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Discussions on how to propagate your plants sexually and asexually, by seed, natural division or leaf pulling

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By Joe Schmoe
Posts:  34
Joined:  Wed Aug 02, 2023 10:30 am
#438253
What kind of genetic variation can be expected if a variant is self-pollinated? like for example if "alien" was self pollinated would all the offspring look identical or would some have different characteristics?

Also, if a variant is crossed with another variant, do most or all of the offspring look identical or does it fluctuate?

I just wanted to mess around breeding one or two crosses between some VFT variants and this is all new to me
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By ChefDean
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Posts:  10221
Joined:  Tue Sep 18, 2018 12:44 am
#438259
There's an estimated 1 in 7 trillion+ chance that a selfed seed will be genetically identical to its parent, and that is the benchmark for a cultivar. More likely a selfed Alien may have some characteristics, but, due to Aliens somewhat unique appearance, it won't look too similar.
There's a good chance a seed from a cross will grow into something that has sone characteristics from a parent, but it won't be either. You could more expect a variation due to whatever genes came to the forefront and are being expressed.
Either way, you have the above mentioned estimate of a 1 in 7 trillion + chance at getting what you want. However, every cultivar was once a typical. Go for it.
Shadowtski, MikeB liked this
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By _-SphagnumFromHell-_
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Posts:  731
Joined:  Mon May 28, 2018 5:02 pm
#453192
From my experience after a few seasons of doing crosses and germinating VFT seedlings I've found that with regards to different crosses, usually the mother plant will be the one that most of the seedlings will more strongly resemble. All red coloration seems to be recessive, and seemingly controlled by more than one gene.

I've never gotten big yields of seeds from one cross and have never raised more than a few Venus flytrap seedlings of the same cross to flowering adults, so I can't say much about the range of characteristics. You can thank my shoddy watering schedules and fungus gnats for that.

However, the two flowering adults I've managed to raise from a cross of FTS Maroon Monster and a normal typical plant, there is one difference that I never would've guessed between them. One of the plants and its divisions produces mostly upright leaves, while the other produces the more low to the ground ones, even in the Spring. This is a tendency I've consistently observed for multiple seasons. It's neat, I'll have to post a picture tomorrow.

Honestly you may just have to see for yourself. Just make sure to label your pollinated flowers and keep your pots labeled (Mother plant x Father plant). This year I used fishing line tied to the base of each pollinated flower with colors corresponding to the pollen used. That way I can just look at the mother plant, and infer the cross from there.

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