Agree. Plus you'll get better pollination and more fruit if they are planted close - as long as you leave enough space per plant of course. Vining types, if you aren't going to let them climb, need lots of room to run. I often plant 3 vines per hill and at least 2 bush types per hill.

Dave

A cucumber can cross with anything in the Genus "Cucumis" which includes a lot of melons. See here. Withthat said, it wont effect your cucumbers on the year that it crosses and will only have an effect if you try and save seed.

Obviously you should try and plant anything in the Cucumis genus far apartifyour intentions are to save seed. How far? You can't stop a bee from cross pollinating, further the better.

I'd also advise against hill planting because the plants will be competing for more water and nutrients and have a harder time spreading.

To make all this easier to understand, plant experts have divided the Cucurbitaceae family into groups. Members of the same group pollinate each other.

Group A Cucurbita pepo:

Summer squash
Yellow crookneck or straightneck
Zucchini, Cocozelle
Scallop/patty pan

Winter Squash
Acorn
Spaghetti

Gourds
many ornamental types.

Many Pumpkins including Cinderella, Big Tom, Jack O’Lantern, Jackpot, Small Sugar, Sugar Pie and Connecticut Field.

Group B Curcurbita moschata

Winter Squash
Butternut squash

Pumpkins
Cheese
Dickinson Field
Golden Cushaw
Kentucky Field

Group C Cucurbita maxima

Winter squash
Hubbard

Pumpkins
Big Max
King of the Mammoths
Mammoth Chile
Mammoth Prize
Atlantic Giant

Ornamental squash
Alladin
Turk’s Turban

Group D Cucurbita mixta

Pumpkins
Green-Striped Cushaw
Japanese Pie
Tennessee Sweet Potato
White Cushaw
Mixta Gold

Group E Cucumis sativus

All slicing and pickling Cucumbers (except Armenian cucumber):
Beit Alpha cucumber
Lemon cucumber

Group F Cucumis melo

Cucumbers
Armenian (Snake cucumber or Serpent melon)

Melons
All muskmelons
Casaba
Honeydew

Group G Citrullus lanatus

All watermelons
All citrons

Rather than Wiki look at a reliable source and note that Members of the same group pollinate each other. They do not cross groups.

http://www.walterreeves.com/food-gardening/squashpumpkincucumberwatermelon-pollination-explanation/

"I'd also advise against hill planting because the plants will be competing for more water and nutrients and have a harder time spreading."

Not when the site is properly prepared before planting and they spread beautifully.

Dave

concur with dave. Well stated. If you want to save seeds bag and hand pollinate. Otherwise just relax and enjoy the harvest. Isolation requires a quarter mile or more.

One slight error, digdirt - the pumpkin variety Cinderella is C. maxima, not C. pepo. Otherwise accurate as far as I can tell.

"One slight error, digdirt - the pumpkin variety Cinderella is C. maxima, not C. pepo. "

The variety called Cinderella is consistently listed as C. pepo by all the sources I checked except 2. Now they may all be wrong but since there are at least 3 different varieties sold under the name "Cinderella" apparently the group is debatable.

Dave

Oh, I wasn't aware of the different varieties. I only know of the one also known as Rouge vif d'Etampes, which I'm fairly sure is C. maxima (look at any picture and you'll see it has a corky stem without ridges, not at all like a C. pepo stem).

Thanks!