Seeds

[TheEssexYorkshireman]

Are the seed from pumpkins and squashes worth saving and using next season? There are so many and it's a waste if they can be used. What sort of sucess rate do you have?

Thanks
TEYman

[TheEssexYorkshireman]

[galina]

Are the seed from pumpkins and squashes worth saving and using next season? There are so many and it's a waste if they can be used. What sort of sucess rate do you have?

Thanks
TEYman

You can always roast them in the oven in a little oil, then sprinkle salt on them.  Or a drop of Worcester sauce, soy sauce or the like.  Nice, slightly chewy snacks.  Very nutritious too.

As for using them as seeds for next year.  Yes - but ............

As you know squashes and pumpkins are very promiscuous, their large flowers attract bees, and bees and other insects travel long distances for the rich pollen source in these prominent flowers.

Which means that if you reuse seeds from the allotment where lots of different squashes are grown, you are very likely getting a crossed type that is very different from the parent.  If you buy one from the shop and use the seeds, you don't know whether that was a hybrid variety, so it won't come true, or whether they were grown in a very different climate, so they could struggle here.

Apart from the unpredictability, go for it.  If you only have a small space and need your squashes to perform, go for named varieties, if you can spare plot space for experiment, then why not have a bit of fun.

There are 3 species of squash that are commonly grown in the UK.  The cucurbita pepo, for example Halloween squashes, courgettes and delicata.  If you can imagine that any of these could have crossed, you could end up with some pretty astonishing ugly offspring.  Unfortunately the bitter tasting ornamental squashes are also cucurbita pepo, and if any of those were in the mix for the seeds you intend re-using, the result would not be very edible.

The next popular species is cucurbita moschata - the butternuts, tromboncino, but also some round squashes.  Their crossed offspring would all be perfectly edible, but some might be too late to produce anything here in the UK.

The third popular species are the cucurbita maxima - the buttercups, bonbon, crown prince, uchiki kuri, kabocha, marina di choggia etc.  These are the most likely to give you good results.  Yes, still with all the variation of an unknown cross, but usually very edible and should produce in time in the UK.  I would experiment with maxima squashes, your chances for success are greatest there and they will be most likely very palatable too.

What type of squash or pumpkin did you have in mind TEY?

PS forgot to say, the reason I make the distinction between the different species is because only squashes of the same species cross with each other.  Interspecies crossing is almost non-existent.  You will not get a bitter, foul tasting maxima squash cross, because maxima squashes do not cross with bitter ornamental pepo squashes.   

PS2  Just a thought - you might wish to learn how to isolate and handpollinate flowers of non-hybrid squashes if you want to harvest your own squash seeds and get the same true-breeding variety back again.

[Robert_Brenchley]

It really doesn't matter if they hybridise. Just save seed from the best fruit and see what you end up with. That's how a lot of varieties got started!

[Digeroo]

I have had various things pop up self seeded.   The voles pinch the seeds and drop some.  And I also buy things in supermarkets.  Very rarely had something not worth eating.   Best ever butternut squash came from saved seeds from a supermarket fruit.   It unfortunately produced no viable seed, and had no seed cavity.  I also save seeds.

Worst I ever had was a turks turban and I bought that one.   

I won a largest marrow competition with a volunteer.  Go for it, it is rather fun not knowing what you are going to get.   

You can always use them for soup.

[LesH]

The only time I sowed seed from my pumpkin I got a cross of pumpkin and butter nut squash, which was growing in the next row.

[lottie lou]

I use mine self saved most of the time.  Seem to get decent winter squashes from them.

[Digeroo]

a cross of pumpkin and butter nut squash

Something of a surprise this because I thought that the breeders spent lot of effort getting this to happen.

[pumkinlover]

You can always roast them in the oven in a little oil, then sprinkle salt on
them.  Or a drop of Worcester sauce, soy sauce or the like.  Nice,
slightly chewy snacks.  Very nutritious too.

from Galina
How do you get the husk off, I find by the time I've peeled a couple I have given up! Lack of patience maybe but it takes me about 5 minutes per seed !

[galina]

How do you get the husk off, I find by the time I've peeled a couple I have given up! Lack of patience maybe but it takes me about 5 minutes per seed !

You don't peel them.  The husk gets brittle after roasting and makes a chewy snack.  I find them as 'more-ish' as peanuts, but because it takes longer to eat them, I eat far fewer calories than with peanuts.    

If you grow hull-less seed pumpkins (aka naked seeded) such as Lady Godiva (or buy the seeds from the health food shop) you don't have the extra fibre of the normal seeds.    There is also a pumpkin called Triple Treat, which has naked seeds.

[Digeroo]

I put mine on a tray in the oven and sprinkle with a little oil and chilli powder - lovely.   Watch out I find they do burn rather suddenly.