Stabilizing pumpkin hybrid

I'm new to practicing permaculture, though I have read a lot. Any advice is appreciated.

I live in zone 3 Canada and love growing pumpkins in my suburban back yard.  The variety that does best is Blue Prince, which is highly hybridized and the seeds are expensive to import from the US. It would be ideal to be able to save the seeds and create a strain or a landrace suitable for my area.

My problem though is area. I usually can only grow 2 to 4 plants a year and depend on getting good fruit from at least 2 of the vines to feed me through the winter (muffins and tarts). I've read about Lofthouse's landrace projects and, while that sounds wonderful, is it practical to try with my limitations?

If I plant the children of Blue Prince, or of Blue Prince crossed with another variety, what are the odds of getting good pumpkins from them in the first year?

Let me know if any of this is unclear. This is my first post here so I might need to learn how to ask better questions.

I think even the most knowledgeable answer you might get would depend on knowing the parents of your hybrid fairly intimately, which are presumably a trade secret.

I think whether you should do this depends how picky, broke, and curious you are. If everything about me were the same except that I had your space limitations, I'd do it. But I'm not that picky and if I got weirdo squash, I'd eat them anyway. And if I got nothing, I can afford to go buy some at the co-op. The cost to me of not getting my expected squash is low, so satisfying my curiosity outweighs the risk. But if you're in a position where not getting good squash means your children go hungry, your calculus is different!

Also consider, do you have any option for using space that isn't in your back yard? You could plant them at the edge of a public park next to a stand of woods. Or a vacant lot in the nearby city. Or maybe along a friend's fence-line.

And welcome to Permies!

I have saved seeds from hybrids for years.  Not pumpkins though.

I have read about squash cross breeding though I know nothing about this.

Why not experiment with seed saving/planting and see what happens?

Be sure to let us know how this turn out.

If I was in your situation, I would save seed from the best (strong healthy plants, good fruit) two of my four plants and then grow two plants from each of them next year. That might involve growing a few 'extras' to make sure you have enough, but giving them to friends is always a good way to ensure that some seed will work its way back to you if yours fail.

It's just possible that your plants will have crossed with a neighbour's pumpkins, but even so they will by definition be ones that grow well in your climate.

In short, go for it!  

I agree with Christopher Weeks in that I'd try it just out of curiosity.  I know there have been a few posts on here about dehybridizing a given strain of hybrid produce, and most have eventual success in getting "close enough."  In your case, yes it is possible, and I would encourage you to save the seeds and replant them without outcrossing first to see what you get.  If you're only allowing Blue Prince to pollinate Blue Prince, you've at least confined the genetics to what is already there.  Not knowing the background of Blue Prince, it could be either a multi-cross terminal hybrid in which this is the peak outcome of the fruit...or it could breed true and the F1 designation could be a clever ploy to keep people from saving "Heirloom" seed, so they make more seed sales.

Given your space constraints (which I have to deal with as well), I would suggest thinking of this as a project that will span several years.  Grow the 3-4 plants you normally do, save those seeds, they see what they grow the following year.  If the fruit look wildly different in size, shape, color, interior flesh quality, you can then be sure they were in fact hybrids.  If they produce true to type, then you'll no longer have to buy seed.  Either way, they should still be of good eating quality.