Squash question

[pjb]

I planted some squash seeds from a crop I grew last year having forgotten that it was an F1 variety  :-[, so now I have 4 plants growing very well but with 4 completely different types of squash between them (2 look like Marrows), none of them look like the Squash I saved the seeds from. What are the chances of the ripened crop being worth storing?

[pjb]

[GrannieAnnie]

These must be winter squash since you mention storing.
I'd guess the F1 variety was a cross between two good squashes or else it wouldn't have been worth doing, right?
So you'll probably get a nice crop with some interesting variety.

[Chrispy]

I think even with F1s some will come true, and even if they do not some should be very close.

If they all look different, I would say that they have crossed with other plants growing near by.

Did you do anything to prevent this? Squash plants cross very easily.

[pjb]

I grow my sqashes in there own bed with clear plastic around them so I don't think they crossed with anything, the nearest plants to them is my Comfrey bed. Next time I'll buy new seeds!

[Jeannine]

If they are winter squash they will store as well as the others.

They can look similar or totally different from each other depending on what the original seeds were that produced the hybrids.

They do not need to have been crossed to be so unlike one another. The differences may look more like the original parents. You could get one like Mum, one like Dad, and the other two might be different again and from each other .This is the beauty of squash.

Can you tell me what the original hybrid was called and I can maybe  give you some more info.


XX Jeannine

[chriscross1966]

Unfortunatley Cucurbita maxima has a total of 40 chromosomes giving a possible 2^20 combinations of parental inheritance from completely like one parent to completely like the other.... and that's without any gene-swapping going on during meiosis.... that's a bit over a million BTW..... good luck though....

chrisc

[Jeannine]

I was trying to keep it simple XX Jeannine