultivar.

- This method has the advantage of producing a larger variety for me to select from, and results in a high likelihood of all plants being pollinated, however I live in an urban area and so would have to rent a field. In addition, since I will be growing outside, the plants will be more susceptible to pests/diseases.

I guess my questions for the community are as follows:

- What protocols do you typically follow when trying to breed new ornamental plants?- Is there a way that I can tell if two species will produce viable offspring without actually doing the cross?

- Which of the two listed methods would you recommend for someone more interested in learning the process of plant breeding than the results?

Hi, im looking to add some painted mountain corn genetics to my own Corn strain. Problem is that Here in Europe there are a couple of places that say they sell the variety, but after delivery They turned out to be the regular Glassgem kind.

I also contracted North Frontier Farms, the official breeders but they cant legally Ship to the Netherlands.

So does anyone have some seeds for sale or would anyone be willing to buy some from North Frontier Farms? And ship them to the Netherlands? Of course i will pay for the whole thing

I was wondering if anyone here had some advice on finding and contacting potential graduate school advisors? Before I took my current job I was determined to get my masters in plant breeding. I was emailing tons of professors that I felt had interesting research that lined up with my education goals. I only got a few responses, and most were retiring soon and the others got back to me long after applications were due (like 9+ months after I contacted them) and I had allready moved across the country for a job. I have lots of TA and lab experience from when I was in school and have been working in research and breeding for the past 4 years as well. I hoped that might make me an attractive candidate but am worried that maybe I have been out of school for too long. Is the whole cold call email aproach out of date? Thanks for any advice!

Hi All! I am a current senior about to graduate with a BS in Plant Science . I am currently deciding where I want to take my career and with that if I want to pursue higher education. One interest I have had is drought tolerant cultivar development for landscape plants, particularly trees. After doing some research online I haven’t found anything that gives insights on that industry. So some questions I have on landscape cultivar/hybrid development are:

1. Is this career doable in industry or do I to pursue research in academia?
2. Is this a difficult area to find jobs in?
3. Do you know of any companies or groups that focus on this?

I have a 4H junior/middle schooler who has been working on a corn project here in the southwest, aiming for “the prettiest dryland corn”. Last year she grew out a grex of blue, pink and purple flour corns from 7 varieties(Hopi blue corn I believe was both the soft grey-blue and hard-blue varieties). This year she would like to add new genetics, and Reddit seedsaving has come through with a few new varieties of blue, purple or pink flour corns, but I thought I’d ask here as well! Happy to pay shipping and/or send back seed at the end of the year. Thanks!

I have read different opinions, the lowest number of corn plants grown for saving seed is 150 from one source, but I’ve also read that you need to collect seed from a minimum of 200 plants from other sources. There’s not even that many seeds in most packets. I only have space for 350 plants, and would like to grow two different varieties, a sweet and a popcorn. The sweet corn is 80 days and the popcorn is 120, so I’m not worried about cross pollination. I‘m not sure if I should save seed from them if say I only have 150-200 plants and particularly if I only can save seed from 10 or so sweet corn plants. I plan on planting multiple generations in the future, would that help alleviate some of the inbreeding pressure? What do ye think?

I’m starting gardening this year and was also curious about cross breeding peppers and tomatoes. I’m mostly wanting to cross breed bishops head with other peppers and paste tomatoes with cherry tomatoes. Any tips?

has anyone worked at one of the big 3 seed companies in a breeding capacity? Syngenta, Bayer, and Corteva

What are the pros and cons of working there, I imagine it's not for everyone, is there way too much product management or barriers that one might expect working at a big corp

Hello! I want to understand how new cultivars of strawberry are made since most of the propagation are by runners. Does anybody know any guides or have any experience in this?

For example, if I get X cultivar and germinate the seeds are they still considered X cultivar?

Sorry if this is a dumb question.

I have wanted to try selectively breeding a wild edible plant since I first learned about how we domesticated plants into our current array of vegetables. I am in the greater Toronto area in southern Ontario, Canada. Here we have Common evening primrose (oenothera biennis) it is winter so all of the second year seed heads are very easy to spot. I have been traveling all around southern ontario and where ever I go I have been trying to keep an eye out for common primrose plants. I know that this is probably not the best way to judge quality of the first years root. But my premise is that if the plant produces lots of large seed pods and the plants are large and vigorous in their second year, then the plant was probably pretty strong in its first year. So based on this i have been collecting seeds from the largest tallest and the plants with the most seed pods. I have collected seeds from around 40 to 45 parent plants. Some as talls as 6ft 4 inches. Most common primrose plants I see are only 3 to 4 ft tall. I have seeds from clarington area, rouge hill, Toronto, Enniskillen, and the greater sudbury area. I'm aware that their is a large diversity of colors, textures, and flavors to the roots of this species so I'm hoping to collect a good diversity of parents. If you read through all of this I appreciate you very much!