Do you breed your own squash?

[wclawrence]

Last year I started raising a garden, and when my first zucchini started to bloom, there was no male flower in bloom in my garden, so I jumped in the truck and went up the street to my neighbor's house to get a flower from him to pollinate with. So I got a Yellow Crookneck (early prolific) male flower to pollinate with.
Which started me on a journey. I later bred a white pumpkin to a vegetable spaghetti. I saved the seeds from both of these crosses and am planting them in my garden this year. I am also planting seeds I scraped out of a butternut that I bought at Publix. Maybe I will be lucky enough for some of those seeds to be some kind of cross as well.
I have bred chickens for years, but am just starting with the squash. It is going to be fun.

I am also interested in getting some seeds from other folks who may be doing the same kind of experiments, I would love to so seed swaps.

 

[digitS']

Very interesting, WCLawrence!

I thought I'd be saying something like, "No, watermelons won't cross with acorn squash." Or, "You are likely to be disappointed if you grow both pumpkins and zucchini and then save the seed."

But, you seem to be on to something . Summer squash breeding and I think (?) pumpkins are closely enuf related to spaghetti squash to cross pollinate.

I looked into the raising of pumpkins as a seed crop, at one time. The contract required a separation of miles from another pumpkin or squash field!! These plants have their special arrangements with the bees, obviously .

Best of luck on your experiments!

Steve