Cross Pollination

Mother Earth News, Sep/Oct 1987
Bring new pleasures and superior plants to your garden
By Nancy Bubel

Most other vegetable plants are cross pollinated: They need to receive pollen from others of their kind. Some, like beets, spinach, Swiss chard, corn and rye, are wind pollinated. They have tiny flowers that produce a great many grains of fine pollen to up the probability of successful encounters. A large group of cross-pollinated plants depend on insects to transfer the pollen.. These include asparagus, cole crops (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, collards, kale and kohlrabi), carrots, celery, cucumbers, eggplant, melons, onions, parsley, parsnips, pumpkins, radishes, rutabagas, squash and turnips.