Beeone is right. When summer squash are mature, the skin is hard. You shouldn't pick a squash, which you're saving for seed, until a couple weeks after you can't puncture the skin with your fingernail. I produce my own seed. One single zucchini will give you a LOT MORE than ten year's supply of seed! It's great to be able to share with others. As mentioned above, you do need to hand pollinate, which isn't too difficult. I need to look up that FAQ (figure out where to find it). But I did do a hand pollination guide in 2006. It was here in this forum for quite a while. If anyone would like a copy of the basic guide (minus most of the following posts), I can e-mail it. I have it in MS WORD format. George Tahlequah, OK

Probably not yet -- I would say at least 4 weeks at a bare minimum from the time the skin becomes too hard to puncture with a fignernail, although this timeframe will vary based on your climate, cooler taking longer. The longer you can wait, the better the seed quality and viability.

Squash are promiscuous. Unless you bag blossoms you can get all sorts of interesting crosses.

Can someone explain to me again just what I need to do to save zucchini seeds next year. I picked an average size zucchini this year and let it set in the garden (off the vine)for a month and turn orangeish yellow before taking the seeds. The seeds seemed pretty thin compared to what I had from the seed company. Do I need to let the Zucchini stay on the vine and get huge and yellow before picking it or what, also just what do they mean when they say grow to full materity? Thanks