Garden

Garden

From Page B5

know whether your plants are self-pollinating or, insect or wind pollinated. Selfpollinating plants will require fewer precautionary measures, with usually only 0.1-5 percent of these being susceptible to crosspollination.

Some self-pollinating vegetables: okra, lettuce, peas, beans, eggplant, claytonia and peppers. Vegetables pollinated by wind or insect: squash, cucumber, asparagus, fennel, corn, parsnip and carrots. Tomatoes are mostly self-pollinating, except for the double-flowering types (beefsteaks), currant tomatoes and potato-leaved varieties.

As for flowrers and herbs, to determine pollination status, a botany course would be needed! It should be safe though, to assume that as long as you keep multiple flower and herb varieties isolated, the seed wall be pure. Don’t collect seed from basil plants, for example, if you have both 'Purple Ruffles’ and ‘Opal’ planted side-bvside (unless you wish to take a gamble with potentially disappointing results'.

On the other hand, you may come up with an exciting cross and will then need to learn plant breeding and tissue cloning to save your new variety!

Insect-pollinated

Although all curcubits (squash, melons, cucumbers' are insect-pollinated, the squash genus includes six different species, and one representative from each species may be planted in the same area without risk of contamination Two species are obscure Mexican types, c.ficifolia and foetidissima, unlikely to be grown in your garden.

The four common species then are: c. maxima (buttercups, hubbards, turbans); c.mixta (cushaws); c.moschata (butternuts) and c. pepo 'acorns, cocozelles, pattypans, zucchini). Pumpkins may be found in maxima, moschata and pepo: check the variety in the catalogue.

Any self-pollinated plant with rich pollen that lures insects should be isolated, as