Grow Your Own Magazine

I have a tailing variety of Butternut Squash which seems to be doing fine except that I don't appear to be getting any female flowers. All 8 so far have been male. Am I just unlucky or could there be some other reason for this?

Hello Wildeya, I think the answer is time. The male flowers tend to come first and your females and squashes will follow any day now.

Hi Wildeya - I'm only just getting females on my pumpkin, after lots (and lots) of male flowers on their own.

It's the same with my courgettes. All of a sudden they'll start making up for lost time (which mine are doing now), so I wouldn't worry too much

Thanks for your responses Alice and Slug. I'll just have to be a bit more patient!!

I have just taken my first butternut off my vine! Am so pleased with it and it is nice and heavy too! There is another small one which I am hoping will grow bigger now that I have taken the other off! Yea Butternut and Ginger Stir-up for supper!

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You can see my butternut sprinters here. I planted them all out of the same packet of seeds. I went for three plants. Two came out yellow, and the third one shown is green.
Questions
Why is one plant producing green fruits
Are they ready
How will I know when they are ready
What can I grow on these south facing terraces over the winter
I can add some cloches
This area gets more sun than my greenhouse which is a bit shaded by trees as the sun doesn't get high enough in the sky in winter
Any answer to any part of the question much appreciated

Is it not a females prerogative to be late for everything?

Alice, I don't seem to be able to open your attachments... could you try and reattach?

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Shortie

"There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children; one of these is roots, the other wings" - Hodding Carter

Don't know what happened there Shortie but here's the pics. Hope somebody can shed some light on why one is green. Please see the questions above.

Alice, I can only speak of butternut as thats this my second proper year of them... if they are anything to go by then I'd say that the orange ones should be okay to pick now if you really want to (and then ripen under the stairs in a box with straw) or leave them till october - that's when I pick mine. I don't know how to tel when they're ready...I just picked, oops. They tasted lovely though so I obviously didn't go far wrong


With the green one, I'd suggest maybe a rouge seed got mixed into your packet if they all came from the same packet... it looks like you've got a dark green variety rather than an unripe orange one. It's the same shade of green as my kabocha squash...

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Shortie

"There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children; one of these is roots, the other wings" - Hodding Carter

Thanks Shortie, that's about what I thought myself. I'll leave the squash on the plants as long as I can as the weather is very good at the moment.

See the other squash thread on Vegging out.

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