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Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: GrannieAnnie on October 03, 2009, 04:28:16
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[IMG]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/nonrancher/Butternutshanginround.jpg They weren't huge but better than last year when my one plant yielded only 1 butternut. There are 6 more that haven't been harvested yet and probably won't harden off before frost.
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Good crop. I feel successful but I have only got seven but since I grew them outside I am very pleased with the result. But is seven more than I produced last year. Did manage four one year from plants from a supermarket bought fruit. They were great because it was very long and the seeds were up one end.
If you edit the post and remove the img bit it will recognise this as a link and clicking will reveal the picture.
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http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/nonrancher/Butternutshanginround.jpg
I can't find the edit button on my initial post- I think I can't modify an initial post. One other change- the av. wt was 2 lbs not 3 (too bad!)
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http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/nonrancher/Butternutshanginround.jpg
(http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/nonrancher/Butternutshanginround.jpg)
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/nonrancher/Butternutshanginround.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/nonrancher/Butternutshanginround.jpg (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/nonrancher/Butternutshanginround.jpg)
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I think you can only edit for a brief length of time and presume that since you are in a different time zone you had gone to bed.
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Wow Annie...........are the labels their name tags? Which one is George? ;D ;D
Great crop :D
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Wow Annie...........are the labels their name tags? Which one is George? ;D ;D
Great crop :D
Those tags have the weight, how dry the stem was and also th inches of green stripes left on them when picked, and whether they were dipped in chlorox solution. There were varmints damaging some which meant some had to be picked earlier than norm, and I'm curious as to how well their storage will compare vrs the well cured ones. My own little "science project" ;D total weight so far is 65 lbs of butternuts which I consider pure profit since the seeds were saved from a friend. I smile every time I go in the basement which only another gardener would understand! :D
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Wow thats a good crop!
One of my plants did really well (the other did nowt). Five squashes, the largest is 6.5 pounds and 12" long. The windowsill is the only space in my flat to keep them!
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From 12 plants I have 3 small piddly things resembling BS that are still green on the plant. Disastrous for my first year with BS.
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I'd recommend Festival. Massively earlier than eve the best of the BNS and as long as the plant has a squre meter to itself and a bucket of manure in its planting hole mounded up a bit to live on then you should get 6-8 grapefruit sized acorn squash that will be pretty much ripe by the end of Augustr.....September was a bonus for them but it's the only reason I had a decent haul of butternuts.... Uchiki Kuri would be another good one, slightly black person fruit and fewer of them but the plants aren't too badly behaved. If you have the space and want bigger fruit then you could try Bon-Bon.
chrisc
From 12 plants I have 3 small piddly things resembling BS that are still green on the plant. Disastrous for my first year with BS.
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Wow thats a good crop!
One of my plants did really well (the other did nowt). Five squashes, the largest is 6.5 pounds and 12" long. The windowsill is the only space in my flat to keep them!
6.5 lbs! That's huge. My largest was 5- something which grew beside some compost. The other plants had to hunt for what nutrients they could scavenge from poor soil. NEXt YEAR: compost in every hole.
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WOW!! they look fantastic. I've never grown any sort of squash or pumpkin but I may give it a go next year as I have more space. Reading the comments do I take it a good dose of manure is needed. I have several compost bins on the go, would planting on top of one of these next year be OK. I would like to grow for taste, rather than size, so can anyone give me recommendations as to which would be best to grow. Many thanks in anticipation.
Taurus
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If they still have green stripes - does that mean they wont store well?
Thanks
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For the mistype that the filter turned into "black person" please read "bigger" throughout.... I must stop posting when I'm so tired I can barely see :o
chrisc
really annoyed with myself
I'd recommend Festival. Massively earlier than eve the best of the BNS and as long as the plant has a squre meter to itself and a bucket of manure in its planting hole mounded up a bit to live on then you should get 6-8 grapefruit sized acorn squash that will be pretty much ripe by the end of Augustr.....September was a bonus for them but it's the only reason I had a decent haul of butternuts.... Uchiki Kuri would be another good one, slightly black person fruit and fewer of them but the plants aren't too badly behaved. If you have the space and want bigger fruit then you could try Bon-Bon.
chrisc
From 12 plants I have 3 small piddly things resembling BS that are still green on the plant. Disastrous for my first year with BS.
