Category: Fruits and nuts

This is a new one to me. Prof. Dr. Willem van Cotthem is asking his blog’s readers to donate spare seeds of melon, watermelon and pigeon pea. What’s more, he just wants the melon seeds you would otherwise throw away. Given how promiscuous most melons can be, the seeds are going to represent a bonanza of agricultural biodiversity.

This is why he wants the seeds:

All the seeds will be used for fruit production in arid or semi-arid regions, where we treat the soil with a water stocking soil conditioner, so that the rural people can grow these plants with a minimum of water. I promise to publish pictures on the results obtained with your seeds.

Isn’t this a very nice way to contribute to the success of a humanitarian project? The more melons and water melons you eat, the more poor rural people will get chances to grow them in their family garden and the kids will grow them in their school garden.

And the more varieties will be exposed to those testing conditions. I wonder what will emerge from the mix?