High Fertility of Buckwheat Tetraploids obtained by Means of Colchicine Treatment

IN the summer of 1941, extensive experiments were performed on producing buckwheat tetraploids by means of colchicine treatment. In 1942 the root tips of a thousand seedlings grown from seeds of the initial experimental plants were studied cytologically. Among the seedlings verified cytologically, 250 bore the tetraploid chromosome set (32 instead of the normal 16). Tetraploids were obtained from 79 initial plants of the following nine buckwheat varieties: 'Bolshevik', 37 initial plants; 'Kharkov-skaya', 10; 'Bogatyr', 6; 'BTSKA' (Timiriasev Agricultural Academy), 6; 'Altaiskaya', 5; 'Ispan-skaya serebristaya', 5; 'Kazakskaya', 5; 'Belorusskaya', 3; and 'Buriat-Mongolskaya', 2.