I made butternut squash soup yesterday and I kept the seeds. Can I use these seeds for planting and if so how do I keep them?
Squash are highly promiscuous, so they are likely to have cross pollinated with other squash in the locality, you can dry and save the seeds but the product is likely to vary wildely in shape, size, yield, season, texture and taste. Additionally if teh original seed were F1, even if the flowers were pollinated by others of the same cultivar you will still get huge varience.
This can be interesting, but it can also be very disappointing.
one of my fellow plot holders has grown seed from a supermarket butternut squash, he has half of his plot covered in squash,he is giving them away as he has so many,
just had some for tea and the taste was fab, so i'm doing the same thing next year :)
Thanks for the replies but I am still none the wiser as to how I should keep the seeds.
They're pretty tough, just dry them out on kitchen roll & keep them somewhere dry. But personally I think you're wasting your time unless you hand pollinated them & closed them up afterwards... as mentioned by amphibian. You are almost guaranteed to get disappointing results otherwise.
I save my pumpkin seed, and they stay much the same, mostly round and yellow, with a few that are green and ridgy. Doubtless the seed is pretty hybridised but they're all pumpkins.
I would say results from saved seed can be exciting as much as disappointing. If space is extremely short, buy new seed but if space is spare give them a go. Remember that all you need is to dig a hole here and there in any untamed land, pop a plant in and let the squash hide all the sins. 8)
Ask the squash Queen, Jeannine.
I also planted a butternut seed from store bought produce and have ONE squash from it.
I'm guessing it came from a farmer's huge field of butternuts so probably would come true to form.
Quote from: GrannieAnnie on September 16, 2008, 20:53:12
Ask the squash Queen, Jeannine.
I also planted a butternut seed from store bought produce and have ONE squash from it.
I'm guessing it came from a farmer's huge field of butternuts so probably would come true to form.
I am afraid your guess will only prove accurate if the farmers original seed were not an F1 cultivar, which they very often are, because of the high uniformity afforded by F1s.
F1s are all identical but are heterozygous, so the F2 generation will display high variability.
As others have said, if you have the space go for it, if you want a reliable crop from a small space then go for true seeds.
I might be able to help. Did you plant any other squash and if so what name..also do you know if your immediate neighbours did. You can grow more than i kind of squash side by side depending on the family of squash you grew. If you can let me no the names I can tell you.
Meanwhile dry the seeds, Wash them well to get any clinging flesh, dry the gently and place them on a piece of old flannel,,t shirt is good. I don't like paper towel as they stick to it.
Put them somewhere to dry naturally, when dry pop in a paper bag with lots of roll for a few weeks more to ensure they are dried out.
You will get some duds, seeds from immature fruit won't have fully developed kernels so it is better to keep the seeds of a mature one, preferably one that has been stored a while.
Break a few open, if they have a good strong seed in the shell they should be fine, if skinny or small discard it, it cannot make a plant. I call them empties.
Let me know as much as you can about your plants and I can pop them into families and I can advise you about the chance of the crossing.
XX Jeannine
Quote from: amphibian on September 16, 2008, 21:49:17
Quote from: GrannieAnnie on September 16, 2008, 20:53:12
Ask the squash Queen, Jeannine.
I also planted a butternut seed from store bought produce and have ONE squash from it.
I'm guessing it came from a farmer's huge field of butternuts so probably would come true to form.
I am afraid your guess will only prove accurate if the farmers original seed were not an F1 cultivar, which they very often are, because of the high uniformity afforded by F1s.
F1s are all identical but are heterozygous, so the F2 generation will display high variability.
As others have said, if you have the space go for it, if you want a reliable crop from a small space then go for true seeds.
You're correct- I should have remembered that and not assumed farmers use the less expensive seed.