Crossbreeding has something like 90-95% chance of producing the same crop, so if you only use two parents and a single crossbreeding plot between them, it will take frustratingly long to get a new crop. What I prefer to do is set up a 9x9 field with a checkerboard pattern of parent crops and crossbreeding plots. Even then, it sometimes takes 2 or more passes to get the target crop I want. If I don't have enough of the parent crop initially, I start with a diagonal line, then an X, and work my way up to the checkerboard pattern.
Aroma1997 I think you might be confusing the Crop-Matron machine with the separate Crop Harvester machine. Also, as of IC2 build 755 for MC 1.7.10, the Cropnalyzer can identify planted crops as soon as they start growing (your change according to the changelog), which I presume has carried over into IC2 for newer versions of MC.