Seeds produced from the crosses were germinated and grown in a greenhouse and transplanted to the field after 2 months at CIAT’s station in Palmira. A total of 11 548 genotypes were produced from the nine parental lines involved in this study (Table 1). The average number of seeds produced for each cross was 321 (ranging from 37 to 1525). For each cross at least 30 genotypes could be produced and that was the number of genotypes representing each F1. At harvest time six vegetative cuttings for each of the 30 genotypes of each F1 family were obtained. Unavoidably there was selection based on the capacity of the plants to produce six good-quality vegetative cuttings at this stage. Indeed, this was the only selection criterion used to define the 30 genotypes to represent each F1 family.