Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Courgette
Courgettes are easily crossed, accepting pollen from any other cucurbit includ-
ing squashes, melons, cucumbers and other varieties of courgettes, and need
careful isolation and hand-pollination to breed true. Thankfully, their flowers
are quite robust, and you can keep them closed using a loop of twine or a small
rubber band.
Look for fat flower buds that are turning yellow, indicating that they will open
within a day or two, and use twine or a rubber band to keep them closed. The
next day, pick and open a male flower, remove its petals and use it to transfer
pollen to a female flower. Tie the female flower shut again to keep out any other
visitors. As soon as the fruit begins to develop the flower will wilt, and should be
removed in case it goes mouldy. Pick the fruit when it is completely ripe, store
until it begins to soften, then cut it open to harvest the seeds. Rinse and dry
them, and store in a cool, dry dark place.
Sweetcorn
The main difficulty with saving sweetcorn is that to ensure crop vigour, at least
200 plants should be grown in a block, and the seeds saved from the 100 best
plants. If you add to this the difficulty of growing an open-pollinated (and therefore
slower-to-ripen) variety in the UK climate, plus the ease with which sweetcorn
will cross-pollinate, you can see that seed saving can really be accomplished
only in a large polytunnel, where enough space can be given to a single crop
such as this, and where it can be isolated from wind-borne pollen from else-
where.
If you are able to give this a try, wait four to six weeks after you would have
picked the cobs to eat. If the growing season isn't long enough to allow this, the
cobs can be picked and the outer leaves pulled back, then hung upside down in
order to complete the drying process. To remove the seeds, hold the ear firmly
above a container and make a twisting movement with your hands.
