growing butternut squash

[possum]

I grew this year from a cobination of bought seeds and harvested seeds, the harvested seeds worked better and grew true to type. I don't think that I manured the area well enough though as I think I would have had better results, however they do need a fair bit of water when the weather is hot. Our summer is really hot (well about 30C for a couple of months) so that may have helped. Still harvesting them as we speak

[JR]

You have got me thinking now, I will try to grow some from the seeds from mine along with the leftover brought ones next year. I have about a dozen plants already. I have just also been given 3 plants that grow pie shaped squashes too. How cool is that? I will put around 8 in on the plot and find homes for the others.

[Bluemoon]

The genetics of F1 hybrids means that for any given feature you'll get one quarter which are true to type and three quarters which aren't from saved (F2) seeds. This only works though if the plants fertilize each other to the exclusion of any other type. If other varieties are growing nearby and can contribute to the new gene pool then the results will be completely unpredictable. I'm growing butternut squash (for eating) from newly purchased seed, but I'm growing my grandson's Hallowe'en pumpkin from the seeds from his last one as it wouldn't be a complete disaster if it didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped.

[The Riff-Raff Element]

The genetics of F1 hybrids means that for any given feature you'll get one quarter which are true to type and three quarters which aren't from saved (F2) seeds. This only works though if the plants fertilize each other to the exclusion of any other type. If other varieties are growing nearby and can contribute to the new gene pool then the results will be completely unpredictable. I'm growing butternut squash (for eating) from newly purchased seed, but I'm growing my grandson's Hallowe'en pumpkin from the seeds from his last one as it wouldn't be a complete disaster if it didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped.

I'm on my third season growing seed saved from a single (very tasty) squash bought in Waitrose on a trip to the UK. The French are very suspicious of squash and I have never seen butternut squash nor the seeds for sale here.

Happily what I bought cannot have been a F1 hybrid because the results have been as large and good as the original (as I remember it).

I've planted out 18 plants this afternoon. Good job we like squash in this house...

[Millymollymandy]

Haven't you come across Potimarrons before? They are THE French pumpkin - absolutely brilliant for roasting or currying/casseroling because they don't turn to mush and keep their shape. Personally I'm not so keen on them as soup because of their pumpkin/marron flavour.

I have seen seeds for butternut and other kinds of pumpkin in several French catalogues.

Round where I live I see quite a few pumpkins in people's veg patches - and I've seen butternut in the supermarket! No corn on the cob or cos lettuce has found its way to Brittany yet though! (France is so terribly regional - what you can find in one place commonly is unheard of elsewhere - drives me nuts!).

Anyway I would like to say that pumpkins are now appearing EVERYWHERE in my veg patch/flower beds/compost bins/ground beside compost bins.... the wonders of nature

[The Riff-Raff Element]

(France is so terribly regional - what you can find in one place commonly is unheard of elsewhere - drives me nuts!).

Ah - now the regionality bit is one of the things I like the best (and, to be honest, the lack of which I find one of the bad things about the UK.)

Potimarrons are fab, but there is something about butternuts...