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"For the mistype that the filter turned into "black person" please read "bigger" throughout.... I must stop posting when I'm so tired I can barely see"
I spent ages wondering what that was about!
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Substitute the letter to the right of the 'b' on your keyboard.
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I was confused by that too!
That swear filter is hilarious, am tempted to cut'n'paste some gangsta rap lyrics in out of curiosity...
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GrannieAnnie - what a great haul, I take it that will keep you in squash for the winter!
And Chris - that made me laugh out loud ;D
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I have had my BS in since I got them from Dig in (freebies)They are just starting to produce fruit now. They are in the greenhouse but I don't think they'll make it. :-[
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And Chris - that made me laugh out loud ;D
;D rofl
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If they still have green stripes - does that mean they wont store well?
Thanks
From what I've read they should be left outside til there are no green stripes. Some of mine had faint 1.5-2" stripes at the stem end. We'll eat those first, also any with damaged areas.
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Thanks GrannieAnnie. I dont know if I am alone in finding previous postings on this very offensive and something that has no place in a website like this
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Both Gerry and I smiled at the loving care shown to your Butternut squash.
I called the farmer where we get ours and he said he only had Buttercup. .
Said his Butternut and Hubbard's did nothing this year, And Karen said there is a bit of a shortage of Pumpkins also this year they are being all over.
Good job I always use canned pumpkin for my pie....
Pumpkin pie, yum.
Made 5 1/2 pound mincemeat yesterday. qahtan
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gwynleg - I'm sorry if you have been offended. I think it was a genuine mistake, and watching him try to extricate himself from the mistake made me giggle. I'm sure no offence was meant, and I know I hate to think of offence caused. Sorry.
And GarannieAnnie - sorry that your lovely post has gone awry :)
1066
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:) anyway! , my butternuts are absolutely rubbish this year, so dead jealous of everyone elses on here / shades x
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For those who are feeling badly about their poor butternut crop, bear in mind I'm in the hot-weathered US which helps with some crops (and is detrimental with some others.) I was in a quandry about whether to even post the picture, but then decided since my last year's harvest (ONE squash) was so deplorable, it might be encouraging to others to see this years.
Part of the differences: I planted them in multiple areas so see where they work the best-
up fence,
up shrubs,
up a trellis with clematis,
under some tall evergreens in partial shade,
in almost full sun,
mulched,
unmulched,
on top of black plastic,
with and without compost
on top of last years partially decompsed leaves.
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GrannieAnnie - so what was the conclusion to your extensive and oh so scientific research?!
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GrannieAnnie - so what was the conclusion to your extensive and oh so scientific research?!
My conclusions?
More plants = more squash.
AND
Despise not small things. A small squash is better than NO squash.
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http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/nonrancher/Butternutshanginround.jpg
(http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/nonrancher/Butternutshanginround.jpg)
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/nonrancher/Butternutshanginround.jpg
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/nonrancher/Butternutshanginround.jpg (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y253/nonrancher/Butternutshanginround.jpg)
I am pretty sure that hanging squash by the stem will shorten their storage considerably. The stem is the most likely point of entry for decay, pulling it away from the body will accelerate this.
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Thanks for the warning. I'm hoping that the dried 1 inch plus stems won't fall off and that the chlorox treatment will help kill off the mold/bacterial attack. Do the stems break off? They seemed very tough when I drilled a hole for the wire loop/paper clip.
We shall see. The stems that were part green I can believe might be a problem but I'm keeping a close eye on my babies. If worse happens, we'll be eating a whale of a lot of squash in a hurry!
