Allotments 4 All

Hello all,

I have planted some butternut squash seeds in home-made paper pots. At the moment they are out in the mini-greenhouse and have not germinated yet. Have I made a mistake - do they need heat to germinate?

Thanks,

Ten x

how long since you sowed them?

Not very long - only a week.

Ten x

Ten, mine were sown on the 20th April, in a cold greenhouse, and are just starting to show! But as soon as they show, they storm ahead! DP

Same here, took about 2 weeks to poke through, but boy are they growing like the clappers now.  Mine were in my unheated greenhouse, but it does get HOTHOTHOT on these sunny days!

Hi,

Same here but they do not seem to be growing as fast as my pumpkins or marrows - also first time I have grown them - Do they grow along the ground or do they need support - I think I read somewhere that they like climbing.

jal

I grow mine upwards, more for lack of space rather than anything else, think most people let them run along the ground tho!

Butternut has a "trailing" habit which means that you can train it upwards if short of space. Training upwards also keeps the fruit off the ground and keeps them cleaner and out of danger of rotting if the weather is very cold and wet.
The skins are quite thick and so I think it's optional

Great knowledgable ones
Would growing them up a runner-bean-type wigwam be OK? If so, how tall would you recommend and how many plants around....
AC

I think the problem would be that there is nothing for the tendrils to grip on to, I've normally seen curcubits climbing up nets or trellisses

How about if I made a sturdy wall of galvanised rabbit hutch wire? Would that be OK for a squash to climb up?
Ten x

Sounds good and could keep the rabbits off the squashes - if they approach them from the other side of the wall ;)

Hee hee I could put up little signs - "rabbits this way ->"

Ten x

I think you would need to you some form of picture writing as there is little available evidence of rabbits reading English - Peter Rabbit was notorious bad at learning anything ;D

I feel an experiment coming on...  ;D

Ten x

Ten, I grow mine up wire fencing, it is always a bit of a Heath Robinson affair with posts and wire, and always rather rickety, but seems to do the job!! (was going to go posh this year and build something a little more substantial, but not managed to get around to it yet!!  
If I had known you wanted to experiment on rabbits, I could have bought you a baby back from the pub yesterday, so sweet it was, nibbling away in the sunshine!;D  (Thank goodness we don't have em on our lottie!! :o)

How large is the structure you build, D-P? I was thinking something waist height?

Luckily we don't have any rabbits, I just have a supply of rabbit hutch netting!! Although we are permitted to keep "two rabbits and six chickens" on the lottie..

Ten x

I think that we're going to break even in about 2 years time with what we've spent on chicken wire to keep the bunnies out.
Fortuantely we only had to fence of 3 sides as we arranged to stay open to the collective next door.  
This year our butternut squash is going under the maize in a two out of three sister style companion planting experiment.

You and me both ptennisnet, I have spent about 60 quid on wire and I reused some metal posts that were there as well as part of a swing and a few other things. Come to think of it you should have had my plot -there was an old tennis net acting as fencing at one end!

So far no bunnies -but there were holes right up to the wire.

Jeremy

On wire netting (and its cost) Screwfix do 10m x 600mm for £9.99 or 10m x 900 for £12.19 which is much cheaper than B&Q

There is a delivery charge of £5.95 but only if you spend less than £45 - and when you see how cheap there other hardware bits are (screws around a quarter of B & Q prices) its easy to find £45's worth (with friends if necesary)

Phil

If you haven't used them let me know because if I introduce you we each get £10 !!!!!