Pollen can travel for miles. I live in NW Washington state, and there is a lot of seed production for cole crops in this area. Every year, they have a "pinning" where the growers meet and determine which field goes where, to ensure no unwanted pollination, and fields are separated by miles (bees fly a long ways, you know). Pollen can also travel an exceptional distance in the wind.

Why, may I ask, are you so concerned about cross pollination? In a square foot garden, I don't think you'd ever get plants far enough apart to inhibit cross pollination.

I donÂt save any seed. I was told some time ago that cross pollination could affect the flavor and quality of fruits and vegetables of the current year of pollination?????
I have two areas of SFG about 150ft apart.

John

What you were told is a bunch of crap! :) Cross pollination in no way, shape, or form affects the flavor and quality of the fruit. Besides, cross pollination is *required* for production of fruit in some crops, the most well-known example is probably apple (you need two different varieties, not just two trees of the same variety).

AHhhhh my day is complete as I try to learn something new every day.
My confusion came from my assumptions and not what I was told. I had been buying cantaloupe from a local farmer which was always excellent until one year they were the worst tasting I had ever had. I commented about them to another local farmer and he said that the fellow had them planted to close to (I canÂt remember what) and they cross pollinated and I assumed he was talking about the current year.
Thanks for the information, now back to thinking as to what to plant in the SFG.

John

Cross pollination affects the seeds . so: corn , peas, beans, nuts, grains will change the first year because they are seeds . Other things will change the following year when you grow from seed.

Pollen can influence the color, flavor, keeping quality and so on, even of apples.
As Darwin wrote (Variations of Animals and Plants):
"The famous St. Valery apple must not be passed over; the flower has a double calyx with ten divisions, and fourteen styles surmounted by conspicuous oblique stigmas, but is destitute of stamens or corolla. The fruit is constricted round the middle, and is formed of five seed-cells, surmounted by nine other cells. (10/94. 'Mem. de La Soc. Linn. de Paris' tome 3 1825 page 164; and Seringe 'Bulletin Bot.' 1830 page 117.) Not being provided with stamens, the tree requires artificial fertilisation; and the girls of St. Valery annually go to "faire ses pommes," each marking her own fruit with a ribbon; and as different pollen is used the fruit differs, and we here have an instance of the direct action of foreign pollen on the mother plant. "

Karl

Here is a link that might be useful: CybeRose & Bulbs

I am a beekeeper who has an opportunity to place several hives on the property of a friend who operates a garden seed business. Naturally, she is concerned about deterimental cross-pollination.

1. What can we do to minimize the problem?
2. Which cultivars are most susceptible?

Thank you.

Douglas,

Plantings that should not be cross-pollinated should be separated by several hundred feet. Separate-color ornamentals would be the most susceptible. For example, white zinnias should be several hundred feet from other colors of zinnias. Any non-white-on-white cross pollination would show up as off-type. White-on-white cross pollination within a white cultivar would actually be beneficial. Many cultivars, like zinnias for example, benefit from bee pollination and will respond to their presence with a heavier seed set. Even without your honeybees, carpenter bees, bumble bees, and other insects will cross pollinate. Your bees would not be an issue with gravity-pollinated crops like corn.

ZM