seed gathering in general

[acrylicspud]

Hello

I am wondering if it's bad practice / unadvisable to take seeds from, say a shop brought butternut squash, and then use these seeds to (try and) grow from, rather than buying specific seeds. Is there a reason this would be a no go - like viruses, etc?

Many thanks,

[alan refail]

If you've time, space and interest it's worth a try. You may not get what you started off with (due to problems with F1 varieties) but you may like the result, in which case do it again, or not, in which case don't.
Google "Seed saving" and read.

Best of luck

Alan (a seed saver)

[acrylicspud]

Thanks. I'm new to growing veg, but as you should use seed potatoes I wasnt sure how far this may extend. I'll do a google

[peter]

If the original plant your shop squash came from was an "F1" hybrid, then the resulting plants grown from its seed my be very different from what you bought.

An F1 hybrid is like crossing a black poodle with a cocker spaniel, you will get a cockerpoo, I jest not, hearing dogs like them. Anyway, you get a consistent looking offspring.

But if you cross two cockerpoo's you may get one that looks like a cocker, one that looks like a poodle and all points inbetween.

[Tigger]

That's a good explanation Peter.

[Johnboy]

Hi
If you have the time and the space to experiment and you are prepared to be disappointed then grow seeds
collected from Supermarket produce then do so as it is all good experience.
I grew some seeds from a Galadia Melon which is an F1 plant and was delighted with the result and I thought it better than the Galadia itself but this is the exception rather than the rule. By all means try it with a supermarket Butternut because they are not all F1's. You will get something edible but it may not look anything like it's parent.
As a general rule it is not worth saving seed from supermarket produce but certainly it is possible to save your own seed.
I keep my strain of Gardeners Delight tomatoes going by saving the seed now as originally it was not a cherry type but now it has been bastardised and the modern results are nothing like the original.
JB.

[romany123]

This may sound like a silly question, but what on earth is a f1 hybrid?
Is it something I would find on the seed packet and what does it mean?

[alan refail]

See Peter's post above and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F1_hybrid

All your questions can be answered by Wikipedia.

Happy cross-fertilising

Alan

[romany123]

Very interesting read
Thank you

[acrylicspud]

Thanks for that. I don't think I'll have the space at the moment to try these out, but hopefully one day