Cucumbers and Melons

[berksmike]

Had a bit of a brainstorm last night.....

Was planning to grow marketmore cucumbers (male/female flowers rather than all female) and melons in my greenhouse but will I have problems with cross-pollination as they are both cucurbits?

Never grown them together so not sure.

Anyone know?

Mike

[rustylady]

You could try pollinating them yourself (with a soft paintbrush) This should solve any problems. Cross pollinatiion is usually only a problem if you are planning to save seeds, as the plants grown from the saved seeds will not be guaranteed true to type if you are not sure of the "parents"

[Lesley Jay]

Cross pollination will happen freely between varieties within a species but not between different species. Cucumber is a Sativus species and melon is a Melo species.

[denise]

Interesting in this thread because I plan to grow normal green cucs and those yellow round ones (sorry about lack of names info upstairs) in my green house. Sounds a bad idea, as they may cross pollinate, something i hadn't thought of.

[Alison]

Never thought about this but quite happily grow both in the greenhouse every year and don't get any problems. Isn't this the same as having loads of different types of tomatoes going at the same time, that never seems to cause a problem for me or am I just lucky or deluded?

[shirlthegirl43]

I suppose it would only be a problem if you intend keeping seed to use next year - would that be correct?