Diploids, triploids and tetraploids – why breed for tetraploid reds?  For clarification: “n” equals 19, which is the number of chromosomes in either the pollen or the ovule of a normal diploid phalaenopsis.  In a full set of genetic material, consisting of paired chromosomes, there will be 2n or 38 chromosomes.  In a triploid plant, there are 3n or 57 chromosomes; in a tetraploid, there are 4n or 76 chromosomes and, in an aneuploid, which results from breeding a diploid or a tetraploid with a triploid, there is an abnormal or odd number of chromosomes. 

The major reasons for breeding towards tetraploid red phalaenopsis is to increase flower size and to obtain a more standard phalaenopsis shape. Increased flower count and better presentation are additional breeding goals. Better growth of seedlings with fewer months to  flowering is an often overlooked breeding goal. Breeding with good stable tetraploid plants does much to achieve even rapid growth of seedlings.  Anueploid seedlings often have poor growth and many breeders of so-called novelty phalaenopsis have found that their crosses often take much longer to flower than tetraploid whites and pinks.  Tetraploid reds and yellows in Taiwan may bloom in two years.  I can bloom them in two and a half to three years and I’m not really equipped for rapid growing. This is a major reason that the Taiwan breeders have taken the lead in the production of new red and yellow Phalaenopsis hybrids. An additional problem in earlier red breeding programs was the use of Phal. George Vasquez ‘Eureka’, FCC/AOS.  This plant is a diploid but grows and matures very slowly.  Unfortunately, it also transmits this characteristic to its progeny.

Almost all of U.S. breeding has been with diploids, triploids, and the aneuploids that have resulted from breeding triploid reds to diploids and tetraploids. Aneuploids were also produced through attempts to increase flower size by breeding triploid reds to tetraploid pinks and stripes.

Diploid red breeding has reached a high level of quality and, as we have seen with Eric Goo’s work, is well worth pursuing.  However, great care must be taken to mate diploids to diploids.  The use of plants such as Phal Cordova, Phal. Golden Buddha or Phal. Spirit House leads to problems.  Most attempts to increase size and flower count with diploid red breeding lines has resulted in the production of triploids.  Unfortunately, triploid phalaenopsis will often produce seed, and the results of using “anything that will breed,” has produced a sea of aneuploids, which are then used in further breeding attempts. The outcome of this type of breeding is the well-known "sterility barrier" so common in today’s phalaenopsis breeding.

To give perspective to the problem, consider what a well-known and experienced phalaenopsis breeder observed in a recent article in the Phalaenopsis Journal that with the matching of Phal. Golden Buddha with Phal. Zuma Garnet, the first of the “new” red phals was produced.  More specifically, the near-tetraploid aneuploid Phal. Golden Buddha was crossed with the diploid Phal. Zuma Garnet to produce the aneuploid plants registered as Phalaenopsis Cordova.  Based on what we know about chromosomes and their relationship to plant sterility, Phalaenopsis Cordova should never be used for breeding.  Crosses of this nature produce dead ends.  Most plants of Phal. Cordova that have been used for breeding are near triploid aneuploids and are poor breeders.  One clone, Phal. Cordova ‘Leucadia’, HCC/AOS is a good breeder.  In the spectrum of aneuploids that usually result from the mating of a triploid with a diploid, tetraploid or aneuploid, it is possible to get a few clones that are near tetraploids or pentaploids that breed freely. If such a clone is near tetraploid, it may be used for breeding without causing too many problems. I have not yet counted Phal. Cordova ‘Leucadia’, HCC/AOS but suspect from its progeny that it is a near tetraploid. The test I usually apply here is that, if a plant produces highly fertile pollen, then it is probably close to even ploidy.  I have examined a few plants that broke this “rule” but those plants that are the exception may be combining chromosomes during pollen meiosis in a way that results in a high number of viable pollen cells with even or nearly even ploidy.  Plants that never breed except as pod parents are trying to tell us something!  Don’t use them for breeding!

