If you aren't saving seeds it doesn't matter at all. It only affects the seeds.

Only the same species will cross to make cross breed seeds.

As you noted, they don't cross between species. So all Cucumis melo ( cantaloupes, honeydews, Crenshaws, Spanish melons) will cross pollinate, but they will not cross witn Citrullus lanatus ( watermelons ,citrons) or cucumbers Cucumis sativus. O f course Armenian cukes are actually a melon ( so they will cross) C. melo) Only the seeds are crossed so if you not saving seeds, no need to worry about crosspollination. The crosses only show in the next generation.

OK, so if I plant honeydews next to canteloupes, the fruits will stay true? That is, I don't get a weird honeyloupe? I don't care about the seeds. How does that work? If honeydew pollen ends up in a cantaloupe female flower, do I still get a cantaloupe out of the deal?

Cross pollination can't affect the fruit. That is determined by the parent plant's genetics. That can't be changed. It only affects the DNA of the seeds in the fruit. Kind of like how a sperm meeting an egg doesn't affect the mother's womb, only the baby.

So what happens when honeydew pollen lands on a canteloupe female flower? Nothing? A canteloupe with funny seeds? I guess if the result is seeds that are crossed, you've got to get seeds out of the deal, and it must be the latter. So the fruit is determined by the genetics of the plant with the female flower. I would have considered the "parent plant" to be both. But that seems not to be the case.

I think I once knew all this, but it's been a while since I've ought about it.

When honeydew pollen lands on a cantaloupe female flower, you still get a cantaloupe fruit. But the seeds inside the cantaloupe, if planted, will be a honeydew/cantaloupe cross and produce weird fruit.

It is the same for squash, if the crosses affected the fruit, you wouldn't be able to grow, say, acorn squash and zucchini near each other, without getting weird fruit (I have done it two years in a row and have not had the slightest issue. In fact it is beneficial to have lots of plants in the same species at it attracts more bees to the plants for pollination.)

You got it now Dan. Melons are actually a good exemplar for this process. The flowers of some plants, like tomatoes and peppers, give you no clue as to what type of fruit the plant will produce. However, melons, squash, cucumbers... and the like... all have the 'ready to be pollinated' fruit formed right behind the female flower. Whatever type it is, a proto-form of the final product can already be seen.

Thank you, that's important information. I think terminology is an issue here. I was using "cross pollination" to mean production of a mutant fruit by interpollination by two varieties of a species. But it seems that what that phrase *really* means is production of seeds that will yield mutant fruit. It's all about seeds, and not about first generation fruit. When I do this, I guess what I need to be careful about is rescuing seedlings from my compost pile. ("Oooh, that's a canteloupe!) I believe that corn is an exception here, in that, for example, sweet corn and field corn cross pollinate and the effects are seen in the first generation. Of course, in that case, the fruit is the seed.

"I believe that corn is an exception here, in that, for example, sweet
corn and field corn cross pollinate and the effects are seen in the
first generation. Of course, in that case, the fruit is the seed."

The same holds true for beans and peas. If cross pollination occurs, the pods will still grow true but when dried the seeds inside can be different than what was originally planted.

Rodney

I'm growing melons for the first time this year. Since space is limited, I chose smaller varieties, papaya dew and Minnesota midget cantaloupe, so I can trelles them. Everything I read says that any cross pollination will not be apparent in the fruit. But, some of the developing melons are football-shaped like a papaya dew with the end to end striping of the cantaloupe. Has anyone seen this before?