Interploidy Hybridizing: A Route to Tetraploids
By Joseph K. Mertzweiller ABSTRACT: Tetraploid Louisiana iris pioneer Joseph K Mertzweiller is now involved in a complex process called interploidy hybridizing – the attempt to produce new tetraploids through diploid X tetraploid crosses. Although complicated, this is the process used by bearded iris hybridizers to convert that class of plants to tetraploids earlier in this century. […]
Expanding the Tetraploid Gene Pool by J. Farron Campbell
The process by which tetraploid Louisiana irises came into existence is fascinating. The chapter devoted to this process in The Louisiana Iris, while thorough, can’t begin to describe the work required to induce tetraploidy by chemical treatments. Nor can words express the frustrations hybridizers currently face in getting seed-set on tetraploids. These are pretty large obstacles to overcome, but they are solvable problems […]
