Saving Squash seeds

[mark1860]

Hi,

I've got 5 different Winter Squashes (Hokaido,Butternut, Burgess Buttercup, Anna Schwartz,Boston),courgettes and Crookneck summer squashes all planted very close to each other. Does this mean I will not be able to save the seeds for next year as they will produce hybrid versions that are very inferior? This is what my internet research has indicated.

Many thanks

Mark

[Guest]

Unfortunately you need to play the mating game for squash otherwise they just go for anyone. Choose the flowers in the evening and isolate them, then when they open in the morning hand pollinate the females.

[muddled]

Yes.
If you haven't isolated flowers and hand pollinated, your squashes will have crossed. You could still sow the seeds just to see what you get but squashes take so much room and feeding, it's not really worth doing to be honest.

The seeds will still be good for eating though...wash them, toss in a little oil, season and spread on a baking tray and roast.

For future reference, details of how to keep squash seed 'pure'.
Place little bags over flower buds of one male and one female flower before they open.
Next day (when they have opened inside their little bags) take the male flower off and use it to tickle the female flower....imagine a Barbera Windsor giggle at this point.
Put the bag back on the female flower for a few days and mark that stem by tying a ribbon on it.
Allow the ribboned squash to ripen fully on the vine. This is one that you save seed from.
You'll have more seed than you can use...send the rest to veggie chicken for the virtual seed parcel!

[mark1860]

thanks a lot, will try this technique

[Zelenina]

Generally they only cross within the same species, and you've got 3 different species there.

The winter squashes are, all except one, Cucurbita maxima and will cross with each other. The results should be edible winter squash but they'll be very mixed in shape, size and colour etc.

The butternut is C. moschata and shouldn't cross with anything else in your garden, so you could save the seeds from that without any problem, unless it's a hybrid variety, or if your close neighbours are also growing C. moschata squash.

The courgettes and crooknecks are both C. pepo and will cross with each other but not with the winter squash. So you could get crookgettes and cournecks, which mightn't be bad. The most useless oddities usually come about when C. pepo summer squash cross with C.pepo winter pumpkins, which isn't going happen here.

But as muddled says, if you really want to be sure to keep the varieties pure you can bag or tape the flowers and hand pollinate.

[Ovce domácí]

Did some hand pollination today on the courgettes, clipped a male flower off(not growing from a mini courgette) before it had opened and gently opened an unopened female courgette flower and rubbed it against the err... working part before gently sealing the female up again with a loose rubber band. Will keep an eye on it. Just waiting to get the timing right with the pumpkins too and will also be putting an unopened chillie flower in the end of an old pair of tights to stop that being cross pollinated too. Hard, delicate work in the pumpkin jungle.