[DD.]

I wish I'd been there to ask about the variety, (if he could remember after all those years) and to sponge one or two.

Things like marrow seed are easy to save, but having done it & found it had crossed pollinated with a pumpkin, it makes you wonder.

I've posted this before, but this was the result..

[GrannieAnnie]

And there was my melumber, where one half was melon and the other half looked like cucmber!  pic at bottom!

I also save my bean, pea, tomato, chilli, courgette and cucumber seeds.  And even if say the chilli seeds cross pollinate and I get a different variety from it, I'm not worried as its still a chilli!

I must get more adventurous and try other things too!!

[mumofstig]

They are very strange looking cucurbits you have there DD and Grannie, 
i wonder if these are worse for crossing than other things.

Think i'll have to do some googleing and find out more

[coolpran]

And there was my melumber, where one half was melon and the other half looked like cucmber!  pic at bottom!

I also save my bean, pea, tomato, chilli, courgette and cucumber seeds.  And even if say the chilli seeds cross pollinate and I get a different variety from it, I'm not worried as its still a chilli!

I must get more adventurous and try other things too!!

lol ... funny looking melumber

[annie2006]

the runner beans i have to plant this yr are saved from my grandparents beans, and again, they save their beans every year and have done since they first got their allotment when my dad was small (hes 52 now) so i guess they are prob around the 50 yr mark too!

[Stripey_cat]

i wonder if these are worse for crossing than other things.

Yes.  They're as promiscuous as a cat in heat.  All your pumpkin/marrow/courgette are the same species, most winter squash are a couple of closely-related species that are close enough to hybridise easily, and melons/cucumbers will hybridise with each other (although not with the squashes, as far as I'm aware).  Since the flowers aren't self fertile (apart from parthenocarpic cucumbers), and are bee pollinated, they tend to cross very freely.  Some of the crosses are OK, a few are actually an improvement (one of the big seedhouses, posssibly T&M, has a melon variety with a bit of ridge cucumber in its parentage to help it grow better outdoors, for instance), but many are vile!