Crocosmia Fire Starter Cultivar Breeding for Lodging Resistance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing Crocosmia plants lack upright and strong growth habits, limited flowering, and inadequate winter hardiness, which restricts their garden performance and adaptability to varying environmental conditions.
Innovation Solution
A new cultivar, 'Fire Starter', resulting from a breeding program that combines traits of upright and strong growth, increased flowering, larger flowers, and enhanced winter hardiness, achieved through controlled cross-pollination and asexual reproduction, resulting in a plant with sturdy stems and vibrant yellow, yellow-orange, and orange-red flowers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If conventional Crocosmia plants are grown, then they can be cultivated with standard care, but they exhibit weak growth habits, lodging resistance issues, and limited flowering
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies parameter changes by selecting and breeding plants with specific genetic traits that alter growth parameters. The 'Fire Starter' cultivar exhibits changed parameters including stem strength (resistance to lodging), flowering frequency (freely flowering habit), and plant architecture (upright habit) through controlled cross-pollination and selection of parent plants with desirable traits
2Area of moving object
If Crocosmia plants are bred for larger flowers, then flower size increases, but flowering frequency and plant vigor may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple desirable traits from different parent plants through controlled cross-pollination. The breeding program combined traits for large flower size, upright habit, vigorous growth, and frequent flowering from selected parent selections, achieving a combination of traits that individually would have been contradictory
3Shape
If Crocosmia plants are selected for upright growth habit, then stem strength improves, but adaptability to various environmental conditions may be reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent achieves universality by breeding a cultivar that performs multiple functions well: upright growth habit, lodging resistance, frequent flowering, large flowers, and winter hardiness. The 'Fire Starter' cultivar is adapted to multiple environmental conditions including USDA Hardiness Zones 6-10, making it universally suitable for various garden conditions
Data Source
AI summary
A new and distinct cultivar of Crocosmia plant named ‘Fire Starter’, characterized by its upright plant habit; strong, sturdy and resistance to lodging; moderately vigorous to vigorous growth habit; freely flowering habit; numerous and relatively large and upward-facing yellow, yellow orange and orange red-colored flowers; and good garden performance and winter hardiness.