Madrun ([info]madrun) wrote,
@ 2006-07-13 09:58:00
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Current mood:determined
Current music:nature videos from the library

Garden ideas and questions
I would like to grow butternut squash. Can I plant seeds from an exceptionally good butternut squash I bought at the grocery store? Out of all the gardening books I have, none have good advice on seed saving!

I'm really interested in saving seeds, especially since some of the things I'd like to try growing next spring I've never seen in seed catalogs, like little Korean melons and Kiwano fruits, but I can buy at the ethnic market.

Since I have all this new garden bed space available, I've been looking at fall crops. Right now I'm looking at sunchokes/Jerusalem artichokes, bok choy, sorrel, and swiss chard. I'd like to plant the butternut squash immediately.

I've always been leery of composting because of the rats in the neighborhood, but I haven't seen any signs of rats in two years. Hooray for mostly-feral cats. So I'm not going to tempt fate by composting in the open, I'm going to give the metal trash bin composter a try. I've been reading quite a few sites about them and it seems almost absurdly easy. We produce a huge amount f organic waste because our diet is so high in fresh vegetables and it's painful to throw all those peels and ends in the trash.


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[info]witchatwork
2006-07-13 03:51 pm UTC (link)
What time is good for you this evening>?

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[info]madrun
2006-07-13 05:04 pm UTC (link)
Whenever. Around 6 if you want to eat dinner with us, we're having black bean burritos and green salad. I'm not going anywhere, I don't think.

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[info]gentlemaitresse
2006-07-13 04:05 pm UTC (link)
I have a book on seed saving. I'll see what I can find out for you when I get home this afternoon.

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[info]madrun
2006-07-13 05:01 pm UTC (link)
I guess I basically need to know if hard squashes produce true from seed.

Thank you!!!!

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[info]urban_homestead
2006-07-13 07:54 pm UTC (link)
Gah - the answer to this is very complex. To sum up at a very high level:
1) If you bought it at the store, it is almost surely a hybrid, and will produce some gawdawful alien thing if you plant it.
2) You CAN buy non-hybrid (i.e. open-pollinated or true-breeding) heirloom squash seeds, but for butternuts, I don't recommend it, as the tastiest, most nutritious, and most prolific varieties are ALL hybrids. However, it's easy to find organic hybrid seeds for butternuts.
3) The rules for squash interbreeding are by far the most complex a home gardener is likely to encounter, so this is the very last plant I would recommend saving seeds for. To do it right, you need to protect all the flowers with paper bags or nets, and hand-pollinate with a paintbrush. Your slutty butternut will otherwise mate with pumpkins and zucchini and Armenian cucumbers and god only knows what from miles away. There are three different families of squash, and some of them breed like rabbits with one another, and others hardly ever - but sometimes - breed with each other. The only way to avoid unwanted crossbreeding is to keep all pollinators out of the blossoms and do it yourself. God knows I can't be bothered, but if you can, gods bless you and good luck!

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[info]madrun
2006-07-13 09:20 pm UTC (link)
Well, bugger.

I should've known it would be a hybridization problem.

Slutty butternuts... that's a great image.

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[info]cairech
2006-07-15 06:18 pm UTC (link)
Oh...the Slutty Butternuts would be a great name for a band!!

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[info]cairech
2006-07-15 06:18 pm UTC (link)
That's true, all those cucurbitae will interbreed! My mom got cante-cukes one year, and they were AWFUL.

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[info]cairech
2006-07-15 06:16 pm UTC (link)
Yes, compost! Compost!! I'd like to save seeds too, but only organic, non-hybridized plants would produce viable seeds. As far as I know, most seeds are the same. You let them dry and then label and store them in containers that will breath. Envelopes and old shoeboxes. But I could be wrong - let me know what you find out?

I LOVE butternut squash! And acorn and spaghetti squash too!

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