"Keith (Dorset)" wrote in message
...

We inherited a fresh squash from a friend who was given it by a friend. We
had never tasted squash before and duly roasted and ate it with Sunday
dinners. It was delicious.

I have never grown squash before, but many other veg. succesfully. Are the
seeds I have saved from the said squash likely to be suitable for planting
next year and so being sure of producing the same variety (about 30cm /
1ft long and pale brown in colour?

If so, are there any special considerations I should make when storing the
seeds and planting them - presumably initially in pots, in the greenhouse,
next spring?

Thanks in advance for any help,

Most commercially produced squash seed for gardeners tends to be F1 hybrid.
this means that each seed has a 1 in 4 chance of coming true if it self
fertilised and even less chance if it was fertilised by a nearby but
different strain. It dependents on how much space you have got to grow
squash plants, which tend to be quite large. If you were thinking of growing
just one or two squash plants I reckon your best bet would be to ask your
friend for the name of the variety and spring for the aprox £2 it will cost
you to buy the seed. If you have a lot of space and a few years to spare,
it can be quite fun breeding your own seeds to run true to type. I have
never tried it with squash although I have with courgettes which are a
similar type of plant. In this case I found that cool (5-10 degreesC) dark
and dry (dessicator) answered well. They don't seem to need to vernalise,
but maybe someone on the group has actually tried squashes and can tell you
more.

Gill M