Tree Breeding in 1.6.4

[Mash]

So, I've gotten fairly far into tree breeding. The original plan was to crossbreed balsa and a hybrid silver lime I had that had a larger trait with high sapling drop rate. However, for whatever reason, the butterflies I'm using absolutely refused to cross pollinate pure balsas and hybrid silver lime's.

After that, I had the idea to use Apple Oak instead of Silver Lime. Apple Oaks mature quite fast and have a decent leaf count, which would have worked nicely with the high sapling trait from Balsas. However, Apple Oak is a recessive species, and Balsa is a dominant, which means that every single tree I get out of that will be balsa.

So, here's my question. Silver lime is a dominant species. I was thinking about cross-breeding Silver Lime and Apple Oak until I get a silver lime sapling with a fast maturity rate, and then cross-breed that with Balsa until it has a high sapling drop rate.

Am I going to be able to crossbreed a hybrid silver lime with a pure balsa? A silver-lime/jungle hybrid WOULD NOT breed with Balsa the last time I tried, and I don't want to put the time into trying this if it's not going to work.

In case you're interested, I'm looking for a high sapling-yield tree farm to help fuel my BioReactor from MFR, which is why I'm not bothering with sappiness or fruit yield.

 

[asb3pe]

It's been a while since I did the Forestry trees, but the way I did my tree breeding was with pollen and Alveary Sieves. Of course, this requires that you are doing bees alongside trees and from your post I'm not sure if you're doing that or not. You need to make the bees that provide Silk Wisps so you can make Woven Silk to capture the pollen in your alvearies.

According to my charts that I made when I was doing my trees, Silver Lime plus Balsa will give a Black Locust tree. But since things change quickly in FTB world, I wouldn't trust that's still accurate.

Here are a few links that I saved over time, perhaps you will find an answer in them.

http://www.reddit.com/r/feedthebeas..._much_cross_breeding_i_finally_got_my/caxgu4k

http://ftb.gamepedia.com/Category:Trees
(click on "Tree-Attributes" at the top for more info but you prob already know that info since you know Balsa has the best "Saplings" trait)

 

[Mash]

Ah, nah. Yeah, with my set up, I'm not quite able to automate bees, so I decided to just box in my trees and let butterflies do the work.

Really all I'm wondering I guess is if a hybrid tree can successfully breed with a pure bred. Because right now I have Silver-Lime/Apple Oak hybrids attempting to be crossbred with Balsas for a silver lime sapling with high saplings and faster maturity.

 

[asb3pe]

Here's a video link I saved as well, maybe it will help.

 

[asb3pe]

Ah, nah. Yeah, with my set up, I'm not quite able to automate bees, so I decided to just box in my trees and let butterflies do the work.

Really all I'm wondering I guess is if a hybrid tree can successfully breed with a pure bred. Because right now I have Silver-Lime/Apple Oak hybrids attempting to be crossbred with Balsas for a silver lime sapling with high saplings and faster maturity.

This post from Eunomiac might help you - http://forum.feed-the-beast.com/threads/tree-breeding-spoilers.7869/page-6#post-258273

I would scan the thread from that point forward. I think you're on the right track, might just need more patience (something none of us FTB'ers ever seem to have LOL).

 

[Mash]

Yeah, I actually saw the reddit thread on my first round of google searching. I was confused because instead of breeding his hybrids with purebreds, he crossbred two different hybrids over and over until they turned into pure bred saplings with the traits he wanted. That's what initially caused my doubt. I think the way I'm doing it is possible, it just takes about a century longer than if I purified the tree species, since right now I have traits from 3 species being tossed around in a jumble instead of just two.

Either way, thanks so much for the replies. That video and the tree attributes section of the wiki showed me quite a few things I didn't know before. It's just frustrating how little documentation there is on Tree breeding despite how long its been around. I can find 300 charts dealing with crossbreeding species, but nobody seems to have a solid collection of information on selectively breeding traits. Its just individual experimentation with certain species that aren't necessarily universally-applicable. But, I think I can manage with what I've learned. All I really want is a sapling that I can toss in with my potatoes in my BioReactor. It occurs to me that just making a few carrot farms would have been significantly easier, but hey, I can't stop now.

