Butternut Squash

[kazza72]

This may have been covered before or I may be being silly in asking the questions so will apologies in advance.

Can you or has anyone been successful in growing Butternut from seeds of a shop brought squash? Or is it a totally daft idea?

Thanks

[greengas]

Tried it last year lots of growth but no fruits!

[beaufontboy]

No sorry cant say i have, I grew hunter squash from seed last year didnt do great, then it was outside in wet weather we had 3 medium size fruits ! good luck !

[Jeanied]

I thought squash were notorious 'outbreeders' which meant they wouldn't come true from saved seed. Unless you grew the parent in special circumstances - in other words controlled pollination.

[elsie-scot]

Probably not as it is likely to be a hybrid, so whatever grows won't be like it's parent. And as Jeanied said they are pretty promiscuous, so even if it isn't a hybrid, you never know who it has been in the patch with

[realfood]

You are likely to have better results if you grow one of the varieties that have been specially bred for the UK climate.

[Florence Fennel]

I'd recommend buying the seed Kazza. If you only want a few seeds (you don't need to sow very many) you can buy small packets from somewhere like MoreVeg. You've a far better chance of harvesting fruit.

[Brengirl]

I brought a packet of Waltham seed back from S. Africa. Wonderful vine and huge squash.

[chriscross1966]

I had a decent crop off "hunter" last year.... but it's an F1 so won't come true from seed and without the good September there wouldn't have been anything off them, they'd really only just set fruit by the end of August....

chrisc

[Paulottie]

I tried saving butternut seed many years back and ended up with pumpkins! (you need to isolate a flower etc.)

...Also tried Hunter last year with excellent results.

[Rhona]

I've tried a few times, and as someone else said, I got a lot of growth (and male flowers) but no squash... I still save the seed though - roast and toss with various things to make nibbly snacks!

[Bren In Pots]

In 2007 I grew 3 plants from supermarket saved seeds for a experiment, think I got around 5 or 6 squashes so I didn't do too bad.

You can just make them out in this photo.

[nomis]

we have planted 15 seeds from a testo finest butternet

All 15 have generminated. The first 5 planted about a month ago are 9 inches tall, the others more recent are maybe 5 inches tall.

We will move them into the green house at the allotment at some point.

I really hope they fruit

[tamsin]

What sort of plants are the hunter butternuts? I read they were 'compact' does that mean they have shorter vines, smaller leaves or grow more like a bush? I'm trying them this year.. just wondering where to squeeze them in

[nomis]

i guess squash will benefit from ebing hotter in a green house?