Topic: Will my butternut squash fruit be damaged by frost?

[Tenuse]

Hi,

I have a butternut squash plant that is still going strong, after getting off to a late start (it was a replacement plant for a slug-nanged one) it has finally got two good sized fruits on it.

I know that the squash plant itself will probably start dying when the first frost hits, but will the actual fruit be affected if I leave it outside until the frost happens?

Just that frost is forecast for Thursday and I don't want the fruit to pop its clogs along with the plant... but I want to leave it on the plant as long as I possibly can, to ripen fully!

Ten x

[Doris_Pinks]

Ten, I have still got several fruit on mine too! They will survive a light frost, so I usually pick mine after the first LIGHT frost. Have however already picked 10 and they are lined up on my windowsill to harden them for storge! (didn't want someone helping themselves to all of them!)  The plant will die back after the frosts. DP

[Tenuse]

Thanks very much I didn't realise I could carry on ripening them on a windowsill!

Ten x

[john_miller]

Don't confuse ripening with curing, Ten. They don't ripen off the vine. While a light frost will not do much more than knock down the leaves a hard frost that causes damage to the fruit will affect their ability to store. If a frost is forecast then, to quote Clint, it will be a matter of how lucky do you feel?

[Dean]

On the subject of butternut squashes., Can you grow them like cogettes up a string, or do you gerow them on the ground like a pumpkin (heard people insist that you can grow them up a string as much as I've heard people insist it's not possable)

[Doris_Pinks]

Dean I grow mine upwards on frames, they obviously take up less space that way. (don't think a string would give enough support) somewhere there is a whole thread on this, will try and find it later for you!  ;D DP

[Tenuse]

Ok. Hardening not ripening. Message received and understood!

It's not so much "do I feel lucky", as "can I get out of work and home and up to the allotment before it is pitch black and I fall face first into the very butternut squash plant I am trying to save".

Ten x

[Doris_Pinks]

Dean some info here http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=2907 Hope this helps. DP