Four Winds San Pedro Breeding, It Should Work?…

I have determined to collect a bunch of 4 ribbed cactus and start breeding toward clones that consistently grow as 4 sided. And so begins the “four winds” project. Will it work? I very strongly suspect so, but only time will tell.

My seedling selection Verity seems to grow four sided pups pretty often. How long they will stay that way is yet to be seen. It is not a prime parent, but cactus like this that show an obvious tendency and otherwise typically grow as 5 ribbed, may still be useful in breeding consistently 4 sided cactus with other desired traits like the small spined, scopy goodness of Verity

There are lots of reasons I might not want to start yet another project right now. The problem is that plant breeding projects take a long time. Not only that, but collecting the uncommon material I’ll need for this one is not just a matter of hopping online and ordering what is catalogued and available. The sooner I let you all know what I’m looking for, the more likely good genetics will come out of the wood work. I then have to grow each out, so that I can assess how often they grow as 4x. If I want to use it, I have to get it to flower. Not just that, but I need as many different ones flowering as possible.

Let’s talk about the basic approach I plan to take. Breeding is a matter of selecting parents, then selecting offspring, then basically carrying desired traits into further generations. It is basically about building on successes. In the simplest form it is perhaps more like rolling dice, but stacking the cards slightly in our favor. I could for instance plant just any old seed and see if something cool comes up. That is not breeding, it is selection. It has its merits, but we are not really stacking anything in our favor at all.

A next level may be to cross something we like with something else we like and hope to get offspring that expresses some traits we wanted, but without particular plans for further generations. that is barely breeding.

Creating a new cultivar on purpose is about starting with a goal or vision and strategically pursuing it. Sure, fortuitous fun stuff that wasn’t expected may happen along the way, but there is something of a plan. Random selection can still be very useful in this process. For instance, I might randomly find a 4 sided cactus in my seedling flats and plan to utilize that genetic in breeding. In general though a little intent goes a long way and a lot of intent can go a lot further.

In the case of breeding toward four winds cacti, the first step is to acquire as many cacti that show that trait as I can. Some of these will be highly prone to grow 4x and others will throw an occasional 4 sided pup that will grow for a while, before reverting. The more I can stack that trait the better. The 4x thing is the priority, so the basic plan will be to cross together the most 4x tending cactus I can find, with other traits to be pursued as possible and when there is enough genetic material to have more choice.

Let’s say I have 4 cacti with that trait. Two that show it strongly and two that show it less. I would probably just cross them all together in every direction, but certainly keeping track of the parentage. On growing out those seedlings, selections will be made toward the desired trait and secondarily for other desired traits. When those grow up and are vetted for desirability, I have a choice to back cross, or focus on genetic diversity.

Back crossing is basically inbreeding. It is a very common technique in plant breeding. Let’s say I have a super spiny 4x bridge and a 4x scop, but I ultimately really want more of the scop traits. I select for scop traits in the seedlings if possible, but let’s say that most of the offspring are a little on the spiny side. I can cross the offspring back to the 4x scop in hopes of reinforcing those scopy traits. Another way of stacking the same genetics is crossing two different things with that one original 4x scop, then crossing the offspring back to each other. Thus we would have 3 parents represented in the next generation and you could say that the one with the physical traits we desire most would be represented twice. Yes, this can lead to genetic problems just as in people, but not nearly as much. This kind of inbreeding over multiple generations to stabilize traits is a staple of plant breeding.

I tend to lean toward diverse genetics instead of back crossing. For a cactus example, I might use four different 4x parents and cross in such a way that all 4 parents are represented in the second generation. Now imagine doing that but starting with 8 different parents that have four winds tendencies. Now we can have 8 different genetic lines from 8 different cactus all represented in the third generation. Remember that not only are the genetics lurking in all the cactus, but we are selecting every generation for the most four windiest presentation. I tend to think more in this sort of stacking mindset, but I will likely use back crossing a bit as well.

There is also something called hybrid vigor. This can refer to hybrids between species which will sometimes show high vigor. It can also refer to same species crosses, but using different genetics to invigorate the gene pool. I will likely be working with many different species.

It may even be possible to create something like a species, but that would require a long time and lots of back breeding to stabilize certain traits. Once the traits were stabilized so that they express when grown from seed, it could be established in populations as its own recognizable phenotype. Not likely something I’d do, but it is a neat idea. It may sound a bit weird or unnatural, but I don’t really think so. Imagine if you read a news story that it was discovered that the ancient Peruvians had bred a new species of cactus that was still inhabiting a region of Peru. You’d probably think that was pretty cool.

Of course there are qualities other than 4 ribbed that I will want as well. During this whole process, I can select other traits and try to stack them along with the 4 winds thing. I may even throw in some genetics that are not 4x at all to get something I really want, then keep selecting and breeding back toward four winds with the other desired traits they picked up hopefully tagging along.

Basically the more selections I have to work with the better and the sooner I get them growing and flowering the better. I just posted about this on instagram and got the chance to trade for a four winds bridgesii. I’ll post the picture of the original cactus here, which has three columns that are all 100% 4x. I would love to get as many that either stay 4x or have a strong tendency toward the trait, but I’ll work with what I have. My seedling selection verity, a Malo4 f2 cross, seems to throw a lot of 4 sided pups, though I don’t imagine many will stay that way for very long. Verity has a lot of other good traits though, like smooth, scopy, juiciness, small spines and it is of high etho-pharmacological interest. I would definitely cross those two together right now if I could. What I actually end up using will depend a lot on what I can come up with and how it performs in the 4 x 4 department. I will just be making decisions on the fly as things proceed.

Four ribbed bridgesii

Original 4x bridge plant sent to me by Ty. Looks very promising. No reversion. fingers crossed it will stay that way and that I’ll find more parentage of this quality.

If anyone has four winds tending cactus that I can trade you for, hit me up. I probably should stick with stuff that grows 20% or more 4x but I just don’t have much idea of what is really out there yet. I have a lot of other interests and don’t spend a lot of time on social media, so I’d be very grateful if you all can be my eyes and ears out there if you are haunting those places anyway. If you see one somewhere on facebook, reddit or instagram etc., tag me as team wachuma. Likewise if conversations on the topic that might be of interest pop up.

I really would be surprised if this does not work. If I can find parents as good as this four winds bridge to work with, it probably won’t even take that many generations. It is very obviously a genetic predisposition and thus most likely heritable. Only one way to find out.

My current work will be to put the word out and start growing out whatever I can collect. I want to have multiple plants of anything I’m assessing so that I can see how often it grows as four ribbed. I will graft some if it is big enough and grow one out fast in a pot to try to push it to flowering size. I will also graft each one onto a flowering cactus in hopes of getting flowers asap. I imagine I will end up trading for pollen as well. Most of the luck involved will likely be just finding good parents. Otherwise, it seems pretty straightforward and by stacking for the trait from multiple genetic lines and observing how often the trait is expressed in different seedling batches fairly rapid progress will probably be made. Rapid for plant breeding anyway.

One last part of the project will be to establish a population somewhere of four winds tending clones so that they can all interbreed randomly. Imagine having 10 or 20 isolated somewhere so they only cross with each other and refining that population over time. How would you like some of that seed?! Yeah, right?

Wish me luck cactaroos.