Pumpkins and Watermelons

[tiggyann]

I seen somewhere on the internet that if you plant the watermelon moon and stars you can't plant any other open-polination watermelons for 1/2 mile away or you will not get true seeds. Can I plant pumpkins with this kind of watermelon? And can I plant a white pupmkin with regular pumpkin and still get true seeds, or how far must they be away from each other?

krissy

[DeanRIowa]

Here is a nice document that discusses the isolation distances and the reasoning behind them. Check out Appendix A. Note: For the home gardener the distances are less, with the understand cross pollination might appear.

http://www.savingourseed.org/pdf/Iso...esVer_1pt5.pdf




Now, regarding your pumpkins cross pollinating, is possibly a different issue and the following link might help explain it a little better.
http://www.au.gardenweb.com/forums/l...012010139.html

I am still learning as well.

Dean

[Ruth_10]

Krissy, watermelons are Citrullus lanatus and won't cross with pumpkins, which are Cucurbita spp. (often C. pepo, and C. maxima, C. moschata are the common ones). To know if your pumpkins will cross, you need to find out which of the Cucurbita spp. they below to. If they're different, they won't cross.

One thing you do have to worry about in terms of crossing with your pumpkins are other squashes, winter and summer, including zucchini.

As far as I know all of what we commonly refer to as watermelons are Citrullus lanatus and yes, one variety will cross with the other quite easily (Moon and Stars doesn't differ from other varieties in this respect). The flowers are pollinated by insects and the insects make the rounds.