Posted by K on August 11, 2009, 1:14 pm
Having returned to veg growing after nearly 20 yers of not growing veg,
I thought I'd better refresh my mind on the theory, and I've come up
with things which have puzzled me.
From various books I have picked up that you should not grow indoor (all
female) and outdoor cucumbers in the same greenhouse, and sweet and
chilli peppers should not be grown together, in both cases because
'cross pollination' will cause undesirable results.
The cucumbers I think I understand - the all female plants not only do
not require fertilisation, the should *not* be fertilised - I think
because the presence of seeds would spoil the eating quality (and indeed
self fertilisation would have the same effect)
It's the peppers that puzzle me. I can see that, since they're closely
related, they are likely to cross pollinate and next year, if you save
seed, you will get all sorts of strange hybrids. But why should it
affect this year's fruit (which was the clear implication of the book I
read)? I can't see any mechanism by which this year's fruit could be
affected, and I'm inclined to disregard the advice (well, in fact I
already have)
--
Kay
Posted by nmm1 on August 11, 2009, 1:39 pm
>It's the peppers that puzzle me. I can see that, since they're closely
>related, they are likely to cross pollinate and next year, if you save
>seed, you will get all sorts of strange hybrids. But why should it
>affect this year's fruit (which was the clear implication of the book I
>read)? I can't see any mechanism by which this year's fruit could be
>affected, and I'm inclined to disregard the advice (well, in fact I
>already have)
It can happen - for example, I believe that it does for the 'extra
sweet and sickly' varieties of sweetcorn. But it has never happened
to my peppers, and I know that it is very rare.
Regards,
Nick Maclaren.
Posted by Pete C on August 11, 2009, 3:59 pm
K wrote:
> Having returned to veg growing after nearly 20 yers of not growing
> veg, I thought I'd better refresh my mind on the theory, and I've
> come up with things which have puzzled me.
> From various books I have picked up that you should not grow indoor
> (all female) and outdoor cucumbers in the same greenhouse, and sweet
> and chilli peppers should not be grown together, in both cases because
> 'cross pollination' will cause undesirable results.
> The cucumbers I think I understand - the all female plants not only do
> not require fertilisation, the should *not* be fertilised - I think
> because the presence of seeds would spoil the eating quality (and
> indeed self fertilisation would have the same effect)
> It's the peppers that puzzle me. I can see that, since they're closely
> related, they are likely to cross pollinate and next year, if you save
> seed, you will get all sorts of strange hybrids. But why should it
> affect this year's fruit (which was the clear implication of the book
> I read)? I can't see any mechanism by which this year's fruit could be
> affected, and I'm inclined to disregard the advice (well, in fact I
> already have)
Bees and butterflys will cross pollinate??
--
Pete C
London UK
Posted by K on August 11, 2009, 4:58 pm
>K wrote:
>> Having returned to veg growing after nearly 20 yers of not growing
>> veg, I thought I'd better refresh my mind on the theory, and I've
>> come up with things which have puzzled me.
>>
>> From various books I have picked up that you should not grow indoor
>> (all female) and outdoor cucumbers in the same greenhouse, and sweet
>> and chilli peppers should not be grown together, in both cases because
>> 'cross pollination' will cause undesirable results.
>>
>> The cucumbers I think I understand - the all female plants not only do
>> not require fertilisation, the should *not* be fertilised - I think
>> because the presence of seeds would spoil the eating quality (and
>> indeed self fertilisation would have the same effect)
>>
>> It's the peppers that puzzle me. I can see that, since they're closely
>> related, they are likely to cross pollinate and next year, if you save
>> seed, you will get all sorts of strange hybrids. But why should it
>> affect this year's fruit (which was the clear implication of the book
>> I read)? I can't see any mechanism by which this year's fruit could be
>> affected, and I'm inclined to disregard the advice (well, in fact I
>> already have)
>Bees and butterflys will cross pollinate??
Sorry, I don't follow. Yes, the plants will be cross pollinated - but
how does this affect the fruit? The fruit is formed vegetatively from
the parent plant, as I understand it, it's the seed itself which
contains genetic material from both parents, so that any plant growing
from the seed will be the result of cross pollination.
So what I'm asking is whether there is a mechanism by which the genetic
material from pollen can affect the development of the fruit (as opposed
to any seeds that fruit contains), and, if so, what that mechanism is?
--
Kay
Posted by Pete C on August 11, 2009, 5:08 pm
K wrote:
>>
>>
>> K wrote:
>>> Having returned to veg growing after nearly 20 yers of not growing
>>> veg, I thought I'd better refresh my mind on the theory, and I've
>>> come up with things which have puzzled me.
>>>
>>> From various books I have picked up that you should not grow indoor
>>> (all female) and outdoor cucumbers in the same greenhouse, and sweet
>>> and chilli peppers should not be grown together, in both cases
>>> because 'cross pollination' will cause undesirable results.
>>>
>>> The cucumbers I think I understand - the all female plants not only
>>> do not require fertilisation, the should *not* be fertilised - I
>>> think because the presence of seeds would spoil the eating quality
>>> (and indeed self fertilisation would have the same effect)
>>>
>>> It's the peppers that puzzle me. I can see that, since they're
>>> closely related, they are likely to cross pollinate and next year,
>>> if you save seed, you will get all sorts of strange hybrids. But
>>> why should it affect this year's fruit (which was the clear
>>> implication of the book I read)? I can't see any mechanism by which
>>> this year's fruit could be affected, and I'm inclined to disregard
>>> the advice (well, in fact I already have)
>> Bees and butterflys will cross pollinate??
> Sorry, I don't follow. Yes, the plants will be cross pollinated - but
> how does this affect the fruit? The fruit is formed vegetatively from
> the parent plant, as I understand it, it's the seed itself which
> contains genetic material from both parents, so that any plant growing
> from the seed will be the result of cross pollination.
> So what I'm asking is whether there is a mechanism by which the
> genetic material from pollen can affect the development of the fruit
> (as opposed to any seeds that fruit contains), and, if so, what that
> mechanism is?
Ahh, I see what you mean. Sorry, dunno.
--
Pete C
London UK
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>related, they are likely to cross pollinate and next year, if you save
>seed, you will get all sorts of strange hybrids. But why should it
>affect this year's fruit (which was the clear implication of the book I
>read)? I can't see any mechanism by which this year's fruit could be
>affected, and I'm inclined to disregard the advice (well, in fact I
>already have)