Back-crossing clearly would favor the traits of the parent you are back-crossing to.
It also delays for another generation the process of developing a true-breeding line.
But, if you have a very specific set of traits you are looking for, back-crossing is very, very helpful.
The other approach to stacking a bunch of traits into one line is to take a hybrid approach. If you have a few true-breeding parents that can contribute the traits you want, making a number of hybrids is another way to try to construct a line with all the traits that are most important to you.
The hybrid approach does require probably 4-6 prospective parent lines. But, for example, if you had 6 lines that you though might be good parents you could easily make 20 unique crosses.
But, using a hybrid approach does require that if you want to have recessive traits show up in the hybrid, you will need both parents to be recessive.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BigVanVader
Thanks bower. Here is another question. I'm growing a bicolor det. from Joseph Lofthouse. It is early and cold tolerant. If I crossed your cross with that, then backcrossed the F2 back to yours. Wouldn't that increase the odds of finding the det/early/black fruits/earthy flavor genes? I'm going to do several different crosses this year.
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