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Re: Garden layout question

Thomas May wrote:

> I am planning the layout of my garden.  Somewhere I have heard that
> pumpkins can cross pollinate with other veggies.  I want to plant
> cucumbers, acorn squash, zucchini, and pumpkins next to each other.
> Will this arrangement cause a problem?

It depends. I can't remember exactly which cucerbits can pollinate
others, but ...

If all you're interested in is the veges that you are going to grow,
then plant away. *All* the fruits will be true to the seed you planted.
(For some reason I think sweet corn is an exception, though for the life
of me I can't see why. ) Plants grown from the seeds of these fruit,
however, will be a different story, as they will be a cross between the
two parent plants and will not be true to either of them, and will
probably exhibit a fair amount of variation.

If you are planning on saving seed from non self-pollinating vegetables,
you need to pay close attention to plant spacing, or use mechanical
barriers to retain the characteristics of the variety from which you are
saving seed. Off the top of my head, I don't know the recommended
distances.

This reminds me. A couple of days ago, somebody spoke about
dehybridising hybrid tomato variety. How do you go about doing this? Do
you just plant saved seeds for a few generations, saving seed from
plants exhibiting the desired characteristics until the level of variety
in new plants falls below some threshold? I'm intrigued, because all the
volunteer tomato seedlings in my garden nearly always turn out to be
some sort of cherry tomato.

Tony

--
Tony Lupton                      *           Email: t.lupton@citr.com.au
CiTR Pty Ltd                  *    *         Phone: +61 7 3259 2382
339 Coronation Drive              *          Fax  : +61 7 3259 2259
Milton Qld 4064
Australia                       *
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