Topic: Monster on the loose. How many butternut squash are safe/ plant to mature?

[GrannieAnnie]

Last yr a friend gave us some butternuts to eat which were very sweet so I saved the seed and have 7 plants going in 3 different areas of the yard.  Now for some reason one of the plants is double the size of all the others, leaves easily twice as large and it already has 5 young squashes growing very close together on the stem whereas all the other plants only have flowers, no squashes! It is a MONSTER :o

There must be some genetic difference going on with this one plant to explain it.

My question, how many squash can one plant ripen?
Should I be pruning off the vine tips  to help it ripen all these?
The plants on either side of it w/o squashes are sending out long vines and one has gone up the holly tree already.  I'm afraid if this Monster Butternut gets cranking out vines it will engulf the garden!

[amphibian]

Last yr a friend gave us some butternuts to eat which were very sweet so I saved the seed and have 7 plants going in 3 different areas of the yard.  Now for some reason one of the plants is double the size of all the others, leaves easily twice as large and it already has 5 young squashes growing very close together on the stem whereas all the other plants only have flowers, no squashes! It is a MONSTER :o

There must be some genetic difference going on with this one plant to explain it.

The squash you saved from was probably an F1, that is the first generation after a cross, the seeds you have sown are F2, they will not each come true to type, they will show great genetic diversity, with many different phenotypes, visible groupings, appearing. If you save seed again, the next generation, F3s will again show variation. You can eliminate this variety, gradually, by selfing the plants, i.e. pollinating the females with flowers from the same plant, and only sowing the seeds from plants that show the characteristics you like.

My question, how many squash can one plant ripen?

I regularly manage five, it depends on the size of the plant, the variety and the weather.

Should I be pruning off the vine tips  to help it ripen all these?

You can do, I always forget to though.
 

The plants on either side of it w/o squashes are sending out long vines and one has gone up the holly tree already.  I'm afraid if this Monster Butternut gets cranking out vines it will engulf the garden!

You can trail it round in a loop, almost on itself, or give it something to climb up, or you can pinch out its growing tips.

[GrannieAnnie]

Thank you Amphibian, I'll take your advice.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Save seed from the plant you like best, and continue to do so. In a few years, you'll have your own variety!

[amphibian]

Save seed from the plant you like best, and continue to do so. In a few years, you'll have your own variety!

Not if it crosses with other plants in the meanwhile. They're outbreeders squash.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Of course, but if you're just growing the one lot of seed from that species, then it will have outbred with the others. Outbreeders need to outbreed, but you're doing it in a fairly controlled manner, and each generation, at least half the genes come from the plant you liked. So you do make steady progress, without making it too complicated.

[amphibian]

Of course, but if you're just growing the one lot of seed from that species, then it will have outbred with the others. Outbreeders need to outbreed, but you're doing it in a fairly controlled manner, and each generation, at least half the genes come from the plant you liked. So you do make steady progress, without making it too complicated.

True, however I don't agree that all outbreeders need to outbreed, squash suffer no notable inbreeding depression, unlike Brassicas, as such they, while natural outbreeders are quite happy to be forced to be inbreeders. The quickest was to form a stable squash variety is to conduct true-self polination, male to female on the same plant, then save the seed. Even with half the genes from your chosen variety surviving, high levels of heterozygousity will remain, if your plants were heterozygous to begin with.

Also in the allotment environment, pollen from other cultivars of the same species are still quite likely to make their way on to your plot and into your flowers.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Instructions which should hopefully satisfy Amphibian are near the bottom of this page:

http://www.realseeds.co.uk/seedsavinginfo.html

[GrannieAnnie]

Well, after all that help...I hate to say this but it looks like the two plants flanking this monster are a completely different type, more  thin-long-snake like in shape, definitely not a butternut's hourglass shape.  Maybe seeds got mixed up though usually I'm extremely careful with them in separate envelopes taped shut.  :-\    The butternut seeds came from a squash given to us to eat last year, not purchased seeds.

[amphibian]

Well, after all that help...I hate to say this but it looks like the two plants flanking this monster are a completely different type, more  thin-long-snake like in shape, definitely not a butternut's hourglass shape.  Maybe seeds got mixed up though usually I'm extremely careful with them in separate envelopes taped shut.  :-\    The butternut seeds came from a squash given to us to eat last year, not purchased seeds.

I doubt the seed got mixed up, this much diversity in the offspring  of crossed squash is quite normal.

To try and put it simply.

Your original squash, was the child of two very different squash, it and all its brothers would have looked exactly the same, they would have shown whatever the dominant traits of their parents were. However they carried genes for the diversity of both parents, including the recessive (hidden) genes, just like ginger hair in humans.

Now your plants are the children of the butternut which also carried hidden genes, some of these children will have inherited only the hidden genes and will look nothing like a butternut, some will carry only the dominant genes and some will carry a mix of both, and look just like the dominant ones. You will see a lot of diversity without mixing seed up.

[GrannieAnnie]

This certainly makes gardening a tad more interesting, a bit like opening a mystery box.

[Squashfan]

I think the only way to guarantee squash purity is to buy new seed every year. But where's the fun in that?  ;D
I've planted 6 mounds of compost with several seeds/plants each. Now, we all like a tomato in our house and our compost reflects that. Result? Tomatoes on our mounds with squash. Should be an interesting year...  :D

[GrannieAnnie]

I think the only way to guarantee squash purity is to buy new seed every year. But where's the fun in that?  ;D
I've planted 6 mounds of compost with several seeds/plants each. Now, we all like a tomato in our house and our compost reflects that. Result? Tomatoes on our mounds with squash. Should be an interesting year...  :D

you may require a skyhook to pick those toms