I have extracted the following advice from 'The Real Seed Company' website:
'Melons & cucumbers
All varieties of melon will cross. Ideally, you need around a quarter of a mile between different varieties. If your melons are in a greenhouse or tunnel, you can probably get away with a somewhat smaller distance, particularly if there are hedges, houses or other tall barriers in between your melons and the neighbouring crop. Cucumbers won't cross with melons, but will cross with any other cucumbers or gherkins nearby. Again, you need around a quarter mile isolation to make sure that your plants won't cross.
It is possible, although fiddly, to hand pollinate both melons and cucumber flowers. Grow plants under a fleece tunnel to exclude insects, and then hand pollinate the flowers on those plants with a paintbrush. Make sure that you exchange pollen between different plants to keep the diversity of your variety.
To harvest melon seed, pick the melons when they are ripe and ready for eating and keep indoors for a further day or two for the seed to mature further. Then open the fruit, scoop the seed out, and wash in a sieve under running water. Spread out on a china plate to dry thoroughly.
Cucumbers need to be ripened well beyond the edible stage. They will become much fatter, and green varieties will turn a dark yellow brownish colour, white varieties a paler yellow. Keep for a week or so after picking to let the seeds mature fully. Then cut open, scoop out the seeds and surrounding pulp into a jamjar, add a little water and stir well. Leave the jar on a sunny windowsill for 2-3 days for the seeds to ferment. On the third day, fill the jar fully with water, and stir well again. The good seeds should sink to the bottom of the jar, leaving pulp, debris and empty seeds floating on top. Gently pour off the water and debris, refill the jar, and repeat. After a couple of rinses, you should be left with good seeds at the bottom of a jar in clean water. Drain off the water, and spread out on a plate to dry well.
Both melon and cucumber seeds will last for several years if dried well and stored somewhere cool.'
Two questions if I may. Firstly, do members agree broadly with this method of saving Cucumber seed and secondly, if I'm growing Crystal Lemon and BTG, is the crossed seed likely to be worth growing?
Thanks in advance.
G x