How many are still using pen and paper to track crosses?
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I still use the tried-and-true method of earlier breeders: manually recording the coordinates of the crosses. I enjoy taking notes quickly and flipping through my handwritten breeding logs more than browsing through them on the computer. Of course, I maintain a comprehensive photo database of the seedlings from the various breeding years on the computer.
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I keep a paper “Stud Book” in the house for recording the dates of my crosses and any notes, but also use my iPhone for note-taking “in the field”. Most of the time I ensure any appropriate field-notes are transferred. It doesn’t always happen, but at least I’ve two places to check. lol
The Stud Book is riddled with expletives about the deer this year, eating back seedlings from last year that are supposed to be being evaluated (hard to make an evaluation of something that never gets a chance to show off) or WORSE YET: flowers intended for crossing that got eaten, or hips made recently being munched off!
At least things grew well, despite the unwanted “pruning”, and they should be just spectacular next year, when I’m away from the big, four-legged destroyers-of-my-peace. Seriously, the island subspecies of Elk are the largest; like a couch on stilts.
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Year after year I track less. All the crosses I do I want to happen. I keep track of the mother and from memory remember what I put onto those mothers. I then by looking at them guess what’s gone into what… Not very accurate but I am so small time and so busy that doing any sort of recording would severely slow me down. I have my mental plan and I stick to it.
I have a spread sheet where I make a list of each cross I do and it gets a cross ID which is just the year and a sequential number in what ever order I do a cross as I go. So the first this year was 2601 for instance. I tag each cross with a little PVC retail tag you can get cheap with the cross #, both parents by initials (so I don’t have to remeber the cross code when outside), the date and the cross number. That tag then goes in the baggie with that cross’s harvested seeds. When I make multiple identical crosses they get the same cross number. Do I really need that cross number? I don’t think so but I did it this year.
I also track the number of polinations, number of hips harvested and the number of seeds combined in the spreadsheet.
Keep in mind I am just getting started. I have a small number of plants and have to be at my computer most of the day anyway so this gives me a way to start getting my head around what works and what doesn’t. I am sure as the seasons go by this will get simpler and simpler.
I went through a similar process when I started breeding tropical aquarium fish. I wrote down a lot at first and now don’t write anything down.
I ran my crosses through AI to organize my crosses and it made a few observations about my choice in crosses.
I was thinking how interesting it would be to allow AI to analyze larger datasets of rose breeding data.
that it could make observations about even specific roses themselves and their value as breeding parents.
I for example remember a member mentioning how a russet rose’s offspring are almost always riddled with mildew from his personal experience
So what can AI infer with such data
I have found it useful. However it still cannot predict the endless combinations that can occur from a cross. Ask it to create an image of a cross that you have done (don’t tell it you have done it) once it creates it. Ask for 4 more and so on and so. Once you have a nice collection compare it’s ideas of what will happen to what you have. If it looks remotely close I will be amazed. Additionally it helped me learn a lot about chromosome counts. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t consistently get them wrong or make mistakes. It’s a amazing tool that will continue to become more amazing… It’s just not there yet with roses
It’s definitely paper for me. Index cards to be exact.
When I make a pollination I hang a paper string tag (seed parent x pollen) and collect the tag along with the hip in fall. I of course label the seeds when I put them in the fridge and when started under the grow lights, I plant each individual seed in a small peat pot and write on the pot what the cross is.
In spring, the ones that make it (the non-vigorous runts don’t make it) I transplant into 1 gallon trade size pots. At that time I create a label and a card. The label may have nomenclature like this: Fdh-03-26 which would be “seedling of Fru Dagmar Hastrup- seedling #3- germinated and planted out in the season of 2026”. The corresponding card has the plant’s “name”/nomenclature at the top left corner of the card with the parentage written below. The rest of the card is for notes and observations. This card is then alphabetized in an index card box. When a plant is culled, the card is pulled with notes about the deficiencies of the plant, and stored in a separate box.
This seems to work well for me and has the advantages of being expandable and editable. However, the box is bulkier than a note pad and though this hasn’t happened yet, I imagine accidentally spilling the box in the field would be frustrating.
Mine is a small operation with perhaps 150 - 180 seedlings started out per year with only 60 - 80 making it outdoors. Only half to 2/3 of those will make it through the first year.