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Pumpkins, Squash & Gourds

Seeds from store-bought squash

11 years ago

...Are they worth saving? I have a tiny garden and would plant a squash just for fun, so don't want to spend $2.00 for 10-20 seeds when one will do. If a store-bought butternut will provide me a viable seed, even if it's one out of many, then I'll save some and try to sprout them in the spring. Is it generally worthwhile?

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Comments (2)

Sub-acreFarms
11 years ago
Squash seed is often a problem when you're buying seed packets. Often the germination rate is low because they harvest too soon to fulfill their contracts.
I have saved seed from 'store bought' squash, but then the other problem can be that the farmer used a hybrid of some sort that won't necesarily breed true.
Last season I bought a N. GA. Candy roaster at the farmer's market for $4, ate the squash (delicious) and got a pound of seed from the thing. Lost the plants to Powdery Mildew so bought two more this year and will try again.
Having said that, your seed should grow next season if you allow the squash to 'Mature'and dry the seed properly. Butternut will last all winter stored in a cool basement
so save one for a few months and then 'harvest' the seed. You'll probably do as well as you would with 'store bought seed' without the expense.
All gardens(and farms) are experiments in motion so go for it! This past spring I wanted to try my hand at Garlic and 'Seed Garlic' is upward of $20 a pound so I bought six pounds of Garlic at a Super Wal-mart for $3.89 a pound and planted it. It grew, looked different than the parent (a hybrid) but tastes like garlic and made me happy. Sold some at the Farmer's market ( made a hundred dollars that day) and have six pounds of my own 'seed garlic' to plant in a few weeks. Now that's smart gardening. Let us know how it works next season.
Macmex
11 years ago
Buttonwillow,

The seed from store purchased squash will almost certainly be viable. Crossing is the greatest problem with such seed. Commercial producers are not trying to produce seed, so they often plant more than one variety of the same species. When they do this, the plants cross a whole lot. This is less problematic with butternut squash and their ilk, as they are all used in approximately the same manner. Also, there are fewer varieties planted commercially, which are from the c. moschata family.

It is more often a problem with acorn squash or delicata squash, as they are in the same family (c. pepo), as are almost all the summer squash and also some gourds. So some crosses end up being unusable.

Seed from Buttercup, Hubbard, Turks Turban or Red Kuri, etc. Are members of the c. maxima family. They will all interbreed freely. But with the exception of Big Max and some of the giant pumpkins, there are no squash, from this species, which are not used as winter squash. So even a cross should make a good winter squash.

But to answer your question: the seed from a store bought butternut will most likely be good and produce a delicious fruit for cooking, much like the fruit from which it came.

George
Tahlequah, OK
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Catherine, I just want to clarify that it depends on the store. I work for Wegmans produce, and we buy most all of our squash from local smaller growers in the fall. I've speak to the squash farmer that sells to the location I work at quite often and have saved seeds of squash, that were not hybrid, that have come true. The worry is cross pollination. Though his patches are very large of course there is always that chance. So if you don't have the space to take a chance, buy seed. Remy
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Mine did - when I composted my butternut rinds and seeds, I got a bunch of baby vines. I imagine the acorn would also sprout. That's how I grow my canteloupe and watermelon; from seeds that came from a great tastin' food! It won't cost a thing to try, right? And it's a lot of fun. Susie
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The issue is are they hybrids or heirlooms/open pollinated varieties. If they are hybrids then the seeds you save won't breed true. Hybrid seeds in the packet are the result of manual cross-pollination of at least 2 parent varieties. The seeds saved from those hybrid plants once grown, will revert to the parent stock or some strange combination of them. If your seeds planted and grown are heirlooms or open-pollinated plants, not hybrids, then yes you can save the seeds and re-grow them. Depending on what the plant is - self-fertile like tomatoes or insect pollinated like most flowers, they may or may not grow true. In some cases, like hollyhocks you will still get lots cross-pollination by insects so your saved seeds may change color etc. It all depends on how much you care whether or not the seeds you saved breed true or not. Many don't care, many do. Some research on cross-pollination will explain this in more detail. ;) Dave
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It depends on how you collect, clean, and store them, as well as how viable they were when you collected them, and how well suited the variety is to your garden.Put simply, yes, seeds YOU collect CAN be as good as store bought, but might not be. For a lot of gardeners, the main advantage to store bought is predictability. The seed company KNOWS (or SHOULD) what genetics are in that packet. How big the tomatoes will be, what colors the moss rose will bloom, how sweet the corn will be, how hot the peppers. Wanna save your own seeds? You'll need to learn how to take all of those factors into your own hands. The pros of saving your own seeds include tailoring the crop to YOUR garden, saving money, and probably the occasional surprise as you're likely to produce some things that look or taste different than expected.
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