Butternut squash seed saving

[Nessie1]

About a month ago I saved some seeds from a butternut squash we had for dinner....dried them out, planted them and to my surprise they all germinated and are growing well!! Now they are growing will they definitely produce squash or will I not know until the time they should be producing? I'd rather not waste the space growing them if they are probably not going to produce anything. Thanks in advance!

[Alison]

Did you save the seed from a squash you grew yourself or a bought one? If bought then you don't know if the variety is suitable for growing where you live (not sure if you are UK based). Butternut squashes need quite good conditions and can be temperermental. Also you don't know if the plant is an F1 or has been fertilised by another squash. If you saved it yourself you have the advantage that you know the variety but, unless you isolated the female flower, it could still have crossed with something else - squashes are notoriously promiscuous! Personally as squashes take up so much space I prefer to only grow from known seeds as I want to guarantee I get what I'm expecting not a strange, and possibly tasteless hybrid. Other people will disagree and like to experiment.

[Bren In Pots]

Nessie like you I've only got limited space so I would only grow one from your saved seed just as an experiment then buy a named variety seed I like the look of.

Welcome to the vine

[Nessie1]

Thanks guys, it was just a supermarket squash so I think you're both right! As much as it pains me to do it my wee guys are destined for the composter 😂 thanks for the welcome I think il be spending a lot (too much!) time here!

[sparrow100]

If you do want to save seed from a squash, you need to isolate the male and the female flowers. Bees and other flying bee-like things go nuts for them. The flowers open earlier in the morning than I get up, so I put a bag over them the night before to stop insects getting in.

It's definitely worth doing - you get 100+ seeds per squash and they keep for 3-4 years.

[Nessie1]

If you do want to save seed from a squash, you need to isolate the male and the female flowers. Bees and other flying bee-like things go nuts for them. The flowers open earlier in the morning than I get up, so I put a bag over them the night before to stop insects getting in.

It's definitely worth doing - you get 100+ seeds per squash and they keep for 3-4 years.

Sorry silly question.....can I ask why you have to isolate the flowers ? I thought you were suppose to encourage bees to pollinate between female and make flowers 

[sparrow100]

Squashes will cross pollinate very easily within their families. Bees will take pollen from many flowers so what ends up in the female flower might be a mix of sources. On an allotment or in a garden, to get true seed you need to isolate the flowers (male & female) and do the pollinating yourself. The female flower needs to stay isolated till the fruit has set to stop any insects having a chance to stick unwanted pollen in the flower.

If you're not bothered about true seed (ie to make sure you have seed that will be the same variety as you have grown this year), then you don't need to isolate. You won't know what you get though and it might not taste great.

[polc1410]

Would it be naive to think that supermarket variety was less likely to have been pollinated by a bee that just visited a Mellon? As it would have been in a big field of the same?

But if it grew abroad it may not suit British climate...

[Kirk]

If the ones you have germinated and you have no other alternatives for the patch of earth, it may be too late to start a new round of germination off. Then let one grow on outside. You have nothing to loose and it will be fun.

They say there is no point growing a lemon or satsuma from a pip, but boy is it fun.

Just do not be overly surprised if what grows is not quite a butternut squash, owing to random chance it could be a butternut variety of vast excellance, or closer to a bad tempered hungrey triffid.

[Alison]

That's probably true polc1410, however it could well be an F1 rather than open pollinated so it still might not come true. And as you say, it may well not be a local climate suitable variety anyway. Too many variables for me