Cross Pollination

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Mark's Sussex Allotment

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Cross Pollination
« on: June 06, 2013, 18:30 »
Evening all,

I have cucumbers, courgettes, melons, pumpkin, butternut squash and crown prince squash all on my allotment and they are all reasonably close. About 8-10ft away from each other.

What is the worst that could happen?

Have I made a big mistake?
« Last Edit: June 06, 2013, 19:31 by DD. »
When weeding, the best way to know if its a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull it.

If it comes out easy, it was a valuable plant !

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mumofstig

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Re: Cross Polination
« Reply #1 on: June 06, 2013, 18:53 »
Doesn't matter what happens  :) - unless you wanted to save seed for next year.

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AnnieB

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Re: Cross Polination
« Reply #2 on: June 06, 2013, 18:55 »
If they cross pollinate it will not effect the fruit you get this year, that remains as whatever the plant is.

It is the seed inside the fruit/crop that is crossed. So if you kept some and planted that then next year you would have a mix of crossed plants.

I assume that that is the question ?

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Mark's Sussex Allotment

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Re: Cross Polination
« Reply #3 on: June 06, 2013, 19:14 »
Yeah, I was hoping to collect seeds from the more expensive to buy ones.

Will I have effectively created my own variety of something then?


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mumofstig

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Re: Cross Polination
« Reply #4 on: June 06, 2013, 19:17 »
Yes, but they won't necessarily be nice to eat  :ohmy:

Realseeds show you how to save seeds from them, near to the bottom of the page

http://www.realseeds.co.uk/seedsavinginfo.html
« Last Edit: June 06, 2013, 19:21 by mumofstig »

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Mark's Sussex Allotment

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Re: Cross Polination
« Reply #5 on: June 06, 2013, 19:23 »
Fair enough, I'll leave that down to the breeders!

I guess you've no way of knowing if something is cross pollinated either?

It must happen all the time at allotments.

From one plot to the next, insects must be covered in hundreds of different pollen?

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DD.

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Re: Cross Pollination
« Reply #6 on: June 06, 2013, 19:29 »
You can't tell from the seed.

Have a look at my first ever post:

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=1109.msg8891#msg8891
« Last Edit: June 06, 2013, 19:31 by DD. »
Did it really tell you to do THAT on the packet?

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LilacSandy

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Re: Cross Pollination
« Reply #7 on: June 06, 2013, 19:37 »
If you really want to save seed you will need to pollinate one of the flowers yourself. Chose a female flower (this is one with an embryo fruit behind and pop a bag over it before it opens so that the insects cannot get to it.  When it opens you will need to use a male flower to pollinate and then cover it will the bag again until the flower drops off.  Don't forget to mark the fruit so you know which one it is.

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mumofstig

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Re: Cross Pollination
« Reply #8 on: June 06, 2013, 20:16 »
The Realseeds instructions use rbber bands to do the same job  ;)

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A Reyt Tayty

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Re: Cross Pollination
« Reply #9 on: June 06, 2013, 23:54 »
So next year it's pumpumbers, courelons, and squashettes?

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GrannieAnnie

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Re: Cross Pollination
« Reply #10 on: June 07, 2013, 00:05 »
Yes, could be a bit like this one! lol

sorry if its a bit small!


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pdblake

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Re: Cross Pollination
« Reply #11 on: June 07, 2013, 10:16 »
Crikey, what happened there? It looks like a squash trying to spit out a courgette :D

I'm going to have a go at saving some this year, particularly the Thelma Sanders. I think I'll tie the flowers with a bit of string and mark the fruit with something so I know which is the right one.



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