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yesterday at the plot found two large sized squashes of this variety on my plant. when i say 'large size' i mean getting on for a small child's football. i only just found them as per usual most of the fruit is hidden by lovely large leaves. when i had looked under before, all the little squashes were just the size of a golf ball or thereabouts.

questions i have are:

how big should buttercup be before harvest? should i harvest as soon as size is achieved, or wait til the autumn in any case - when the stem has dried up?

how many squashes will a plant sustain? i think there must be about 10+ on each of my plants. and they are still growing on and throwing out more flowers all the time :)

how do you best eat a buttercup?

do they stay green or will they turn colour?

many thanks
svea

oh, and another thing:
i have been sent some wood wool - looks like straw but is definately wood. can i use that to bed the sqaushes on to keep them off the ground? or is there no point doing that?

I could do with an answer to those questions too, Svea!! Planted gourds, marrow and pumkin in compost heap, now it's heading for tayberry patch and not sure what to do! Finger waggling pretty ineffective and stern look not working!! Wondering whether to nip of ends, and remove flowers?  Lottie  ???

They're trying to escape from patch now!

well, so far, lottie, i have nipped off shoots heading for the far reaches of my plot. i am ruthless that way ;)

there are plenty more sideshoots growing in the middle of the patch though.....

Think we may require separate lottie just for squash!! But I do love them, will nip them off tomorrow, chucking it down here now.  ;D Lottie

Moving slightly off topic, I have been given a tayberry, planted in spring, are they good fruit? Have put it on shady side of greenhouse.

Don't know about tayberry, but I've grown a loganberry this year. They are very similar and the few fruit I got were delicious. Hope to have a lot more next year.  :)

OI! derek, get out of my squash thread

:p ;D

back on topic please - buttercup squash, remember? ;)

sorry to ask a daft question - but do you mean butternut squash? I am a total newbie but I have never heard of buttercup squash?

I have 2 butternut squash plants growing that were donated by my boss. He grew 10 plants last year and got 10 on each plant (i.e. 50 in total). He gave me a squash from his crop and it was enormous - about 3 times the size of the ones you get in the super market, must be about rugby ball size, if not a bit bigger.

If you are talking about buttercup squash, then this is probably not much use to you  :)

no, they are buttercups. not nuts ;)
i thought they were the same too - until after i had bought the seeds and done the research ::) :)

You can tell when older varieties (such as Burgess) of Buttercup squash are ready because the ovary wall (which is the tissue sticking out the blossom end of the fruit) will turn a blue grey colour. The new varieties, which are generically referred to as honey delight types over here even though it is a variety in its own right, may or may not show this tissue and you should wait until the fruit is an overall dark green. The size can vary greatly from that of a small melon (which are of no use) up to rugby ball size.
Buttercup is my second favourite squash (Gold Nugget is my favourite), being slightly sweet with a distinct nutty flavour and comparatively dry in texture. I just half it, scoop out the seeds and bake it. It's dryness calls out for some butter, even for me who generally has no use for the stuff.

thanks john

does this mean i harvest as i go along, rather than bringing in a haul of them in the autumn?
and do you have any tips on storing them? do they store, even? :)

as to the other question: how many fruits can the plant sustain, and any other tips on husbandry, john?

thanks

Over here Buttercup ripen between acorn and Butternut. You can certainly pick early ones for immediate consumption as you need them but as with any squash ripening on the vine will increase storage duration. They are average when it comes to length of storage. Store like any other squash, 70% humidity between 10 and 15C is considered optimum but others will probably have different methods. I grow squash by the acre so I can't really tell how much each plant produces!