What Is a Hybrid Plant?

Updated on January 24, 2022

You’ve probably heard the term “Hybrid Plant” whether you are a new or an experienced gardener. To know more about the “Hybrid Plant”, you’ll have to know what is agricultural hybridization and why they are targeted by gardeners too.  

Agricultural hybridization

Agricultural hybridization is the process of creating new, commercialized plants with desirable characteristics. Hybrids are created for a variety of reasons, including resistance to disease, increased plant, flower, or fruit size, improved blooming, color, flavor, or any other reason a plant can be regarded as unique. Hybrids make up the majority of new plants available to residential gardeners.

What is a Hybrid Plant?

A hybrid plant is created by crossing two separate plant kinds and nurturing the seeds that result from the cross. A hybrid plant is then originated from that seed. Hybrids are becoming extremely popular. Meyer lemons, for example, are a mix between a lemon tree and a Mandarin orange tree.

How Can You Hybridize Plants?

If you are a gardener who wishes to hybridize plants on your own, you need to follow some methods properly. To know these methods, keep reading. 

  • You must choose which plant will serve as the female (the pistil) and from which you will collect the pollen (the stamen, male parts). Then transfer pollen from one plant to the bloom of a different variety for the first crossover. The pistil is then physically pollinated with pollen.
  • You must remove all the stamens on the plants that will be pollinated to prevent them from self-pollinating. 
  • Collect the fruits produced by cross-pollination, and preserve the seeds.

There are some things that you need to remember. It might take years of testing to get the desired outcome. You need to check out the first hybrid varieties that have been developed, and the plants they produce after a year when hybridizing plants. If the outcomes match your anticipation, you may repeat the cross the following year, and disperse the seeds. You need to try again if the results aren't precisely correct. The rights to a hybrid belong to the breeder who created it first, which is why they might be more pricey than non-hybrids, or open-pollinated species. The lineage of hybrids is strictly protected by their breeders. 

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