2nd Generation Zucchini From Last Year's Seeds

[Nifty]

My neighbor had zucchini last year that did really well. He let one of them grow as big as a baseball bat so he could harvest the seeds but ended up leaving it in his back yard.

Well, he noticed a week ago that the zucchini had melted away and in its place were hundreds of seedlings that were growing like crazy.

He gave me a six pack of them and I'm wondering if I need to be concerned about how well they will produce. From what I've heard, some hybrid plants offspring may not produce fruit as well as the parent... is that true?

I ask because the last thing I need is to go to a bunch of trouble planting and tending it over the season to either get no fruit or "bad" fruit.

What do you think?

 

[silkiechicken]

Probably depends on the local sticky feet who polinated the zucchini. I tried to save seed from a japanese squash one year... the second year I got jpn squash x pumpkin of some sort. Luckily they were still eatable, just not as sweet as jpn squash.

 

[Rosalind]

Hey, maybe you'll get a surprise! I would plant it someplace you wouldn't mind a curcurbit-type surprise.

I currently have mystery squash/cuke/melon seedlings growing in a bed that is supposed to contain onions, kale and broccoli. There are multiple possible sources, as that bed was improved with chicken litter, and over the winter I gave the chickens pumpkins cut in half, slightly withered melons, slightly shrivelled cukes, zucchini, dumpling squash innards...could be anything really.

Surprises are fun sometimes. Makes me feel like a Neanderthal or at least Homo erectus: Hey, what's this mysterious orange thing? Is it tasty? Behold, I have discovered a new food source for the tribe! Oook! Ooook oooook ungh!

 

[SewingDiva]

While it's true that if it's a hybrid you won't get the same plant as the parent, you might as well give it a try because it might be fun!

The question is how many of those seeds are fertile, which is an unkown given the condtions that they were produced under. I looked into seed saving at one pont, and it's kind of a messy process to produce high amounts of fertile seed (it involves fermenting the parent fruits) so for a good sucess rate it needs to be done done under controlled conditons just like seed starting.

But you could germinate a batch using the coffee filter/paper towel method just to see which ones are fertile, and then transplant the good ones.

There's no harm in that!



~Phyllis

 

[bills]

Since these are seedlings, not seeds, you have been given, I guess you don't have to worry about the last post.

I have grown with good success, 2nd generation squash, zucchini included, with great production. Beans are another seed that, have worked well. (runner beans) I would stick them in the garden with no hesitation.

 

[Nifty]

I emailed the neighbor to come to TEG to take a look at everyone's posts. I don't know enough about pollination, but I don't think any neighbors have anything besides Zucchini's growing.

I think I'll buy a Zucchini from the garden center just to hedge my bets along with these mystery plants.

 

[SewingDiva]

Since these are seedlings, not seeds, you have been given, I guess you don't have to worry about the last post.

~Phyllis

 

[shortcake1806]

I think getting a couple plants at the garden center isn't a bad idea. While growing the mystery plants out may be fun I wouldn't count on getting anything near the original from them.

 

[OaklandCityFarmer]

We have a whole mystery corner. Anything that we're not quite sure of or leftover or unknown seeds get thrown there.

It's always a nice time.