Plants and methods for high density plant production
AssigneeMonsanto Technology LLC
InventorsJuan Cordero, Daniel Ovadya, Kyle B. Smith, Adrian Vargas
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Provided are methods for growing a plant under certain stressed conditions that alter the morphology of the plant. In certain aspects, however, although the plant is altered and may be undesirable for commercial purposed, the plant still produces an adequate number of seeds for breeding purposes. Further, because plants may be smaller in size, they can be grown at higher densities, allowing the production of large populations of plants to be brought under controlled conditions which can exclude pollinating insects and thus increase the genetic purity achievable in a breeding program.
Claims12
A method of generating a population of cotton plants with an altered morphology, the method comprising:
- sowing cotton seeds and allowing them to germinate;
- growing the seeds into a population of cotton plants at an average density of at least 10 plants per square meter in a controlled environment wherein the plants of the population are grown at the density in an average volume of growth media of less than about 1,000 mL per plant, and
- wherein the method comprises exposing the cotton plants to heat stress and/or water shortage for an extended period of time,
- thus generating the population of cotton plants with an altered morphology wherein at least about 70% of the individual cotton plants in the population are between about 12 inches and 24 inches tall and have at least one boll that contains at least 20 seeds.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.