Butternut Squash

**rustylady** · 04-01-2007, 08:26 PM

Hi Tomas

My daughter grew butternuts last year and they were fantastic. Start them off in the greenhouse or kitchen windowsill like marrows or courgettes and plant out after frost. She grew 2 plants on the old compost heap and they went mad. Loads of fruits, but small. One other grew itself on the ground. Not so much foliage and fewer fruits, but they were bigger and ripened well. Think you're best if the plants are growing fast to ration the fruits, pinching out the laterals after a fruit forms. I don't think there's any need to stake, just let them sprawl like pumpkins, but do watch out for slugs. To store, let them ripen in the sun (if we get any this year), cut with as much stalk as you can and they should store in a frost proof shed. Good luck.

My 2 plants year just gone didn't do anything at all, weather was too hot and dry and they never got started.

**dexterdoglancashire** · 04-01-2007, 08:53 PM

Hi Tomas and welcome to the Vine. I can't really add much to what RL has said, I started mine in the greenhouse then transplanted them outside. I didnt pinch out the tendrils (?) which I should have done because the fruits were very small, but will remember this for next year. I lifted the fruits off the ground on some old plastic mushroom boxes to stop them being eaten and that seemed to work. Going to have another go this year.

Dexterdog

**Alice** · 04-01-2007, 10:11 PM

Hello Tomas and welcome to the vine. I grew butternut squash in pots last year and they were great. I planted the seeds - 1 per 3" pot - indoors in April. In May they were well grown and I transplanted them into 12" pots in a mixture of compost from a grow bag and the kind of manure you buy in bags from B&Q and left them in the greenhouse with heat set frost free to 6 degrees. At the end of May I put the pots outside on a south facing terrace and just let them grow over a gravelled area. They got on great and produced about 4 squash per plant (big ones). I left the squash to ripen on the plant til the first frosts then cut them and brought them indoors. I just had them stacked in the back kitchen (? utility room) where it's cool and they kept fine. Ate the last of them at New Year. Will definately be growing more next year. Hope this helps.

**xspye** · 05-01-2007, 08:49 AM

Hi Tomas
I don't have much to add only that the first year i grew them i did not pinch out the tendrils and had very small fruit and not many of them. This year (or is that last year now), I pinched out the endrils after they had at least one fritu forming and before they took over the next door beds and I have had a really good crop of huge butternuts

.
They did take up a lot of space but are well worth it. I have stored them in my cellar and they are doing really well. I think we will have eaten them all by the end of Feb (Butternut squash soup is very morish

) but I'm planing to grow more this year. But I think as long as you harden the skins off in the sun and then keep them cool and dry (mine are in the dark as well but I'm not sure if this makes a difference) they should be fine, just check them regularly and use any that seem to be going past thier best.
Good luck with growing them they are well worth it

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