The degree to which triploid and aneuploid plants have been used in breeding for reds – and yellows – is such that it is amazing that any fertile plants can be found.  All of this type of breeding should be avoided if one wants to achieve good-sized red phalaenopsis with other desirable traits and with fertility the expected norm instead of a rarity.  Instead, breeders must rely on chance tetraploids such as Phal. Paifang’s Queen ‘Brother’ and Phal. Taipei Gold ‘Gold Star’ or documented colchicine-converted diploids.  All chance tetraploids must be documented by accurate chromosome counting.  One additional important concept here is that converting triploids to hexaploids through colchicine treatment does not produce good breeding plants because hexaploids do not produce stable, even ploidy in their offspring.

Why consider yellow flowers in red breeding?  There is no true red phalaenopsis in nature.  So we create red by combining pigments.  Without strong yellow pigment, you do not obtain strong red color.  You need to produce good tetraploid yellows in order to mate them with tetraploid dark pinks or lavenders.  Where do we get good tetraploid yellows? 

The stage was set by the use of one of those pesky triploid plants, Phal Golden Sands ‘Canary', FCC/AOS. Phal. Golden Sands ‘Canary’, FCC/AOS was out of a cross of a large white and Phalaenopsis fasciata.  The cross produced a lot of good-looking triploid yellows, but the clone ‘Canary’ had the best color.  Several years of breeding attempts yielded nothing, and the plant was thought to be sterile.  Later, several species were bred to this plant, and these crosses have produced many outstanding yellows: Phal. Liu Tuen-Shen (Golden Sands x gigantea); Phal. Golden Amboin (Golden Sands x amboinensis); Phal. Goldiana (Golden Sands x lueddemanniana); and more recently Phal. Golden Bells (Golden Sands x venosa).

Phal. Golden Amboin and Phal. Liu Tuen-Shen have both been very important on the way to reds, but Phal. Golden Bells will also prove to be very important in the future.  These plants are of great importance because they are good tetraploid yellows with strong color, good size and shape, and relatively high flower count. 

Why are they tetraploids?  It turns out that Phal. Golden Sands ‘Canary’, FCC/AOS is a rare plant that gave up trying to split three chromosome sets, and lumped everything together into a 3n ovule.  It does not produce viable pollen. So, when matched with pollen (n) from a diploid species, tetraploids (4n) resulted, and the stage was set for producing good, tetraploid yellows and reds. Not all of the progeny from ‘Canary’, FCC/AOS and a diploid are even tetraploids but many are.  The best test is if they can breed as a pollen parent.  Another modern tetraploid yellow, Phal. Taipei Gold ‘Gold Star’, was a chance tetraploid in an otherwise triploid grex.  This plant will also continue to play a part in the development of large red phalaenopsis.

Now it seemed all we needed was a good source of dark pinks or lavenders.  But crossing tetraploid yellows to tetraploid pinks often produced sunset colors, so this line of breeding was not pursued in the search for clear reds.  With time, and line breeding, this approach would have succeeded, and you will see more of this type of breeding in the future.

In Taiwan, the crossing of a large white, Phal. Mount Kaala, with Phal. pulchra produced an array of triploid plants with pink to lavender blotches and spots.  One of the plants produced had darker color but poor form.  It probably would not have been used for breeding in this country.  A very observant breeder in Taiwan, however, tried the plant and found it to be fertile. This plant would be known as Phal. Paifang’s Queen ‘Brother’, a rare chance-tetraploid resulting from an unreduced 2n pollen cell from the Phal. pulchra.

Brother Orchids used this plant for breeding, and over time, found that, by matching it to plants such as Phal. Liu Tuen-Shen and Phal. Golden Amboin, heavily pigmented, fertile flowers were produced.  Subsequent line breeding by Brother Orchids and others has resulted in a wide selection of heavily spotted and solid red flowers with good fertility and a size ranging from 7 cm. to about 9 cm. To obtain larger sized flowers, we must now concentrate on breeding this wealth of material to large, dark pinks to produce the final result – 10 cm. reds.  Some of this breeding is already accomplished with crosses such as Dtps. Brother Cortez Red showing the way.  We are within a generation or two of our goal.  The plants now available allow any serious breeder to produce a line of large, free-breeding, red phals.  Some of those commonly available that can be used to produce good tetraploid reds follow.  But beware of crosses such as Sogo Cock and Sogo Rose.  Despite their awards and visual appeal, these plants are also triploids or aneuploids.