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Saving Squash and Pumpkin Seeds

Planted December 15, 2024
Last tended to on December 16, 2024
Reading time: 5 minutes

by Mike Dunton

Although not very popular as part of modern everyday diets, they really should be! Summer squash, winter squash and pumpkins have historically been an important piece of a family food supply plan. They are generally easy to grow, very productive, and some varieties store extremely well without processing or refrigeration, providing a fresh source of nutrition well into the winter months.

Production:

Summer, winter and pumpkins are all cultivated the same way, but harvested and consumed differently. Follow the planting and cultivation directions for your location to successfully grow your fruit. For summer-type squash, you will pick and eat those when they are young, tender, and immature. If you desire to produce a seed crop, allow fruit to remain on the plants to fully mature.

Selection:

Referencing the documentation for the variety that you planted, compare your plants and fruit to the written descriptions and photographs. If you observe any off-type plants, remove them as soon as possible in order to prevent contamination of your crop’s genetics. This includes diseased or sickly plants, as well as ones that don’t match the variety’s documentation.

Isolation:

Like any insect pollinated plant, squash are

Raising more than one variety of a specific species will certainly lead to cross-pollination.

The chart above lists recommended distances for maintaining purity. This is of course very dependent on the number of pollinating insects in your area. If you observe few, perhaps you can get away with closer plantings.

Note: If you are experimenting with distances or just want another tool for maintaining plant variety purity in your seed saving toolbox, never sow varieties with similar seed coat characteristics near one another. The color, shape and markings of different varieties are useful in determining crossing but, for example, if two white seeded varieties become crossed up, it will be difficult to discover. Also, keep in mind, the harvested seed will show no indication of crossing. It will only be expressed in the subsequent generation.

You can also reduce the distances between varieties if you can plant them in such a way that they are protected by tall, dense barriers, especially if you also provide plantings of flowering plants more attractive to the pollinators than bean flowers.

If time or distance are not practical for your situation, you will need to bag blossoms to prevent insect pollination. Once self-pollination has occurred and you see small pods developing, remove the bag and mark them so you know not to eat those bean pods. Loosely tying a piece of bright, synthetic fiber, colorfast yarn to the branch is one idea for marking your “seed crop.”

Harvesting:

Ideally, your season is long enough that the bean pods dry down and the plants or vines yellow and loose their leaves prior to fall rains beginning. If this is the case, harvest the dry pods and bring them into an area protected from the elements, with good air circulation, and allow them to finish drying. They need to reach the point where the pods easily split open and the bean seeds pop out. The bean seeds themselves need to be dry enough that they shatter when struck with a hammer. (If the seeds still have too high of a moisture content, they will mash).

If you live in an area with shorter seasons or fall rains are forecasted, wait as long as you can, but pull up the plants and hang upside down in a garage or barn before they get wet and mold or mildew ruins your harvest. Fans are beneficial in circulating air and speeding up the drying process.

Seed Extraction & Processing:

This process is relatively tedious, and I recommend is spreading out your shelling work over several evenings. For home gardening quantities of seed, get a bucket or pail for your waste, a container for your beans, a tray for your lap to work on, a favorite beverage, some good music or a TV show, and sit in a comfy chair getting to work cracking open each pod to separate out the seeds. If you see bad ones, toss them into your waste bucket. Not much more high tech than this.

If you are planning on saving production quantities of seed, it is beyond the scope of this article, but there are mechanical methods for extraction and sorting bean seeds. It requires machinery to thresh, winnow, and screen.

Storage:

As mentioned above, once the beans are thoroughly dry, they shatter when struck with a hammer. At this point, you can put the beans into airtight containers and place them in the freezer for at least 72 hours to kill any insect eggs or larvae that may be hiding inside of them.

If the beans are intended to be used next season or future years for sowing in the garden, you can leave them in the freezer until they are needed. One qualifier there is that they absolutely need to be dried as described, or the process of freezing will damage them at the cellular level. Additionally, the freezer cannot be a “frostless” type commonly found as part of a refrigerator / freezer unit. Dedicated, chest-type freezers are desired for long-term storage.

Otherwise, place your bean seeds in an airtight container with a little desiccant packet and keep in a cool, dark, dry place (like the back of the refrigerator). Refer to our article on seed storage for more information. If the beans are intended to be used for consumption, a cool, dark, dry pantry works great.

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