Szymon Wojciech Lara*, Amalia Tsiami and Philippa Ryan

London Geller College of Hospitality and Tourism, University of West London, Royal Botanic Garden, Kew, Richmond, London, United Kingdom

*Corresponding Author: Szymon Wojciech Lara, London Geller College of Hospitality and Tourism, University of West London, Royal Botanic Garden, Kew, Richmond, London, United Kingdom.

Received: April 06, 2022; Published: April 21, 2022

Abstract

Aims and objectives: The aim of this review is to shortlist and present the most popular crop-isolation techniques for micro-scale gardeners. This will be fulfilled through a mini scoping review of existing literature across academic, professional journals, and grey literature databases.

Introduction: Crop isolation is extremely important in seed saving, especially when growing orphan or landrace varieties of plants. Guidance literature on this matter exists, however, it is mainly orientated around crop isolation for large scale entities/farms and gardeners growing easily crossbreeding food crops. Much less attention is given to micro scale gardeners that try to pursue garden crop cultivation. There is hardly any evidence for crop isolation techniques for self-pollinating plants as those do not require much attention due to their self-fertility properties. Nevertheless, micro scale gardeners have limited access to resources like space, and this increases the chances of producing breed untrue seeds, even from self-fertile varieties of garden crops.

Inclusion Criteria: This review included academic and non-academic (grey) literature written on or around the topic of crop isolation, with a focus on self-pollinating plants.

Methods: The literature search was conducted electronically on the following academic data bases: (1) Science Direct, (2) Emerald Insight, (3) ProQuest, (4) PubMed and (5) Google Scholar. Additional search was conducted using an electronic institutional database/library called Summon Search Engine, with access provided on behalf of the University of West London.

Results: The results indicated that distance isolation is the best technique for minimising cross pollination. In self-pollinating plants, the distance should exceed a minimum of 3 meters. Other techniques like mechanical isolation through blossom bags and insect proof mesh also exist, especially for those that can penetrate the enclosed blossom dome and cross contaminate with foreign pollen. Time isolation is rather difficult to achieve, especially for annual garden crops.

Conclusion: The main issues for pollen cross contamination arises from the lack of arable space amongst micro scale gardeners and allotment holders. It would be advisable not to cultivate multiple varieties in one garden, especially if trying to produce breed true seeds. Although, some of the outlined measures could be applied to minimise the risks involved.

Keywords: Self-Pollinating; Crop Isolation; Micro Scale; Arable Land

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Citation

Citation: Szymon Wojciech Lara., et al. “Self-Pollinating Crop Isolation Techniques for Micro Scale Gardeners with Limited Access to Arable Land. A Mini Review". Acta Scientific Nutritional Health 6.5 (2022): 73-82.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2022 Szymon Wojciech Lara., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.