GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

04-05-2006, 05:11 AM posted to rec.gardens

In article says...
I'm concerned that you are doing this with seeds given you by a
neighbor. Are these seed company seeds guaranteed true, or are they from
you neighbor's last year's crop that was unfortunately planted near the
cucumbers and squashes? I'm leery of planting harvested seeds simply
because of cross-pollination that may bring forth some very wonky
results indeed.

My neighbor is rather elderly and kind of, shall we say, frugal. I
think it's that trait I notice people have who lived through the
Depression and they still think they need to save everything. Well I
just found out that the Honeydew seeds he gave me he got from a Honeydew
melon bought at a fruit stand. I would think that commercially grown
Honeydew melons should have had good controls over pollination. But I'm
not taking a chance. I decided to grow one seedling in a big pot as an
experiment to see what happens and give the others away to people who
actually have yards with room to spare to take chances on growing
something unknown.