Someone recently asked a question about growing peppers (was it peppers?)
from seeds in a pepper fruit. So, my question is similar, but about squash.
I have a squash sitting on my desk that is unusual and strange looking. I
want to plant the seeds and see what grows from it. My question is - will
the seeds grow if I just take them out of the squash and stick them in the
ground when the weather warms up? Or do they need to be removed from the
squash and dry for a while? I know that latter method works, as I've done it
before. Can you plant seeds directly from squash into the garden?

"Zootal" wrote in
:

Someone recently asked a question about growing peppers
(was it peppers?) from seeds in a pepper fruit. So, my
question is similar, but about squash. I have a squash
sitting on my desk that is unusual and strange looking. I
want to plant the seeds and see what grows from it. My
question is - will the seeds grow if I just take them out
of the squash and stick them in the ground when the weather
warms up? Or do they need to be removed from the squash and
dry for a while? I know that latter method works, as I've
done it before. Can you plant seeds directly from squash
into the garden?

yes, you can do that too.
we have keeper pumpkins. i store them in the basement root
cellar & any left when the garden soil warms up just get
deposited into the pumpkins area of the garden. the seeds from
the ones we ate get planted out there a bit more neatly, well,
the ones i don't eat anyway.
you can dry the seeds of gourds or squash/pumpkins, or just
plant them fresh. as long as the fruit they came from was ripe
& your soil is good (& warm enough), they should grow &
produce something. might not resemble what the seed came from,
a particularly noticable thing in gourds
BTW, one of my deposited pumpkins last summer produced two
very distinctly different types of plants. one set had rounded
leaves & small white pumpkins & the other had pointier leaf
edges & large day-glo yellow pumpkins. both types are tasty &
not too watery, but i don't know what they are crosses of. i
had planted 6 types the year before...
lee

yes, you can do that too.
we have keeper pumpkins. i store them in the basement root
cellar & any left when the garden soil warms up just get
deposited into the pumpkins area of the garden. the seeds from
the ones we ate get planted out there a bit more neatly, well,
the ones i don't eat anyway.
you can dry the seeds of gourds or squash/pumpkins, or just
plant them fresh. as long as the fruit they came from was ripe
& your soil is good (& warm enough), they should grow &
produce something. might not resemble what the seed came from,
a particularly noticable thing in gourds
BTW, one of my deposited pumpkins last summer produced two
very distinctly different types of plants. one set had rounded
leaves & small white pumpkins & the other had pointier leaf
edges & large day-glo yellow pumpkins. both types are tasty &
not too watery, but i don't know what they are crosses of. i
had planted 6 types the year before...
lee

Tnx, that is what I needed to know. My acorn squash crosses grew 6-8
different oddball varieties last year. This year I'm going to grow a bunch
of these just to see what I get. I'm also growing some purchased seeds to
ensure that I actually get something edible, just in case. Mama likes yellow
crookneck, I like scallop, everyone loves zuccinni. I don't want to end up
with 10 different shapes and sizes of blue hubbard that no one really likes
:-)

Zootal said:

Tnx, that is what I needed to know. My acorn squash crosses grew 6-8
different oddball varieties last year. This year I'm going to grow a bunch
of these just to see what I get. I'm also growing some purchased seeds to
ensure that I actually get something edible, just in case. Mama likes yellow
crookneck, I like scallop, everyone loves zuccinni. I don't want to end up
with 10 different shapes and sizes of blue hubbard that no one really likes
:-)

Never going to get a Hubbard out of a summer squash/acorn mish-mash.
Two different species involved (C. pepo vs C. maxima).

Now, you could end up with a hard-shelled, nasty bitter thing if one of
your neighbor's was growing the right (wrong) type of gourds. One
bite of one of those will cure you of seed-saving unknown crosses.
(Years later, I can still remember... *shudder* ...)

Cross pollination in cucurbits (probably too much information):
http://preview.tinyurl.com/28hlcl

this links to
http://www.co.allen.in.us/images/stories/Purdue%
20CES/Horticulture/ACH31.pdf

Titled: CROSS POLLINATION IN CUCURBITS

--
Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast)

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)