The parents of hybrids are trade secrets, and represent significant developmental costs. One should not expect a seed company to divulge parental lines and basically give away hard earned secrets. In no other business, are people almost expected to give the public this type of information.
I am currently working on a Red Bumblebee F1, and last year I tested 54 different hybrids I made, in hopes that one of them would represent the combining of two parents in a highly synergistic way. In other words, I made 54 crosses looking for one particularly excellent combination of parents.
3 of those crosses performed very well with regard to both fruit and plant traits, without any evident shortcomings. Those 3 hybrids are being tested more extensively this year. One of the crosses might perform at a level high enough for general release, but we continue to make additional crosses to add to our Red Bumblebee list (and we also continue to develop new "red bumblebee" parental lines).
Once I release a Red Bumblebee F1, I am assuming that it will be dehybridized by people who don't want to pay for hybrid seed. If the dehybridized lines are equivalent to the hybrid, then I have not done my job (which is to find unique F1 synergy that clearly eclipses any of my Red Bumblebee breeding lines or any dehybridized lines).
The value of my work will be judged based on whether or not people continue to buy hybrid seed. If they do, it will indicate that my Red Bumblebee hybrid is indeed special.
People continue to by hybrids like Sungold for exactly this reason (dehybridized lines are NOT equal to Sungold).
Quote:
Originally Posted by brownrexx
I e-mailed Burpee and asked what was crossed with Brandywine to make their Brandy Boy and this is the answer I got from one of their horticulturists:
The other parent of Brandy Boy are not a named variety just a number. It is only used for breeding.
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