Topic: Seed saving.

[grannyjanny]

Is it possible to save cucumber seeds. When we went to Saddads open day we met a lovely lady who gave us some of her cucumbers. They were chunky & had big seeds in them. I saved some of them but would I be wasting my time trying to grow them.

[tonybloke]

if the plant produces seed, they will grow from seed. (they may have been from an F1 variety, but you should still get up to 75% come true)
let us know how you get on!! ;)

[amphibian]

It really depends. You save cucumber seed from very ripe cucumbers, processing them much like tomato seeds. However if her variety was an F1, they won't come true. You can always do a germination test on a few.

[amphibian]

if the plant produces seed, they will grow from seed.

*cough* French tarragon *cough*

[Digeroo]

Cucumbers will germinate from saved seeds.  Pick nice fat seeds and dry them off. 

You will know the mother but unless you very carefully hand germinate you have to take pot luck as to the father. 

Curcurbits can be a bit of fun. You might get something very oddly shaped or something with a very poor taste or something special.  Do you mind spending time growing something that might end up a huge waste of effort and space?  Seeds produced this way are very cheap and I end up with far to many plants, and little possibility of giving them away since you do not know what you might be giving.

I grow my own runner beans, courgettes and squash, but also grow some standard ones as insurance.  Have saved some lemon cucumber for next year.  My own beans tolerate my dry growing conditions very well.

[tonybloke]

if the plant produces seed, they will grow from seed.

*cough* French tarragon *cough*

ok, there are always exeptions to every rule, including this one!! *take some honey and lemon for that throat* :)