[Benandbill]

I think of all these as the same family, mainly cause they're big!!  Maybe this is wrong, but we're drying some squash seeds at the mo.  When does anyone think would be the right time to plant these??

[arugula]

Some of the squashes have instructions to plant from now on, some next month.... Do you have any idea what variety the dried seeds are?

We grew a few nice pumpkins last year from some orange Halloween pumpkin seeds saved and dried (as an experimant) from the previous October, but I've bought "proper" seeds this year.

[lucywil]

i will be sowing mine  mid april at the earliest, they cant go out side until the risk of frost has gone, which will be mid may here

[gillie]

You say you are drying seeds so I presume they are home saved seeds.

Squashes, pumpkins etc. are all the same family (Cucurbits) and they interbreed like mad so there is no knowing what their progeny would be like. 

These are big sprawling plants.  Personally I would not waste space on ones that may not produce anything very nice.

[bigben]

You say you are drying seeds so I presume they are home saved seeds.

Squashes, pumpkins etc. are all the same family (Cucurbits) and they interbreed like mad so there is no knowing what their progeny would be like. 

These are big sprawling plants.  Personally I would not waste space on ones that may not produce anything very nice.

As ever with gardeners -ask for advice and get many answers!

 Last year I grew 3 types of squash. F1 hybrid butternut, some given by a friend and some I scooped out of a squash I bought. The F1 hybrid were a failure producing poor squash and some producing nothing, my friends were ok but only half germinated. My supermarket seeds scooped out of a squash almost all germinated and most produced a few squash.

By planting something scooped out of a squash like this you do lose control of what you get but if your aware of the risk and still happy -give it a go, you might be pleasantly surprised.

[compostqueen]

It would be a big surprise to raise anything useful from seed saved from an F1 variety 

[mumofstig]

To save seed from a supermarket squash is not such a gamble as growing from seed from a squash grown on the allotment.
Supermarket squash will have been grown in a field full of identical squash, so pollination should be ok, whereas on the allotment there will be lots of opportunities for cross pollination.
So it depends if you're a gambler or not!
I always buy seed, and like lucywil, I wouldn't sow squash seeds until after mid April, they grow incredibly fast once germinated and you cannot plant them out until after your last frost.

[bigben]

It would be a big surprise to raise anything useful from seed saved from an F1 variety 

Your correct - mine were expensive ones bought from Thompson and Morgan and were still very poor. I would not try to save from an F1 either!

[arugula]

It would be a big surprise to raise anything useful from seed saved from an F1 variety 

Your correct - mine were expensive ones bought from Thompson and Morgan and were still very poor. I would not try to save from an F1 either!

That's why we save from the supermarket ones. Very cheap, good, edible food.

[Benandbill]

Thank you all for your replies, that's given us some hope!  They're butternut squash seeds from Aldees so we're going to give it a bash when they're dry, but after mid April as suggested above.  mumofstig, would you say the same applies to marrows and pumpkins then ie sow after mid April as they grow fast?

[mumofstig]

Oh yes indeed