squash f1 seeds

F1 varieties don't come true from seed.
So if it was a seed from a harvested F1 variety then chances are you won't end up with exactly the same fruit.

F1 is a first cross between 2 parents. Sometimes these can be distantly related and produce and F1 that is sterile and cannot form seeds (an example is you can breed a donkey and horse to get and F1 mule, but this is sterile). This is less common with plants, and unlikely with squashes that are famous for interbreeding. Most F1 plants are parents of known genes are bred to produce an F1 with known genes, giving a very standardised product. These often combine features present in the parents (one may be weak, disease prone, small and tasty, the other strong, large and taste horrible which are bred to get the best from both). Seed from the F1 could have any combination of these features. In addition (without getting into genetics) some characters are dominant over others and so you get 'unexpected' results- if you cross a hot and mild pepper the offspring will either be all mild or half and half, depending on the genetic of the mild parent.
Add to this that squashes will interbreed with any other squashes nearby, so yours may have also crossed with next door's marrow, you never know what you may get.
BUT if you have the space to spare, why not try? You may get a real winner, or a disaster.

Charlie

Hi - going off at a bit of a tangent, I noticed on a packet of mixed gourds from Lidl that there was one exactly like DD's weird hybrid (much pictured in previous threads) - half yellow, half green/striped...

I'd often wondered what mechanism would allow such a chimera to appear, given it should involve male and female gametes fusing to produce the seeds - so what dictates what the fruit is like? The genetics of the egg cell, the pollen or of the seeds inside?

I'm supposed to know a bit about biology but this one  has me stumped! 

Everything about the appearance of the plant which grows from a seed is programmed by the genes on the chromosomes which that particular seed "happened" to have inherited from its parents, and in the case of the extremely promiscuous squash family that can mean a great range of potential variations.

I think Chimaera explained it all very well; tricky subject! 

I know what you mean- there are a lot of squashes with different ends of the fruit (such as in turk's turbans and various multicolour ornamentals). I am not sure how you could get a chimaera to pass from each generation though, although I am not an expert on this at all. It may be more likely that there are 1 or more genes that code for 'one end' of the fruit, which will give a regular fruit if not expressed, but a 'biform' one if they are.

Charlie

Given the space and time i'd love to cross breed various ornamental squash and see what I could come up with.