Butternut squash

[Helly Wely]

Help!  i planted 4 butternut squash plants which have spread rapidly and developed lots of baby fruit.  However, only one has reached full size, the others have turned yellow and died whilst only a couple of inches long.  What did i do wrong?  Also when do i pick the good one, it is still greenish at the moment.  What does it mean by curing?  Sorry to be so thick! ???

[Helly Wely]

[sweet-pea]

Hi Helly Wely

The baby ones that turned yellow and dropped off had probably not been fertilized, I 've had loads do the same on some of my squash plants.  As for the green one, try leaving it on the plant as long as possible, cut back any leaves that might be shading it so that the sun can cure the skin.  The skin should gradually turn a creamy or pale brown colour depending on variety.  If you need to pick it early as I did (rat nibling at them!) than place in a window that gets a lot of sun and it should hopefully still cure the skin although I think it can take 3-4 weeks.  You only need to cure the skin if you're planning on storing them, if you're going to eat it straight away then you can just pick it and use it, maybe when it's stopped getting any bigger.

Hope this all make sense

Oh! and the curing just means that the skin hardens and changes colour enabling the fruit to be stored over winter.

Sweet-pea

[amanda21]

I have one nice size BNS - still green but slowly getting there and a few much smaller (lightbulb size) ones which are very green.  Will they still ripen? - we have had a few nice days of autumn sunshine but I'm constantly worried the frost might turn up one night and turn them to slush!!

[Little Bean]

Hi Hely Wely

I sympathise with you, the same happened to me.  I had 6 plants and only one has reached maturity.  And it's only a wee one.

Today I was at a fundraiser at another site and I was lucky enough to pick up 3 butternuts from another allotment holder.  She has about 30 squashes from 6 plants and she virtually left them alone to take care of themselves.

Tracy

[saddad]

I have finally got one BNS in the poly, yet plants we gave to a neighbour had produced three at the start of the month.. now if you wanted veg paghetti!
::)

[sarah]

people do seem to be getting varying degrees of success with their butternuts dont they? i have two good sized ones and three smaller ones on four plants (not a great return on the amount of space they take up) whereas my neighbour has about 15 off about six plants. i am not sure why there is such varience.  incidently, one of my little ones is a much darker green than any of the others which all started off light green. is there a reason for that? it looks as healthy as the others. 

[OliveOil]

Next year i'm def planting mine out early!

[Robert_Brenchley]

I finally found two little ones on my plants, but far too late to ripen. It's the drought that's done for them this year, so I'll try yet again next year. Third time lucky!