Edit: The only frustrating thing about the wiki is that it doesn't list which tree species are dominant, and which ones are recessive, which is absolutely critical information for trait selecting.

 

[asb3pe]

Either way, thanks so much for the replies. That video and the tree attributes section of the wiki showed me quite a few things I didn't know before. It's just frustrating how little documentation there is on Tree breeding despite how long its been around. I can find 300 charts dealing with crossbreeding species, but nobody seems to have a solid collection of information on selectively breeding traits. Its just individual experimentation with certain species that aren't necessarily universally-applicable. But, I think I can manage with what I've learned. All I really want is a sapling that I can toss in with my potatoes in my BioReactor. It occurs to me that just making a few carrot farms would have been significantly easier, but hey, I can't stop now.

Edit: The only frustrating thing about the wiki is that it doesn't list which tree species are dominant, and which ones are recessive, which is absolutely critical information for trait selecting.

I hear ya loud and clear, Mash. Glad I was able to provide some help. I've been down the same road you're going down, with a similar lack of direction. I ended up making my own charts thru a lot of experimenting and researching species in NEI. I guess some people consider it "fun" to have to figure it all out, but for me it seems silly for every person to have to re-invent the wheel. These forums are by far the greatest asset for us players, just keep posting questions and eventually somebody will answer. Reddit seems like a great resource as well, however I don't have a reddit username so I don't post on there. This forum usually gets the job done for me even if it might take a few days and a few questions to get some answers. And of course, google is wonderful if you can find the right search terms and cut thru all the clutter.

 

[Mash]

For the sake of documentation that may help someone else, I found the tree I was looking for.

White Willows, a tree you will be able to breed on your way to Balsas, are the ONLY 'Faster Maturity' trait tree that is also dominant. If you are looking to breed a tree with balsas that will give you faster maturity without ALWAYS having balsas as the active species, and without having to do a bunch of breeding with balsas prior, White Willows may be what you want. Just cross-breed a pure bred White Willow and a pure bred Balsa until you get a White Willow Sapling with Faster Maturity, Large Height, and High Saplings.

After you have this sapling, you can further blend it with other trees for additional traits/species... but if this were the plan all along you could just do it with pure balsas. White Willows are a good temporary replacement for the 'ideal' tree. They're a rather large tree with the right traits, and have many, many leaf blocks. The only real downside is that they're shaped like a large dome, which could potentially block sunlight. But, with a large enough tree farm, this is mostly a non-issue. They're not ideal, but they're definitely appealing for the 'good enough' crowd.

Edit: They also produce a HUGE amount of vines as a byproduct, which are completely useless unless you really love vine scaffolding. But, I suppose they couldn't be perfect.

 

[KingTriaxx]

Can you put vines, which are a plant material, in the bioreactor?

 

[Mash]

Can you put vines, which are a plant material, in the bioreactor?

Unfortunately, no. Trust me when I say that I nearly crapped a brick when I saw how many vines were being produced, and that was the first thing I tried. It may be possible in different versions of the mod, but in 1.6.4, the BioReactor definitely does not accept vines as viable material.

Given the massive nerf to the bioreactor in recent memory, I honestly thing it should.

 

[KingTriaxx]

In that case, I'd just dump them into the AE trash can thing to make singularities. Or a regular trash can if you don't want those.

 

[Vaeliorin]

You could use the vines to power a thaumcraft lamp of growth to increase the speed at which your trees and potatoes grow.

 

[Mash]

Yeah, probably. Either way, it's a moot point. I continued breeding the White Willows with Silver Limes and finally got a Silver Lime sapling with High Saplings, Fast Maturity, and Larger Height.

There might be less saplings per tree, but Silver Limes are tall rather than wide like white willows, which means that they won't block sunlight or interrupt growth for surrounding trees. Addtionally, the willows had a tendency to decay for no reason and cause quite a bit of lag from the accumulation of sapling entities on the ground. This could be largely fixed with Thaumcraft golems, but it turned out to be easier to simply breed the traits into a more convenient species.

 

[KingTriaxx]

My fix was to ring my farm with vacuum hoppers, but changing species works just as well.

And I seem to remember that vines are pretty pure herba. Haven't actually found myself a jungle yet, so I can't say off the top of my head.