Steve_D wrote:I think that Matt might like to offer it
Yes, I plan to offer at least some "Special Red Mix" this year. I have many more red plants that are flowering size this year, so I might be able to get a better harvest than last year and be able to keep them in stock throughout the year.
dantt99 wrote:Big Mouth X B52
dantt99 wrote:Red Piranha X FTS Crimson Sawtooth
jht-union wrote:Long Red fingers x B52
Crimson Sawtooth x Cupped trap
manzano167 wrote:B52 and Low giant
Dente and B52
Those are all nice suggestions. I might throw some information out there to help clarify some things and to better help people decide what crosses they'd like to see.
First of all, the naming convention for a cross is that the mother plant comes first and the pollen donor comes second. So, Big Mouth x B52 means that Big Mouth would be the mother plant and B52 would be the pollen donor.
Secondly, I've noticed that it's typically the mother plant's characteristics that are passed on more frequently than the pollen donors' traits. So, if you were to make the cross Big Mouth x B52, I'd expect a lot of fairly typical looking flytraps, but perhaps some with good coloration (like Big Mouth) and fewer with exceptionally large traps (like B52). Also remember that it takes a long, long time to evaluate plants for large trap size. Even with starting the seeds in tissue culture, it may be 2 to 3 years before there is an adult sized plant making it's largest traps.
Something else to consider is that some clones are very prolific seeders and others produce relatively little seed. Last year I did two crosses for myself to put into TC:
1) Sawtooth x Fused Tooth
2) Fused Tooth x Sawtooth
I got a ton of seed from cross #2 and relatively little seed from cross #1 despite the fact that I had 4 adult plants of each clone. Fused Tooth produces a lot of seed and Sawtooth produces relatively little. From those crosses, I also noticed that about half of the Fused Tooth x Sawtooth seedlings have anywhere from slight fusing to
EXTREME fusing (at least in vitro). I haven't potted out any of the ones with extreme fusing yet, but I plan to in a couple of months.
Some of the odd clones, like Cupped Trap, Wacky Traps, Korean Melody Shark and perhaps some others commonly have deformed stigmas and aren't able to be pollinated (but can still donate pollen). So crosses like Cupped Trap x Crimson Sawtooth would be hard to do, but the cross Crimson Sawtooth x Cupped Trap would be fairly easy to do.
Here is a list of clones that, from what I've experienced or read, don't produce much, if any seed:
Akai Ryu
Clayton's Red Sunset
Cupped Trap
Korean Melody Shark
Sawtooth
Wacky Traps
And here is a list of some of the best seeders (that I know of -- many of the clones I grow I've never let set seed):
B52
Big Mouth
Dentate Traps
FTS Maroon Monster
Fused Tooth
Jaws
Low Giant
Red Piranha
Pink Venus
Once we get a few suggestions thrown out, perhaps we can create a poll for people to vote for the crosses they'd most like to see available for sale in the store and then Steve and I can pick a few each to make ourselves. Choices would probably be limited by the number and kind of adult plants that Steve and I have to set seed this year.