Have any of you ever saved any seeds from Howden Biggie pumpkins? They did great for me and I plan on planting a lot more of them next year to sell but the seeds were pretty pricey. I'm wondering if I can save the seeds from some that I kept back. I don't know if it is a hybrid or not. Maybe I should go ahead and fork out the money next year for the treated seeds. Any thoughts?
Seed saving from pumpkins
Howden Biggie is open pollinated. However, it is listed as a C.pepo, which means that it is liable to cross pollinate with summer squash and winter squash of that species. If neither you or your neighbors were growing other squash of that species, you will be fine. But you can get some interesting specimens from cross pollination. Bagging and hand pollinating a couple of fruits is about the only to insure purity in squash unless you are well isolated.
Well an interesting thing did happen. I had a pumpkin and a butternut squash cross pollination. I plan on eating the abomination tonight. When I get home I will post a pic of it. I had Jack O' Lantern pumpkins planted in the same field. I just really liked the Howden, they had great shape and color that can't be beat.
Butternut squash bred with a pumpkin. Planned on eating it tonight but didn't have time to cook it. It has now turned to the color of a butternut but has considerable orange color.
