Squash seed

[Gardening with Rabbits]

I have tried to save squash seed and have had no luck. I have saved pumpkin seed. My garden is full of squash plants that come up on their own in the spring. Somebody gave me 2 acorn squash plants. One is kind of starting to rot and the other one I am going to cook tomorrow and I want to save the seed. What is the best way?

 

[digitS']

I have just sat them on a paper towel in the South Window, GWR. Below that table is a heat register although nothing is especially warm there, it's quite dry. If I set the seeds out on the deck, as per the tomato seeds, they would be food for the squirrel.

Pumpkin, acorn and zucchini are in the same family. Squash readily cross. The flowers are open, large and attract bumblebees, etc. The hybrid volunteers the neighbor allowed to grow a couple of years, and the tractor guy scattered all over both our gardens, might have been edible but looked more like gourds than either squash or pumpkins. Since those hybrid volunteers showed up where I planted squash, things were a little confusing for awhile .

Saving seed from the C. pepo squashes is problematic since this is such a diverse species, they are so commonly grown, and the bees love them so.

Steve

 

[Ridgerunner]

I do it a lot the same, just spread the seeds out on a paper towel or newspaper in the workshop and let them dry. I don't wash them but I don't think that would hurt as long as you dry them immediately. Still, I don't wash them.

I saved some Delicata seeds once. It had crossed with something, not sure what, though I suspected a yellow summer straight-necked squash. The squash did not look like either, tasted pretty good as a winter squash, but did not save well.

 

[Nyboy]

Are gourds edible ?

 

[digitS']

Yes, I believe that they are.

There may be some that are not but we even have some within squash species that we call gourds.

Where is that @Hal to talk to us about squash this winter ?

Steve

 

[baymule]

I gave Halloween/Thanksgiving decoration pumpkins from DD's house to my pigs. I noticed a few seeds laying on top of the soil and I figure I will be gifted with volunteers in the spring. Should be interesting.

GWR, I want to plant pumpkins and winter squash in the spring for winter treats for my livestock. I've never been able to plant any because we lived on a tiny city lot and they took too much room. I'm going to try to save seed too. Please come back to this thread and keep us updated with the results of saving your seeds!

 

[catjac1975]

I have tried to save squash seed and have had no luck. I have saved pumpkin seed. My garden is full of squash plants that come up on their own in the spring. Somebody gave me 2 acorn squash plants. One is kind of starting to rot and the other one I am going to cook tomorrow and I want to save the seed. What is the best way?

I don't know about saving the seed, but, to make it worth while you have to had pollinate the fruit and then cover the blossom to keep the cross pure. Ind if it is a hybrid the offspring will be a mix of the 2 original plants.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

Well, I have no idea what kind this is. I know the people who grew it and they had other squash, including summer and other winter types, so it might be interesting. Baymule, good luck with the pumpkin. I decided not to plant them the last couple of years because of space. I am not sure what i did wrong with the squash. I tried 2 different years to save Cocozelle squash. I just spread them on newspaper and the first ones looked dried out, like brittle. I read on different websites and one said to choose a squash that was on the vine a long time or had fallen off the vine, I do not remember for sure, but they turned kind of soft after weeks of laying out on newspaper.

 

[catjac1975]

Well, I have no idea what kind this is. I know the people who grew it and they had other squash, including summer and other winter types, so it might be interesting. Baymule, good luck with the pumpkin. I decided not to plant them the last couple of years because of space. I am not sure what i did wrong with the squash. I tried 2 different years to save Cocozelle squash. I just spread them on newspaper and the first ones looked dried out, like brittle. I read on different websites and one said to choose a squash that was on the vine a long time or had fallen off the vine, I do not remember for sure, but they turned kind of soft after weeks of laying out on newspaper.

From what you are describing it sound as if the seeds had not matured. I grow luffa. My season is too short so I have to play a lot of tricks on them to produce the fruit. The seeds never look developed-they are paper thin. I leave them on the vine well past growing season. I think my season is too short for that final maturation of seed.

 

[digitS']

Since I am feeling a little crazy today - I will confess to keeping pumpkin seed one year. I had 4 plants taking up about 100 sqft.

(This should destroy any credibility I have about how to have a successful garden.)

The fruit was huge, oblong and dark, dark green!! Maybe if they had another month - still, it was not one of our cool growing years. I wasted the space for the season waiting for them, thinking they just might turn orange but then, their zucchini genes may never have allowed it.

GWR, there have been a number of things like the adzuki beans I mentioned recently that just could not mature. I might have used them as green beans or something but not as mature seed.

Steve