My question of the day -- Cantelope seeds

[Taratunafish]

As I am an admitted newbie to gardening, living with well water, woodstove heating, and now having property larger than a postage stamp, I am considering starting a VERY small garden. (I would like to tame the yard and perimeters first) If I collect the seeds from a locally grown cantelope, how best to prepare them with the intent of planting them next year? Must I clean that slimy stuff off the seeds? Is there more to just drying them out? What is a reliable way of storing the seeds and come next year, when do I plant them (inside, in market packs set on an old TV tray) and are these seeds that benefit from being wrapped in a damp paper towel?

Open to all advice pertaining the my question of the day. Stay tuned for another one tomorrow!!

-Taratunafish

[EDDIE BUCK]

You need to find out if the cantlelope is a hybred, if it is the seeds will not come true. In other words the seeds will not produce the same cantlelope. They will make cantleopes but not exactly like the hybred you purchased. My advice is to buy open pollenated seeds the first year and then you can save seeds every year, and they will be like the parent cantleope. The way I save seed is to get the seeds from the cantleope and spread out on a box or table under shelter, until they are dry, then I put them in an envelope and wright the name and date on it, and keep them in a dry place. If you want to wrap them in damp papertowel to speed germination next spring, You can but after a couple of days, check them every day and as soon as You see they've germinated, Plantum in trays or garden. Good luck. Eddie

[Taratunafish]

Eddie Buck - thanks for the hint about them possibly being hybrids. I do remember reading something about hybrid somethings sometimes surprising you. I think it had to do with trees. Anyway, if a fruit or vegetable plant is a hybrid, and that's not such a good thing to save seeds from, then why do farmers plant them?
I will make sure to keep notes of this. Buying seeds will give me something to look forward to during the winter!

Thanks.

-Taratunafish

[DQ]

hybrids generally are more vigorous than any individual strain alone. Planting hybrids can get you higher yeilds and a better product. if you are wanting to grow for a farmers market for instance a hybrid could be a better choice. good luck welcome to gardening!

[EDDIE BUCK]

DQ gave you a very good answer why farmers plant hybreds. I certainly am not the best person on the forum to try to explain hybreds. That cantaloupe you get from the market, if its a hybred, its a proven hybred, Its parents were bred for their good points,taste, yield,color and disease resistance, only way to get another is to cross those same parents. If you plant the seeds from your hybred you got from the market , these seed would be unproven. They could inherit from past generations bad points. You have probably heard that a mule is a hybred. Ok to get a mule every time, you have to breed male donkey to a mare horse = mule. Now mules are sterile,cant reproduce. But, if they could reproduce,and you bred two mules you would get an unproven result. You could get a mule or a donkey, or a horse. Bad news if you were in the mule selling busness, or a farmer who wanted the best produce at the market and planted unproven seed.

[Windy in Kansas]

To expand on what DQ wrote----hybrids are bred for certain characteristics or multiples thereof.

They are typically bred for disease resistance, insect resistance, shorter seasonal requirements, better overall plant vigor and health, to prevent lodging (plant falling over from wind, rain, other), determinate/indeterminate (yield period), sprawling plant vs. compact one, higher yield from larger fruit or greater production, greater uniformity of production (size, shape, color), as with melons and tomatoes cracking resistance, thickness of skin of fruits, longer storage time (fruit and vegetables not grains), and taste while still maintaining the aforementioned qualities.

Now added into the equation are controversial genetic modifications which may add health benefits such as beta-carotene to the crop with some modifications even adding pharmaceuticals.

Modifications can also insert Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) into plants which is normally a naturally occurring bacterial disease of insects thus allowing less or no pesticide spraying.
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/PUBS/insect/05556.html

Crops are also modified so that they may be directly sprayed with certain herbicides for weed control while allowing the crop to actively continue to grow. Less or no weed competition means greater yields without or with less foreign matter in the end crop.

Perhaps you can tell I'm a proponent of hybrids and most generally accept my governments acceptance of genetically modified organisms. Enough on that as I'll probably get yelled at and screamed at by those against such.

[Tricky Grama]

My advice is to throw your kitchen scraps in your compost pile & you'll have cantelope growing there next spring!

I planted cantlope seeds but got nada. Got a good vine out of my compost pile tho!

Patty