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Hybridizing
Tropical Water Lilies |
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ONTARIO
WATER GARDEN SOCIETY |
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Summarization from presentation by Charles Thomas to the Ontario Water Garden Society, October 22nd, 2000. Original presentation done by Rich Sacher of American Aquatic Gardens at the International Water Garden/ Water Lily Society Conference in Chicago (August 2000)
Truly, the cutting edge of advanced technology for
hybridisation unknown to most veterans of the water gardening
industry. We learned the amazing sex life of a water lily flower as
it goes from female to male stage in two days. |
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Hybridizing water lilies is a task that can be done easily if you have the patience and water lilies to cross pollinate. While the information that follows is aimed at tropical water lily hybridization, the methods might be employed for hardy water lilies. The process can be broken down to the basics like so: 1) Collect stigmatic fluid from 1st day flower and store in a secure container. Freezing the solution will destroy any errant pollen grains and permit for longer storage of the fluid. (The best time to collect the fluid is between 9am and 5pm, many 1st day flowers may be used and the fluid pooled together into one container. 2) Stamens from the 2nd and 3rd day flowers of the donor plants will provide the pollen suspension used for hybridizing. Cutting them from the flower and placing them in a small 2oz. Cup, remove stamens. Add about 5mls of the stigmatic fluid and mix well. What you have created is a extra potent mix of what Mother Nature does naturally. The fluid should be a deep yellow at this point, because of the excessive amount of pollen. (Remove the stamens from this mixture) Pick out the 1st day flower you want to receive this mixture. Carefully remove all the stamens and stigmatic fluid from this flower. Using a medicine dropper, introduce your pollen suspension mixture (from step #2) into the flower's centre cup (stigmatic cup), putting only as much as the cup will hold. 3) Apply this mixture to the receptive 1st day flower with 15 minutes as the pollen grains begin to germinate quickly in warm temperatures. Stir the container as you go along if you are treating more than one plant as the pollen settles rather quickly. Once completed, tag the plant with some waterproof material noting the name of the flower, pollen being applied, and date. You may consider securing the flower closed to protect the cross from insect pollination. Used rubber bands for this purpose. A successfully pollinated flower will develop a very strong crook in the flower stem, dragging the flower and developing pod down to the bottom of the pond. When a pod is apparent after pollination (usually 10-20 days) the name tag is removed and placed in a zip-lock bag. This same bag then is used to contain the developing pod during maturation. Place the pod (still attached to the plant) into the zip-lock bag with the name tag and secure the closure around the stem of the flower. This should be done with the bag under water to prevent any air being trapped in the bag. An option at this point is to remove the petals and sepals from the flower to reduce the amount of debris once the pod has ruptured. Now is the time to sit back and wait. The time required for the pod to mature depends on many factors including water temperature, flower type, and size of the pod. Typically a large flowered water lily may take from 28 to 45 days for the pod to mature. Also, depending on other factors, the number of viable seeds in the pod may be from a few as 10 to as many as 600. Once the pods have matured and burst in their zip-lock bags, they will float up to the pond's surface - this is why we want to make sure there is no air in the bag earlier (we don't want the bag to float up prematurely). The newly harvested seeds will have an aril (coating) around them, which makes them float. Storing the seeds in water, they are washed and screened every 5 -6 days, until the arils have rotted away. At this point the clean, dark coloured, mature seeds will have settled to the bottom of the container. The seeds may be air dried at this point until there is no more moisture on them. Store them dry in a refrigerator, in a zip-lock bag at room temperature or seed them out immediately. Germinating the seeds Sow the seeds in a saucer of wet, non-fertilized soil and top with ¼ inch of clean sand. These saucers/ pans are placed in a shallow pond which will get morning sun. Germination usually occurs within 7-21 days. It will take anywhere from 6 weeks to several months for a rosette of underwater leaves to form. Another 6 - 12 months later you may see the 1st floating leaf. Once a few floating leaves appear, they may be transplanted and fertilized. Watch out for small creatures destroying your work, many seedlings can fall victim to snails, tadpoles and fish in their early stages. Do not crowd the seedlings either, they will be in one place for a while, and once it comes time to transplant them you do not want to be damaging neighbouring seedlings in the process. They are also prone to "damping off" when crowded (this is a fungal disease). When all is said and done, you have to answer some basic questions when hybridizing water lilies. Such as : Is the result significantly different from the parents? Is it a stronger plant? Any flaws in it? Does it have commercial value? Any distinct markings that set it apart from anything else out there? Is the hybrid easy to grow? Difficult to propagate? Etc.....More importantly though, did I enjoy the experiment and thrill of trying something different in my garden?
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