I assume you meant to post this on the Saving Seed forum, right, since it has its own forum? It is linked at the top of this forum's front page in the set of Related Forums links. Dave

Anyway, my melons were not hand pollinated, but I did a pretty thorough check of my neighborhood, where barely anyone gardens, and certainly no one else is growing melons. Amy Goldman's book said 1/2 mile should be safe. So, I'm confident there wasn't cross pollination. Martha, To quote from Suzanne Ashworth's Seed Saving book; "Any two or more varieties within the same species must be prevented from crossing in order to save pure seed" Your Blacktail will be OK, but both Schoon's Hard Shell and Honey Rock are in the same species, C. melo, so they will cross. I think what Amy might have been referring to was a 1/2 mile isolation distance between varieties within the same species if hand poillination is not done, and Ashworth quotes the same distance. So if you are growing all three at your home then Blacktail is probably OK if no other watermelons, C. citrullus, are within about 1/2 mile. But the two others would have crossed unless they were separated by a 1/2 mile distance. As for seed maturity and viability , Ashworth says seeds are not mature until the melons are ripe to eat. Although I used to grow a lot of melons I never wanted to do the hand pollinations to get pure seed. For many years I also offered peppers at SSE but bagging blossoms was also not my thing and x pollination can be upwards of 70% without caging or bagging. So I stick with tomato offerings at SSE. Due to physical disabilities I'm down from 200-250 varieties/year to about a dozen, but self pollenization is the rule for tomatoes and it occurs about 95% of the time. Hand pollinating melons and squash and cukes was just too much work for me. Even Amy, who is a long time close friend and you'll see my name on her thanks page as she is on my thanks page for my heirloom tomato book, seldom hand pollinates her melons unless it's a very rare variety, and as you know, offers very few as listed at SSE. Actually she sent up a nice basket of melons just last week. Lovely. And as I eat them I'm not saving the seeds b/c I know darn well she probably didn't hand pollinate them. She's too busy finishing up her book on squash. Hope that helps. Carolyn

Christie, the Lilies you received are most likely Orientals 'Casablanca'. They are very common and cheap. You can buy their bulbs at any big box store locally in spring or fall. This is a hybrid Lily and it will not come true to type from seeds. Besides, it is virtually impossible to collect seeds from the cut flowers. Also, Lilies bloom once a year. The regular time for Orientals to bloom is July. Your Lilies were forced to bloom in June. So you will not be able to "have lilies like this on your kitchen table daily".

Image by: wintersown Paper or Plastic? It's your choice. Yes you can. Whether you save your seeds in plastic or paper envelopes is a matter of personal preference. If you choose to save your seeds in plastic envelopes you must assure that the seeds are bone-dry! Why do they have to be bone dry? Seeds that aren't thoroughly dry will distribute their moisture throughout all the seeds in a plastic envelope, they can rot from mildew and won't germinate. How do I do assure that the seeds are thoroughly dry? Let your seeds dry on an open plate or in an open bowl for several days after harvesting. Stir them occasionally to allow the seeds on the bottom layers to be exposed to the air. How do I tell that they're dry? Dry seeds are very loose, they don't cling to each other, they move quickly and easily across a plate.