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To: MiddleEarth

Technically, tomatoes and green beans can cross-pollinate. Realistically, due to the way the flower is structured, it’s unlikely to happen naturally. So, as long as you started with non-hybrids, you can get pretty pure seeds without worrying about it.

Those are the exceptions, though. With most vegetables the chances of crossing are a lot higher. The plants with nice big flowers like squash, you can tape a few blossoms closed when they’re just getting ready to open, then pollinate manually. I’m afraid I don’t have much experience with saving other types of seed from smaller-blossomed plants, I’m still getting started on seed saving myself. Still hoping the watermelon seeds I saved last year are fairly pure, they were Golden Midgets, which can get hard to find sometimes because they sell out so fast.


37 posted on 03/03/2012 7:22:10 PM PST by Ellendra ("It's astounding how often people mistake their own stupidity for a lack of fairness." --Thunt)
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To: Ellendra

I should rephrase that, I didn’t mean to make it sound like beans and tomatoes could cross with each other, just that their unlikely to cross with members of the same species growing nearby.


38 posted on 03/03/2012 8:53:49 PM PST by Ellendra ("It's astounding how often people mistake their own stupidity for a lack of fairness." --Thunt)
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