As I was preparing a shop bought Butternut Squash a week or so ago, I thought how lovely and healthy the seeds were looking. Now baring in mind the fact that I already have 6 Winter Squash seedlings through, not forgetting 6 pumpkin “Invincible”, 6 pumpkin “Jack O’Lantern” and 4 pumpkin “Sweetie pie”, sowing yet more squash seeds was not high on my list of priorities.
But I love growing winter squash and here were all these plump seeds just begging to be sown and given the chance to grow …… and over on the window sill was a nearly empty propagator …… well it would be rude not to try and grow these seeds, wouldn’t it?
So I chose 20 of the best looking seed, sowed them, gave them a drink, covered then with a piece of cling film and then left them to it. Well I am delighted to report that as of today (15th April), 11 strong looking seedlings are through and another 2 are in the process of pushing their way out of the compost. I have absolutley no idea how well these plants will do long term but I am going to give them the best chance I can and some of them I will keep, some will go into the school garden and the rest will go to a friend who also loves squash and volunteered to take the spares off my hands.
I will of course keep a record of their development and share their progress with you. Hopefully from one fruit we can grow a load more and reap the benefits, although I will not be attempting to save seed from any squash harvested from these plants but it could turn out to be a very lucrative £1 purchase – we’ll just have to wait and see.