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RE: Plantbreeding@home Update #2: Sowing the seeds
hopefully by round 2 we will have even more people and this thing becomes huge :D Are all participants here on steemit? And how many years you think it would take for the project to finish ?
Not all participants are here on steemit, but most of them are. :)
The second question is a good one. To really have a stable line after selection, it will take a few years, depending how different the plants will look like. But this is only the long term goal; we can achieve so much more already in the meantime!
If the first crossing, which we will perform this very first year, results in a nice F1, this is already a huge success. We would have a variety which is genetically unstable, that is true, but as we know the parents we can always recreate the crossing. F1s often perform really well, but unless we crossed it, it is hard to say what "really well" means in our case. :P
So the first possible "finish" is already next year in round 2. Originally I wanted to start with round 2, but as you know my plants died in winter before I could cross them.
What we can achieve next is a relatively stable selection for our desired traits, this can be done, again depending on how heavily our traits separate - in maybe 4-5 generations. I do not expect a fully stable line in less than 8-15 generations, if I am honest. At some point I might look into possibilities to grow more generations per year (maybe a greenhouse with artificial light, or distribution in the northern and southern hemisphere), as two generations per year would speed up the breeding significantly!
At the end, I would like a few things to happen. if we get a nice F1 we can consider registering it already and make it an "official variety". Also at the end of our breeding, once our line is stable again, I would like to register it as well. Also, at the end of the project, we could think about a scientific publication. In all these cases, I would include the names of everyone who helped along the way, with focus on the people who were involved the most! In the meantime, it is "just" free seeds for participants and nice homegrown peppers and experience. ;)