Squashes

[Bren]

Have anyone grown squashes that came a different shape and colour to what they planted?
I sowed butternut new seeds from Wilco, at first I thought that they hadn;t grown now the foliage has died down I have Round cream colour squashes not the shape of butternut as on the packet.
I saved seed last year of some green Rolet and Table Queen, 3 plants of them have come up as Turks Turban, the
rest have come as what I was expecting
is this unusual?.
Bren

[alan refail]

Bren

The word that usually comes up in the same breath as "saving squash seeds" is "promiscuous". Squashes/pumpkins/courgetes/marrows will all interbreed - sometimes with interesting results (sometimes not!). The only way to be sure of true seed is to isolate and hand pollinate. Once the insects do their job, there's no telling what has fertilised the flower.

As for the butternut from Wilko, anything could have happened to the plant the seed came from, or seed could have been wrongly packeted.

[retropants]

I must have been very lucky then, as the seeds I saved from the butternut squash I bought at the greengrocers came true! I made a lovely soup with the first picking last week!

[alan refail]

Retropants

If your butternut was (as is likely) grown with other butternut and away from any other species, it had no chance to be promiscuous