[simonwatson]

I've had success chitting these seeds a bit like sweetcorn. Get a plastic tub with a lid. Put some kitchen roll in the bottom and make it damp. Put in your squash seeds and fold the kitchen roll over them. Put on the lid and keep in the living room or other warm room.

Check every day and they should start of pretty quick. Take them out as they start to emerge and plant up in a pot in a warm place to grow on.

If you leave them too long after sprouting they will rot in the sealed tub, but if you don't seal it it's hard to keep it moist all the time.

I had a 100% success rate with this method for Atlantic Giant, which wouldn't start at all in a pot in a propagator on a south facing windowsill.

[GrannieAnnie]

Still, if you don't try, you won't know if it would have worked or not.  I sowed half a dozen courgette seeds.  They were last year's seeds, and one is coming up.  If it gets too big, then I will put it in the polytunnel covered with fleece to see how it goes.

I have actually grown them in the tunnel too a couple of years ago.  Yields weren't bad.

If it dies, it dies.  There are plenty more seeds!