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Stems can detach, personally I never lift a squash by the stem. Once a stem comes off the squashes days are numbered so eat them quick if this happens.
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I did really well this year for BS. I put out 4 plants and got back 21 BS. My largest one was 7lb 4oz (3.4 kg). It is a whoppa and I am very pleased with myself ::) Also got loads (haven't counted yet) of musque de provence). They are in between orange and dark green - will they go completely orange or am I going to lose them because they haven't ripened?
twinkletoes
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I did really well this year for BS. I put out 4 plants and got back 21 BS. My largest one was 7lb 4oz (3.4 kg). It is a whoppa and I am very pleased with myself ::) Also got loads (haven't counted yet) of musque de provence). They are in between orange and dark green - will they go completely orange or am I going to lose them because they haven't ripened?
twinkletoes
Twinkletoes, do you prune the ends of the vines after they get 5 squash growing or just let them run? 7 lb+ !! Was that grown in 7 feet of pure compost?? Good job :D. Also, were the stems able to go completely brown before harvesting?
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No GA - the stems were not all dried up (but they are now) - I harvested them before that happened (was a bit worried there might be light fingered interlopers around). I also got about 6 baby blue hubbard and about 10 red kuri. About 5 sweet dumpling and 3 or 4 delicata. I didn't do anything to the land. I was just using half of someone else's plot (they had recently had a baby and were not going to be able to cultivate this season so rather than give the plot up or lose it because it was unkept, I volunteered to use half of it ;D). I just cleared the weeds and put the plants in - kept well watered and that was it. Didn't put any manure or other fertilisers down. Didn't pick off the growing tips and just left them to wander. So just pure luck eh? 8)
twinkletoes
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GrannieAnnie - so what was the conclusion to your extensive and oh so scientific research?!
My conclusions?
More plants = more squash.
AND
Despise not small things. A small squash is better than NO squash.
;D
Ok so if you take your theory about a small squash is better than no squash - then does it apply to my 1 and only (photo taken yesterday !!! ::) ::) ::)
[attachment=1]
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GrannieAnnie - so what was the conclusion to your extensive and oh so scientific research?!
My conclusions?
More plants = more squash.
AND
Despise not small things. A small squash is better than NO squash.
;D
Ok so if you take your theory about a small squash is better than no squash - then does it apply to my 1 and only (photo taken yesterday !!! ::) ::) ::)
[attachment=1]
Yes. It would seem you have a nice Fall ornament for your table centerpiece!
I was sorry to hear some of the UK had a difficult season for growing. So next year will be your year for buckets of butternuts.
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GA
;D ;D ;D
Oh well, next year .......
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:) anyway! , my butternuts are absolutely rubbish this year, so dead jealous of everyone elses on here / shades x
Try Hunter, not the biggest squash going and shape can vary a lot from the classic style but my crop came from four plants (there was a fifth but it got obliterated in a hail storm) and they got no real husbandry after planting out apart from being watered once a couple of weeks later... that said they all grew on little piles of manure through holes in weedmulch plastic.....
chrisc
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Recipe:
Whale stuffed with squash:
Take one whale, clean through reserving liver and heart as giblets for gravy.
Stuff with 1 whale of squash
Roast on a medium heat for 3 1/2 days or to taste, until an 8-foot carving knife comes out clear.
Plate up with gravy made from giblets reserved above.
Serves 3-4 small villages
Recommended wine: Zinfandel; Beer: Guinness
:D
Thanks for the warning. I'm hoping that the dried 1 inch plus stems won't fall off and that the chlorox treatment will help kill off the mold/bacterial attack. Do the stems break off? They seemed very tough when I drilled a hole for the wire loop/paper clip.
We shall see. The stems that were part green I can believe might be a problem but I'm keeping a close eye on my babies. If worse happens, we'll be eating a whale of a lot of squash in a hurry!