FWIW, a couple years ago I saved seed from supermarket acorn and the resulting plants were fabulous and gave great fruit. Shoulda saved more seed from them but I didn't. This past Spring I had a whole bunch of volunteer acorn and butternut in my compost pit, so I transplanted them in the veggie plot. The plants grew beautifully, putting out flower after flower -- ALL MALE. So I waited...and waited...and waited...and I finally said after a couple of months the heck with this and pulled those suckers. It was an all-boys club, no girls allowed.

yes dirtslinger, there are ginko nuts for sale at the asian stores. we use them to make soups and stews. They're also valued medicinally. The ginko nuts won't grow, unfortunately. Once the ginko nuts have dried out slightly, germinatation rates plummet to close to nil. Once the shells have dried and turned white (I'm taking you saw the ones with white shells and not the vacuum sealed one?) they won't sprout, much like citrus seeds. Yes, ginko seeds need to be stratified, but usually they sprout if you put them between moist paper towel in a half sealed baggie right after you clean the fruit off. And the fruits are supposed to smell AWFUL...and only the female trees will bear fruit. Unless you're trying to grow for nuts, it'll save you some time and a lot of stinky fruit to take a cutting from a male tree (the town here plants only male trees)

it tastes a lot like a zuke maybe a little softer texture I cooked it in a little butter and garlic it was really good it's well worth the effort to stabilize it so I shall give it a go iam3killerbs I will grow the next one out to seed and dry them and I will send half of them if you want i like winter squash I am growing a few this year and would love to try some pumpkin pie squash I'm guessing you can make pie out of them and that would be great just remember that as an unstable hybrid results may very from plant to plant until the desired traits or nailed down and it my take a couple of years to do that i wish that I had a greenhouse so that I could do it all year round but oh well I don't so I will just do two a year until it's stable

Hi Antoinette, We seem to be on parallel paths! I moved from California (SF bay area) to Pennsylvania late last year and this is my first year with a really large garden in a totally new climate. I also went completely overboard with Heirlooms, particularly squash, beans and hot peppers. And tomatoes. Oh, lets face it, I went overboard with everything. Really, who needs six different kinds of onions? Apparently, me. Partially, this year is to trial different heirlooms, partially to save seed for next year. I hate to be the barer of bad news, but you (and I) will have a tough time keeping your varieties seperate unless you have a REALLY large plot. I don't, so I'll be doing a lot of blossom bagging/taping. I believe everything you listed will cross (including carrots, onions, etc) to some degree or another. Your best bet is to buy the book "Seed to Seed" by Suzanne Ashworth. It is AWESOME. It will tell you the distances you need to seperate varieties by and other methods if you don't have distance. From your list, corn in particular will be difficult (but not impossible). Squash is relatively easy, just tape the blossom and hand polinate (details in the book). Beans can sometimes be seperated by tall flowers to limit crossing, but your scarlet runner and painted lady will cross very, very easily with each other (but not your other beans) Buy the book! You'll be happy you did. And best of luck with everything. I had to smile - your list looks so much like mine. I think the limited space in California has made be go a little nuts now that I have room :) Bellatrix