Distance to prevent cross-polination

[nes]

Has anyone organized their garden so that they can have several varieties of the same vegetables and not have them cross pollinate?

How did you do it? How much space/other plants did you have between the varieties? How much total space do you have?

[applestar]

I have garden beds on opposite sides of my house (well, actually I have them on 3 sides of my house ). So I always plant different varieties of same veg in different beds with the house in between.

It's not a guarantee since I've seen Monarch butterflies fly to the house, rise up the thermals to the roof, and presumably go to the other side ( I've also had a wing-repaired Monarch stay around in my garden for few days and have seen him on both sides of the house) and hummingbirds certainly circle all the way around the house, so it's a good bet that bees will find the other varieties on the other side too.

I haven't been doing this long enough to know whether purely insect pollinated cucurbits are crossing or not. but I can tell you that this has been working for corn.

I believe only way to be sure in a small-scale garden is to put screen cages over plants... or bag the flowers (TZ described the method in the Tomato Forum -- I think it's a sticky). Works for same flower pollinating vegs like tomatoes, peppers, peas, and beans. You need to hand pollinate cucurbits, etc. Large flowered ones can be taped closed to keep the bees out.

I tried bagging Tom and Pep flowers last year and found out that the ones that I bagged typically couldn't be counted on to set fruit. So I obviously need to work on my technique Have not tried the other methods ... Yet

[TZ -OH6]

You really can't guarantee "purity" in a residential sized yard because the bees are stockpiling pollen to pack into egg chambers so they try to strip every little bit of pollen from every flower. They are all over the yard trying to find pollen from flowers that have not been pollen depleated by other bees... Like little flying caffeinated kids on an Easter egg hunt.

If you have a large lot with garden plots at different ends/different sides of the house, with some things like squash or peppers you can plant different species together and probably get good results. Habaneros are a different species from bell peppers. Zucchinis are a differnt species from butternut squash, both are different species from hubbard squash.


If you are going to bag do it early in the season for best results.

[jal_ut]

I wonder why you ask?
Are you saving seed for next year?
Then it may matter. Otherwise not, except for corn.
I do save some seed, but only from plantings where I have only one variety of that species.

I do not save seed from any squash except Butternut. It won't cross with the others.

Corn is the one planting where the pollen will actually affect the sweetness of this years crop. It is well to not cross su, SE and standard corn varieties. You can avoid a cross by planting varieties with different maturity dates, so the two varieties are not dropping pollen at the same time. Or, you can plant only one type then it doesn't matter. IOW plant only SE varieties, or only su varieties, or only standard varieties.

If you plant hybrids, no use in saving seed. It won't come true to form next year.

[rainbowgardener]

If you plant hybrids, no use in saving seed. It won't come true to form next year.

No use in saving hybrid seed IF you want to have the same cultivar you started with. I do it all the time. Green pepper seed makes green peppers. I can't call it a China Giant green pepper any more, if that's what the original pepper was, and it may not be identical to its China Giant parent, but it will still be a green pepper!

[soil]

i love the surprises i get when things cross pollinate. i would have never found most of my favorite varieties if i had not let plants mix and match up some.

i understand the want to keep them separate though. with cool weather crops you can grow one variety in the spring and one in the fall to get different ones with no cross pollination.

[garden5]

I'm in agreement with TZ. Even if you had the space, it would still be much easier to just bag the blossoms rather than to dig another far away garden patch.

[nes]

"Like little flying caffeinated kids on an Easter egg hunt."

We're probably not looking at a residential sized lot is why I'm asking. I want to plan ahead and maybe put in a couple different veg plots.

RG is right, a pepper is a pepper is a pepper, but I really try to plant different varieties to have things come up at different times of the year (in addition to staggering the planting). We have so much cold weather spring/fall then warm summer, I find that works best for me.

Corn is the one I'm most worried about. I'd really like to grow both sweet corn and pop-corn, will those cross? Perhaps I can plan those two on different sides of the house or something.

Tz that's really interesting, I thought all squash could cross together. I've been a little worried about the monsters I might create growing them all together .

[jal_ut]

Yes, pollen from the popcorn will cause your sweet corn to not be quite as sweet. You should be able to offset the pollen drop though and do just fine.