How are triploid plants an advantage to commerce?

Polyploid plants tend to be larger and better at flourishing in early succession habitats such as farm fields.[citation needed] In the breeding of crops, the tallest and best thriving plants are selected for. Thus, many crops (and agricultural weeds) may have unintentionally been bred to a higher level of ploidy.

The induction of polyploidy is a common technique to overcome the sterility of a hybrid species during plant breeding. For example, Triticale is the hybrid of wheat (Triticum turgidum) and rye (Secale cereale). It combines sought-after characteristics of the parents, but the initial hybrids are sterile. After polyploidization, the hybrid becomes fertile and can thus be further propagated to become triticale.

In some situations polyploid crops are preferred because they are sterile. For example many seedless fruit varieties are seedless as a result of polyploidy. Such crops are propagated using asexual techniques such as grafting.

Polyploidy in crop plants is most commonly induced by treating seeds with the chemical colchicine.

[edit] Examples of polyploid crops

Triploid crops: banana, apple, ginger, watermelon, citrus[14]

Tetraploid crops: durum or macaroni wheat, cotton, potato, cabbage, leek, tobacco, peanut, kinnow, Pelargonium

Hexaploid crops: chrysanthemum, bread wheat, triticale, oat, kiwifruit [15]

Octaploid crops: strawberry, dahlia, pansies, sugar cane

Some crops are found in a variety of ploidy. Apples, tulips and lilies are commonly found as both diploid and as triploid. Daylilies (Hemerocallis) cultivars are available as either diploid or tetraploid. Kinnows can be tetraploid, diploid, or triploid.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyploidy#Polyploid_...

Triploid Plants