Topic: non-germinating butternut squash

[Dandytown]

I think it just takes much longer than we expect sometimes.  My first batch was sown in pots in a propagator in the GH and didnt germinate in about 10 days again.  I thought that the seeds must have rotted and discarded and started again.

I reused the compost to pot on my peppers and I guess I didnt remove all the seeds as I keep getting random squash seedlings emerging from the pots.

Heat and time  ;D

[Crystalmoon]

Hi everyone thought I should update you all on the non germinating squash seeds from Real seeds...
most of them have now germinated ok. I didnt move them or heat them or anything else just left them to it & watered now & again. I guess they must just be slow starters. Possibly the sudden cold spell we had here in Kent for a few days may have slowed them up. I just wanted tolet people know that there doesnt seem to be a problem with the seeds from Real Seeds  ;)

[1066]

thanks for the update, pleased to hear it was only a matter of time that was needed, some do seem lots slower, always a puzzle

[PurpleHeather]

Yeh they do grow into proper butternut squashes. As do the peppers and loads of other plants. We have been doing it with for years. (decades actually)

My view is that there is a lot of hype about buying seeds and using seeds from fruit and veggies. Granted there might be a risk but one worth taking.

I have had scare mongers telling me it wont work. But all I can say is it works for me. Only once it did not work out well it was with sweet corn but that year it was very wet indeed so that could have caused it. But ever since we have either saved seed or used it from produce.

[Robert_Brenchley]

There are plenty of people who scrape out seed from pumpkins etc, plant supermarket potatoes and garlic, and get good crops. That seems ample evidence to me that it works!

[hild]

I'm trying butternut squash for the first time this year and as I had no idea how easy or otherwise it would be I bought 'proper' seeds - eleven seeds in the pack, I'd assumed that some probably wouldn't come up so chucked them all in.  Every single one came up within about four days - I'm lucky enough to have a south-facing conservatory so no lack of heat!  However, what I am running out of is space so I've just planted them out today - fingers crossed this silly wind won't kill'em off straight away...  :-\

Next year I'll have a go with seeds from supermarket!

[Robert_Brenchley]

If you get a crop, why not save your own seed? That's the way to develop a strain that suits your climate not someone else's!

[hild]

If you get a crop, why not save your own seed? That's the way to develop a strain that suits your climate not someone else's!

I know I should - but I also know what I'm like...  Not terribly organised!  ::) 

I'm trying to improve though - and I must say I'm rather intrigued by the posts elsewhere on the forum about true potato seeds.  I'd never heard about it before (but always wondered whether the fruits actually could be used - actually thinking about it I'm feeling a bit dumb, I don't suppose nature would bother about the fruits if they weren't useful for propagation!) but would be fun to give it a go. 

As for the butternut - I suspect I'll have to wait and see whether a crop is forthcoming first!  The closest thing I've tried so far was just bog-standard courgettes which did TERRIBLY well (only for me to realise I didn't like it as much as I had thought I did...) and aubergines which didn't crop at all.

Just a case of fingers crossed, then!